Kistelek is located in Hungary’s Southern Great Plain region. It’s a village. Or is it a town? I’m not totally sure of the distinction, though this particular place has under 8,000 residents, so it’s pretty small. And once a month in a field in the center of this little town, there is a very large outdoor flea market where people from all over the Great Plain come to sell and barter their treasures.

Györgyi and I went about a month ago early on a Saturday morning. We got there around 6 a.m with other true treasure hunters, but the mass enveloped the field about an hour or two later.

The greatest thing about these flea markets is the amount of stories that are spread out onto the seller’s blankets. These are not professional resellers, like you might find in and just outside of Budapest. These are, for the most part, people who have a little junk they want to sell and do so on flea market weekends.

I found so many things I fell in love with. A 60 year old German bike that I’m restoring to its full poet-on-cobblestones potential. I also found an old typewriter that I almost bought, but because it wasn’t in the powder blue color I was looking for, decided to pass. I’m glad I did because some day I will find that powder blue typewriter and know it was meant to be.

We ate a langos, bought a few old soda bottles, and enjoyed the morning summer sun rising over the rust.