10th anniversary in Germany
30.08.2026, my 10th anniversary. 10 years ago at 18:46 I stood at the Hauptbahnhof of Munich. I came to Germany. A journey meant to be 6 months.
Why Germany?
Growing up in Hungary some years after the fall of the iron curtain was almost like before the fall. There were some improvements, but the country was at least 10 years behind the modern western world. Rather more.
So we didn’t have a lot of things seems to be normal today. Some examples: Haribo, Coca-Cola, Stihl, Bosch, you name it. My grandma didn’t have the Raketa (Ракета) vacuum cleaner anymore. But a Philips one. Or whichever make she got back then.
Here is a Raketa vacuum cleaner my grandma had. In the very same colour:
My grandfather was a post officer in our village. He knew everyone. And he was smart enough to use this knowledge. He and his sister started to drive 2x a week to Vienna, Munich, Triest. They bought all the stuff we didn’t have (or very limited/pricey) in Hungary and they sold them in the village. After a while people came to them with wishes.
-Can you bring me screwdrivers from the make X?
-Can you bring me this and that beer?
And so on. For the trip they always planned some money for the border control. So they were able to bring everything home, without any problems. They also told me stories about bringing hungarian sausage to Munich and exchange it for items at Aldi. I imagine it's a pretty funny situation as nobody in my family can speak german.
And they also brought magazines and prospects with. I was STOKED from the variety of products you can buy. And you probably also have the money for. Short before this time I started to watch Formula-1. I was a fan of Michael Schumacher from day 1. It was around 1996 or 1997, so it was before the dominant era. It was some kind of connection to Germany.
Later I was goalkeeper and my big idol was Oliver Kahn. Some time later (2004) I listened to Rammstein’s album ‘Reise, Reise’ for the first time. I was hooked. I wanted more. I didn’t have a clue what Till was singing about. But I liked the language and how it sounds. Sadly Rammstein is a nogo for me today. Probably you know the reason.
Putting in the work and having some luck
In 2006, after elementary school I visited a middle school (that's how it called in Hungarian, not sure about English, but it's between elementary and college, similar to highschool I guess) for mechanical engineering in a bilingual class. Hungarian-german. It started with a very intense first year, nearly just with German lessons. After the middle school I had a C1 in German and went to the technical university of Budapest. This time around my deepest wish was already to go to Germany and live there. As the years went, this dream looked like more and more distant. After 4 years of struggling with college and work I decided to get a job and continue my bachelor on a distance university.
So I needed a job. And somehow a job has found me. An offer for spending 6 months in Munich as a translator. And my thought was:
I can go to Munich, earn some money, try this whole thing out without any risk. Go back to Hungary, finish my bachelor and go back to Germany.
After one month I realized, it won't be easy to find a job, find a rent in Germany while I'm in Hungary. It will be nearly impossible.
So I told my girlfriend, that I'll stay here in Germany. And a completely new chapter of my life began. I can confidently say, it was the biggest milestone of my life. And still is.