Xpat Interview 2: Linda Kondor, Artfully Living in the Hungarian Countryside

  • 10 Apr 2018 12:30 PM
Xpat Interview 2: Linda Kondor, Artfully Living in the Hungarian Countryside
1. What’s been happening at work and at home since your first Xpat Interview?  I left my museum-mania life in Budapest, retired and moved to beautiful Kapolcs Village in the Arts Valley in Northern Balaton.  Was initially busy renovating and restoring an old ruin on a vineyard estate.  Sometimes questioning my sanity, wearing wellies and knee deep in compost! 

Read Linda's first interview here

2. On a scale of 1 to 10 how happy are you with your life in Hungary, and why?
A scale is difficult; there are days that are exquisite and glorious, and days that you feel like a blithering idiot. That’s life anywhere.  I have had wonderful opportunities to thrive in my projects, as a team person, always finding the best people to create something wonderful.  

3. What’s the best party you’ve been to while in Hungary, and why? 
In Kapolcs, a Farsang Party with members of the English Corner for English speakers in the Arts Valley. We are a diverse x-pat and Hungarian group from six countries.  I love an excuse to dress up, and inspired by the series, Babylon Berlin, I came as a debauched flapper!

4. What’s your favourite drink?
Jagermeister on the rocks

5. What hidden talents do you have?
 I am in my 60’s - if my talents haven’t surfaced by now, they will stay hidden.

6. What was the most interesting travel trip you have ever taken?
Going to Naples with six women friends for a week, we call ourselves the Originals / the founding docents who created the Szepmuveszeti Museum Docent program.   

7. If you were given a wish that could come true, what would you ask for?
That my dogs would live forever…

8. What’s the last book you read, and movie you watched?
I am revisiting the classics, was moved by STEINBECK’s the Grapes of Wrath, a tale of American internally displaced migrants during the depression.  

9. If someone wrote a biography about you, what would the title be?
Being Flexible.

10. What is the perfect pizza toppings combination for you?
The secret is in the sauce, if there is no flavour there, the rest is irrelevant. Once one has had a pizza in Naples they are never the same!

11. If you could trade places with any other person for a week, real or fictional, with whom would it be?
Michelle Obama

12. On a scale of 1 to 10 how unusual are you, and why?
 Don’t we all feel we are unique? Me too! 

13. What’s the best website you’ve ever visited, and why?
Daily Candy! For a fresh and creative STYLE, MAGNUM for Photography and Christies Auctions for art and antique education.

14. Who do you admire the most, and why?
Barack Obama, for gracefully navigating us through Washington sink-holes - creating hope and belief that we can do better.

Emma Gonzalez, is an emerging anti-gun student leader, working to make it better, from the Parkland Florida high school in the US, where 17 people died.  

15. What do you like best and least about living in Hungary?
Best / living as an outsider, always being stimulated by the different and new
Least / Living as an outsider, it can be lonely

16. What has made the biggest impact on your life so far, and why?
My Hungarian born husband who shares his art and life adventures with me.   The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago gave me the opportunity to re-invent / re-direct myself with a gallery internship. Later years, the Szepmuveszeti Museum Docent Program offering a place to thrive, create, and build a long standing visitor-service program from grass roots. 

17. If you won USD 30 million, what would you do with the money?
Buy Hungarian farmhouse, restore them, and set them up with my property manager as Kapolcs Cottages / holiday rentals

18. If your life had a theme song, what would it be?
Who wants to live forever, by Brian May of QUEEN, written as the theme song for the film the Highlander.

19. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose?
I am restless, every 10 to 15 years I want to go and explore somewhere new, but my choice for now is Kapolcs Village in Hungary. 

20. In ten years from now what will you be doing?
Managing the Foundation of the LASZLO KONDOR PHOTOGRAPY COLLECTION / ARCHIVE

Photo: A happy accident - two shooters! ORIGINALS from Szepmuveszeti Museum Docent program. 

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