“We will meet again!” – by any captured villain

This weekend our town was the host of my favorite sports event of the region: the 24 hour basketball marathon! The idea is simple: take a ball, lots of basketball-loving people formed into teams, a clock to count down from 24, a basketball court and there you go! Of course some lights for the night games and some music can also come handy :).

I really like this event, because it brings together all the players from our region, usually from towns like Szentgyörgy (Sfântu Gheorghe), Gyergyószentmiklós (Gheorgheni), Marosvásárhely (Târgu Mureş), Székelyudvarhely (Odorheiu Secuiesc). Between your matches there’s plenty of time to talk to some people who you know, but don’t see too often. As a matter of fact, most of them you know because last year, at this event at 6AM you had a talk about poems/girls/boys/goals in life while watching some teams play. This event generates an atmosphere that is almost impossible to reproduce in any other way that I experienced.

This year, because I had no team to play in, I went to the Days of the Students to some other town. Although it’s a totally different thing it slightly reminded me to the feeling of the marathon. Once again I felt, that people of my age have come together to „refresh” old friendships, to form new ones and to have fun. I felt that the youth of this region has a very special characteristic: it has the best of fun if it is together.

So why are these events so unique? I guess that this is a mix of the facts like :

-> the hometowns of the people participating are relatively small, so people coming from there usually know each other

->events so original and fun, and only for Hungarians from Romania are not that common, so when there is one, everyone participates

->the distance between these towns is relatively small, so friends can easily visit each other even in working days, they can easily participate in events organised by others, so it works like that: you met someone from somewhere, you change numbers, and when they organize something they ask you to come too, your chances of actually going there being extremly high, again because the small distances

Bouncing back to my original topic: I’m glad that Csíkszereda is the home and the founder of such a great event, and I hope that next year I’ll be there again to meet some basketball folks. For those who have never been to this event (not necessarily to play, but to support his or her team or just to catch the feeling) I strongly recommend to come, and for those who have already been there: see you next year!

More about youth events and ties with other towns of the region coming soon!