Eva, Hungary/Northern Ireland

My name is Eva Galambos. I am 53. I come from Hungary. I was a restaurant manager in Hungary. It was my life in Hungary.

I left Hungary in 2010 in July. [I had been a restaurant manager for] 25 years. I left with half my family. I have four children, two sons and two daughters. My older daughter stays in Hungary, but the three children are here. And my husband [is also here]. I’ve been living here for 4 years. [I chose to come to Northern Ireland] because my husband arrived first. He got a job here. And after [this] arrived the family.

We have a family business. We make a home bakery. We make some Hungarian special cakes [with] recipes from this book, which I bring with me. It’s a very very old book. It’s very important for my family because everybody is a cook, baker, businessman, and chef. This book was owned first by my grandmother, and after my father, and I. My family has been cooking for, I don’t know, a long long time. My daughter works, too, in a restaurant as a kitchen assistant. We have some special family recipes, but in Hungary I had a very good teacher too. My cooking teacher was a champion cook. And my other teacher was a champion baker. We have [maintained] very good contact to this time too. We have a very special Hungarian cake called the Dobosh cake. It was named after the baker. He made for the first time this cake. All Hungarian people know what is the Dobosh cake. It is very nice.

My other object is from my daughter who lives in Hungary. This is a pen that I got when I departed. This is special for me. It says on the pen “Eva, My guardian angel in a hard time.”

I am very wondered [amazed] because [there are] so many beautiful places here. I like it. I like the Irish people; they are very funny. I never had problem with them. I work here with the Ethnic Community Support Group, so I know a lot of other ethnic minority people, Irish people, and English people too. I like it.