Hairgrove's in Hungary: A day at the market (once every 50 years)

Debrecen likes festivals. As in there is a festival every other week (or at least it seems that way). I think this must be a Hungarian thing and not just a Debrecen thing. Every town we visit in Hungary either has a festival going on...or they say, "You come back next week for big festival!"

This last weekend we got back into town from our trip and noticed there was a festival going on. Shocking right? This festival was the annual "Fall Flee-Market/ Crafts Fair/ Festival Type Thing" or at least that is what I am calling it. There were over a 1000 vendors lining the streets of Debrecen. Everything from jeans, coats, bras, underwear, baskets, sheets, candy, you name it---it was there! It was like Walmart threw-up on the streets of Debrecen. At least that is the best description I can give.

There were also a million people there! Or at least it seemed like a million. Debrecen is only a town of 200,000---but I think everyone from a surrounding village/city/town/etc was there. We decided to go--not realizing the scale of this event. We met up with Nancy and her contact, Janos and headed into the chaos.

It was like swimming underwater---only the water was people and the air was filled with something else....a combination of candy, meat, body oder, and animals. Ben and I enjoyed walking around...at least at first, but after a while everything started to blend together. I kept asking, "Haven't we been down this street already?" Everything started to look the same and soon my enthusiasm for the event waned.

After a hour and half of drugging up one street and down the other, we decided to call it quits. Jenos turned to us once we made our way out of the sea of people and said, "You see this is why I only go to these things every 50 years!" I couldn't agree more!