Székely Szerelem

Listening: Cortney Tidwell – Don’t Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up

I’m so glad I got the opportunity to come here; I really never contemplated just how beautiful it could be, despite everyone telling me so.

Since I’ve been in Europe I’ve constantly felt like a child who’s seeing and experiencing everything for the first time. I find myself excitedly examining the architecture, the landscapes, the plants and the people everywhere I go. ..

I fall silent,

Words pass by me as I stand there quiet,

Like the helpless flame by a haystack after a storm,

The conversation dies without a say, or a word.

Racing eyes to the beat of a pumping heart,

The longing for the moment to never part.

…and I’m usually unable to hold a conversation with anyone for more than a few seconds.

Here I get this feeling tenfold.

Everything, and I mean everything, about this place fascinates me. The intricate carvings on the gates, featuring patterns and shapes telling stories of a time before. The friendly and welcoming messages of love and peace carved into the arches for visitors and passers by who take the time to read them. The horse-drawn-carts being pulled up the steep rocky roads carrying the days labour by smiling moustache-men, who wave as they pass you by. The range of different houses, the very old and weathered to those currently being built, all showing a great deal of appreciation for the aesthetics, maintain the feel of the village. The sloping surrounding landscape and the horisons of untouched forests offering shelter to the villages and towns hiding in and amongst them. The people, all full of life and jokes, smiling some of the biggest smiles I’ve ever seen, speaking a different Hungarian than I’m used to: Székely Hungarian. And perhaps most of all the fact that a Hungarian, well Székely, town still exists almost untouched and almost uninfluenced by Romania like most of Erdély. The people here are strong, and have had to be strong as their historical role was to defend Hungary from the Ottomans. They are proud of their heritage, proud to be doing things their way… and have no intention of changing.