In memoriam.

We've spent many years now in this economic crisis and I have seen the damages it caused in various aspects of the life we had considered normal - I saw people lose their jobs, I saw companies I liked close their doors and people close to me ending up in a difficult situation but what happened today was something I have never even considered possible.

The rumors that Hungary's national airline, Malév might go bakrupt have been circulating for quite some time now but I kind of put my head in the sand. Then Spanish airline Spanair ceased its operations and we heard Malév might be next. I remember thinking, "it can't happen. They won't let it happen. It's impossible."

But my fear became reality this morning at 6 a.m. when the airline announces they would no longer fly.

You might wonder why I find all this so shocking but the thing is, Malév was something to be proud of, a respectable airline with a great past and the fact that after 66 years of service it ceased to exist is a big deal for a country that now has no airline it can call its own.

Although I am sure pretty soon another national airline will be born, it will never be the same. Malév started right after World War II - their planes flew through communism and its end, the rare post-communist 90s and the new era and survived it all. And now, all of a sudden, it all had to come to an end - this is what saddens me so much. Losing Malév is like losing a mentor, losing a rock upon which we all could stand to see a little bit of the world, even when the times were rough.