„Everything was better in the past,” says universal wisdom, but memories are becoming more distant and beautiful. There is probably no other exhibition in the country that only presents the loved or hated objects, cars, toys, furniture, and atmosphere of a single era. The Retro Design Center in Szentendre is unique, as it focuses on the seventies and eighties, when many defining architectural works, vehicles, electronic products, and furnishings were born that still have an impact on our lives today. And these have certainly left deep marks on the current generation of 30s, 40s, and 50s. This is a special time capsule because it is entirely a private initiative and provides entertainment at Western European standards. The owners, Károly Istvánkó and his wife began collecting the objects that defined their youth decades ago.As we enter the exhibition, we immediately feel like we are in a Merkur used car yard, with four-wheelers typical of the era, from Barkas to Zastava. The small Polski, filled with luggage from Poland, had already set up the Szkif trailer tent at the campsite. Seaside idyll on the living room wallpaper When entering the house, memories come flooding back. How could we forget when we stood in line at the Keravill department store for the Raketa vacuum cleaner or the Commodore 64 computer, or at home we played with the Gabriela (!) sewing machine, the highway and the plastic Tatra truck. In the living room, there is Varia furniture, a Sky swivel chair, a collection of beer cans on the wardrobe, and period advertisements are playing on the color Videoton TV. In the furnished kitchen, we can walk between a red thermos, a pink soda siphon and a plastic stool to the pantry, where Tomi washing powder, VIM scouring powder and Fa soap smile at us among other treasures. Years of waiting for a Trabant Four-language (Hungarian, English, German, Russian) signs and informative texts provide well-written, entertaining and informative reading material, and show what the Merkur was like, how the car trade was conducted in Hungary and how much each type cost on the used market. Young people can also learn from this: in socialism, there was no such thing as someone just walking into a showroom and taking a car home. There was a waiting list of several years and a limited selection, but then a Skoda or Wartburg was considered a family member. Of course, the focus is on transportation, but driving is the profession and hobby of the Istvánkó couple. But the exhibition also skillfully presents people’s everyday lives, what you could eat at the Utasellató, how much empty bottles were taken back for and how Soviet design tried to compete with Western design. You can easily spend an hour and a half or two here, feeling nostalgic. The exhibition can be visited on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and all red-letter holidays! 1/5 ×