Final Destination: Madrid - Barajas - Dr. Kéri Katalin weboldala - neveléstörténet, művelődéstörténet, pedagógia, iszlám, muszlim, kelet, történelem, filozófia, kutatás, szakdolgozat, nőtörténet, lánynevelés, gyerekkortörténet, spanyolország, egészségnevelés, kurtizán, szépségápolás, Vives, Erazmus, Llull, dualizmus, hammám, azték, Latin-Amerika, csillagász, tudománytörténet, Brunszvik, Gerando, Apáczai, Ibn

Final Destination: Madrid – Barajas

(Horizon 2000/2., 5. p.)

Winning Writings
Throughout 1999 we ran a writing competition giving our readers and passengers a chance to share any interesting and exciting plane journeys they have taken. Our editorial office received numerous good essays and it was not easy making the final choice. The competition was open to essays in both Hungarian and English Despite the fact that there are only two actual winners many of the entries will be published as we intend to produce a small book of the best entries as promised. Congratulations to the two winners The Hungarian winner is Katalin Kéri from Pécs who has won a Malév return ticket for two to New York with three nights in a hotel there laid on by Malév Air Tours.
The English winner is Mr S. J Payne-Roberts (UK. Warwickshire) who has won two return tickets to Budapest and three nights in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in the Hungarian capital.

      It was summer. A beautiful, sparkling summer of caressing lights. I leant back in my seat and waited for the plane to pick up speed and my limbs to take on the deadening sense of speed. We reached the runway and the pilot lifted the plane off the ground in a matter of seconds. There I floated between heaven and earth, in the swirling clouds of my past and my future.
      I looked at the yellow-green landscape, the great river curving beneath us. I felt as if I was leaving everything behind, all the blues and greens, spacious gardens and fluffy clouds of my childhood. As we rose into the air the calm fields disappeared, the tiny houses were left behind and my previous life vanished into thin air. I closed my eyes and imagined beginning everything all over again. I felt pure and weightless with the dwindling past and the ever expanding future.
      I had never dared hope that I would one day climb aboard this plane. I did not believe that my orphanhood would come to an end. Although perhaps... In secret I always hoped that I would one day fly to Madrid and meet him. Him, my father. My father, whom I had never seen.
      Great azure blue seas appeared, with small white boats that looked like cotton threads. We flew over high bare mountain, snow-covered peaks and my heart beat ever louder. Then the landscape changed once more. Red land stretched below us and even through the cold window I could feel how hot it was down there.
      I saw no trees, no rivers but even so felt that this landscape was mine. I had always belonged here in spirit. The image was passionate, fiery, disturbing and confusing. I was a little bit of it, a drop of Spanish blood, a grain of sand from this peninsula. A bitter tune which the wind had blown far away... A possible life which had been cut off from his for decades.
      As the plane landed, my chest tightened. The wheels landed on the concrete with a soft thud. Before me lay the gates to the rest of my life. And there in the gates was my father.
      The father whom I had never seen.

^{The story in Hungarian

Pécsi Tudományegyetem — BTK – Neveléstudományi Intézet – Nevelés- és Művelődéstörténeti Tanszék

H-7622 Pécs, Ifjúság u. 6. — Tel: (72) 503-600 / 4366
© Dr. Kéri Katalin tanszékvezető egyetemi docens, 2004
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