Vacation arrived to the children, and adults have already planned – agreed with colleagues – who and when are going on holiday. Beaches are beckoning you in the heat: the coveted destination. It does not matter if it is a natural lake, a riverbank, or an artificial chlorate-smelling lido. Because you link many positive associations to the chlorate smell as well, just like to the scent of suntan lotion and that of the beach mattress. The mixture of them results in the typical summer holiday essence. Not mentioning the oily fried fish and pancake smell of the beach buffet.

Also, other sensory organs are tickled by stimuli: our ears hear the rumble of the beach as a steady noise, sometimes with a dissonant scream. It is unnecessary to talk about the effects on our skins, which we ignore until the end of the day, when we discover the white print of the swimsuit, or in a worse case, we can feel the burning pain of our roasted back indicating that we have overdosed vitamin D. But later our exponentiating torments might be moderated by Panthenol.

The culinary delight is the highlight of the day! A beach pub is the Mecca of people tired of bathing. What should we have? A defrosted hamburger with mixed pickles, a hot-dog sausage being lost in a giant bun, a pancake with cocoa topped with melting icing sugar on paper tray for dessert? Hake is a must at Lake Balaton! But there is a corn monger too! And a candyfloss seller! It is hard to decide. Of course, we should save some space to ice cream and a popsicle too! After getting a shock from the prices of Cornetto and Magnum (‘it was a hundred forints in the 1990s’), yet we eat the dripping dessert with satisfaction.

Eszti Kovács’s famous hit ‘The little splashing girl’ (A pancsoló kislány 1959) is probably the perfect song to give back the constant feeling of life on the beach that spans over ages. Since 1959, some things have changed during the decades. For example, you cannot buy Bambi, but the products of the Coca-Cola Company mostly.

Being on the beach nowadays is a bit different than it was in our childhood. We are more responsible with the sun or with our lunch, and we cut down on the daily ice cream dose. We also think about hydration – even if it happens to be a spritzer (wine with soda water). We wish you a pleasant summer holiday and recommend you our image selection that could bring a minimal ease on scorcher workdays – until the long-awaited and deserved vacation arrives.

TEJ

Translated by Zita Aknai