Béla Szaló

"In 1968 and later, we'd go to Hungary frequently because more goods were on offer there than in Czechoslovakia. There was even a train which used to go from Prague to Budapest and back around Christmas time, and it was always packed. Hungary was a more free environment back then. During the communist era, there was a butcher shop on Wenceslas Square in Prague. In the shop window, they had canned meat. No fresh meat, nothing apart from a picture of Brezhnev. I found that amusing. Then I took my director to Hungary and he was surprised to see butcher shops actually selling meat there."

"In Hungarian schools, there was a level of benevolence. We hadn't said 'comrade teacher'. We used terms such as 'aunt Marta'. Some teachers would indeed greet us 'honor to labour' but most didn't. I recall that I was at a summer camp in fifth or sixth grade. Parents and teachers did the cooking there. It was all fairly spontaneous. Then I went to a Pionýr camp and thought I'd go crazy. We had to wear scarves and so on. The Hungarian camp was spontaneous, we did everything ourselves. Suddenly, all was different at the other one. I never went to another Pionýr camp."