As a child, she sold tickets, sitting on the steps of the open-air cinema, as a teenager, she was playing it cool, suntanned, on a surf, and later she sped around on a moped. Today, Dóra Prokopp has begun to rediscover the Balaton from a different point of view. She believes the area hides spiritual secrets. After childhood summers on the south shore, her adult self thoroughly enjoys discovering the Káli-medence and Badacsony which are full of sacred places and mysteries to be solved.

Dóra Prokopp is the laid-back type of mother who prepares fresh breakfast for her children and their friends who are exhausted by partying at Balaton Sound and she is not even annoyed by the fact that you can't even drop a needle in the crowded Zamárdi summer house in this time of year. This Balaton-side coolness has a history, though, as it turns out when you listen to her stories with a glass of wine the hand in Pastrami Restaurant, her chief occupation beside the kids.

'Ever since I can remember, it's been the Balaton. Down every summer after the end of the school year and back in the very last moment before 1 September. I have spent every 20 August at the Balaton, my very first kiss happened during one of those fireworks. I remember endless summers, Zamárdi-felső, the summer house, the rattling rails nearby. It is all timeless, like a separate universe. Times passes slowly during childhood anyway! You feel as if summer was already going on for a year and there was still a year to go. And in the meantime, practically nothing important happened; I waited for the Camping-bike riding postman to bring us the crossword magazine on Wednesdays, sometimes friends visited, still the day always passed somehow. Often, I just sunbathed on the pier all day long with the radio tuned to Danubius where news were announced in German, and I felt as if I were in Hawaii.'

Teenage new waves

Then teenage years brought surfing, 'I was among the first who had a surf at Balaton, I was a really cool surfer with muscles and a suntan. There was another surfer girl, the competitor, but her haunt was two streets down from us. I remember surfing in storms, always surfing; my mum was running up and down the shore to call me home because the wind was strong. Fortunately, winds are safe on the south shore. Then in September, sitting at my school desk, I prodly examined my callused hands, which remained so and evoked summer until about October. If my hands are like that today, my thoughts still jump back to surfing, although I only surf a lot in my dreams.'

'Balaton today means something different: thousands of secrets and undiscovered places, the exploration of the north shore after the southern parts. Balaton does really mean holiday now; years ago we committed to another surface of water, the Danube, we have our HQ in Pilis. There, the waterside environment is more untouched as opposed to the often violent constructions at Balaton. Still, Lake Balaton remains an eternal love. Me and my husband have a joint Balaton-themed project, Super8.hu, to which we post old amateur Super8 materials, archive video footages abotu Balaton: East Germans at Balaton, Vietnamese flip-flops, home videos, there is a really astonishing amount of archive footage.'

'Recently, I have spent a lot of time on sacred places and spirituality, I have been attending related small group travels. I am looking for explanations and I know that there are a multitude of such secrets carved into stone and wood in the Balaton-felvidék. Then there are the ruins of Pauline monasteries in the north, the Mary Magdalane monastery in the Salföld, and the innumerable mysteries of Badacsony and I would like to uncover all these. When one of the guardians of Lake Titicaca (a truly sacred spot) was here, he was swooning over Balaton. I believe it is one of the still hidden treasures of the world; Hungary and Balaton are both miracles. I believe that Balaton is a keeper of secrets: there is wisdom and ancient knowledge hidden in its northern hills in different cyphers. We must solve these. Perhaps, one day the spiritual leaders or the world would gather here. Perhaps we will manage to charm more people, more youngsters to enjoy these gifts actively. I have plans, you'll see!
One thing is for certain: in 10 years, you won't find me in an urban location. Unfortunately, my ecologival footprint is shamefully large.

I hope that in 10 years, it will be the size of my feet, size 39.'