Brigi and Zoli ‘naturally’ met on the internet and I've found their home page that was inspired by their love while surfing.  That is why I would like to bring their story to the readers of the “Internet Love Story column”

I have interviewed both Brigi and Zoli:

How do you two remember the day you ‘met’?

Zoli: For me the date of September 16, 1998 will forever be a beautiful memory.  That day I entered the chat a little earlier.  There was some unexplained tension and expectation that increased with the passage of time.  I could not know what to do with myself so I entered the IRC and waited.  I was curious who faith - God - would bring in my path for me to speak with?  Because of my mood I chose a suitable nick “Dreamer.”  Truly I had greatly anticipated finding a partner and I think that is what was responsible for my mood that day.  My favorite topic on the IRC was religion, I get really excited about it.  Whenever I would talk to someone, I would direct my questions so that I could find out their opinion of life's more serious topics, their experience, view of the world to know what they hold important, what their plans are and their views on things.  That was my plan for that day also as I reviewed the nicks.  Before I had a chance to pick somebody, it was I who was picked out by my future sweetheart (rather, as I later found out, by her sibling).  He asked:  “What are you dreaming of?”
I smiled and responded: “of a girl that will be my partner”  That is how the conversation began that fanned the flames of love for me that evening.  I remember writing at the end of that night: I love you Brigitta!  I think that is what you could call ‘love at first sight’ although I never saw her.   Perhaps that was just the point:  I saw the most of her.  During that conversation I found out so much about her.  I had one surprise after another hit me as Brigo (that was her nick) named one characteristic after another that I've been looking for in a girl for so long.

Brigi:  I never in my life thought that it would be a computer that brings me together with the love of my life.  Actually, I never cared much for computers.  Since I enjoy meeting new people, I became aware of the fact that my brother was receiving an increasing number of letters from girls from far and near.  I became interested to find out how he did it.  He told me that within the internet there is a program called IRC where you can talk with people.  That is how when the opportunity opened in Bóly to use the internet, I pounced and immediately asked my brother to show me how you can ‘talk’.  On the first try my brother clicked on to the “Dreamer” as a way of introducing me the mysteries of the IRC.  Then he left me alone in the room to try my hand.  Since I liked the nick I posed the first question of my own and that was the beginning of the conversation that goes on to this day.
I will never forget that day.  Up to then, it was the biggest adventure of my life.  That was the first time I was involved with the Internet, the IRC and with a love of a lifetime.  It was a fantastic adventure.  Every word of his reached my heart.

What was it about the other that touched your hearts?

Zoli:  The first thing that touched me, and probably has the most effect on me to this day is her occupation.  She's a nursery school teacher.  This probably covers all things for me.  To me it includes a great deal of love, caring and purity and an endless spirit of joy that she can receive from the little ones each day.  I envisioned beautiful pictures of the nursery school and how happy my currently met teacher must be there, and these thoughts made me happy.  The second thing that had great affect on me was the fact that she is very romantic.  I'm the same way (that must be evident by my nick) and so I was already envisioning our future walks as we would pull close to each other hand in hand, without words and allowing our expressions to communicate, the flowers, the presents, the kindness that we would lavish on each other.  During the next five months all of these things became reality just as I've imagined it.  The third thing that cemented my interest in this budding romance was my sweetheart's interest in religion and the more important things of the world.  It was a tremendous synthesis of things I've wished for so long.  I've found a girl who lives in an eternal love, among children and away from life's daily madness.  There was a calm that radiated from her.  The same things interested her and during our conversations it seemed that we were constantly thinking of the same things.  There were times when we would read each other's thoughts and wrote down the same answers to questions.  Since there were so many things I've found in Brigo that were common with me, I knew that there was a deep and passionate love that will form within her that will provide us both with the love of a lifetime.  Honestly, I've often prayed to God that He would give me a girl like that, and He did!

Brigi: For days we've talked several hours.  I felt something mystical and magical in the Dreamer's being.  It was important to me to establish a relationship with him as the threads of our conversations were entangling us more and more to the point that sometimes I felt as though I was conversing with myself.  I've discovered so many likeness in my sweetheart.  No matter how unbelievable this may sound, but it was the religion aspect that made the development of this relationship more interesting than others.  Actually, I've contemplated familiarizing myself with other religions for some time.  I'm a Roman Catholic and Zoli is Jewish, and on top of that he is studying to be a rabbi.  As soon as I heard about this I asked that he write to me and tell me about his religion.  He did, and slowly he began teaching me through letters but not only the religion.  If I may phrase it this way, he opened my heart with letters, flowers, stories and with the richness of his soul.  I can't really remember the progression of our love, only know what I feel now but it is very difficult to put into words.  I do know that ever since we've been together I pay more attention to details like the sunrise, the rainbow, the shape of the clouds, the sound of birds.  It is like a fairy tale.  I see him in virtually everything that surrounds me.  I feel somewhat restless also and that stops only when we are together, but that is a little problematic.  “Only” 240 kilometers separate us from each other and we bridge this the best we can, whenever we can.  Our week-ends consist of traveling but we still insist:  with love all things are possible!

Did you succeed really getting to know who the other person is over the internet or that didn't happen until later?

Zoli: Yes, I think we could call this the real opportunity for getting to know each other.  During the first two weeks we did not have a personal meeting, we did not see each other and because of that our love was not lit by the exterior of the other, but rather the inner self of the other.  Through our conversations we were able to fall in love with each other soul, and heart.  It was magical.  We both knew that no matter what the other actually looked like our hearts were already intertwined and the exterior would be secondary.  There was no reason for us to suffer disappointment in this area either, on the contrary!  Other than e-mails I've received real letters from my sweetheart, there were days that I received more than one.  I responded in e-mails for the most part.  I wrote poetry that touched him greatly and occasionally during a phone conversation I played a love song for him then we just remained silent because neither one of us could speak.  We could feel that increasingly something magical was surrounding us and that something is called love.

Brigi:  I don't think it would have been possible for us to find out more about the other in any other way during those first two weeks.  For us the exterior became secondary in importance.  The most important for us was to get to know the inner self of the other.  I can say for certain that even during those first few days something magical took a hold of me.  When I would talk with the Dreamer at night I felt an unexplainable an immeasurable calm took hold of me.  Yes, I was in love!

So then, sitting behind monitors far from each other both of you sensed that you were in love.  What did the first meeting have in store for you after this?

The personal meeting was a seal in any case for us, the most beautiful seal we could ever have imagined.  We've spent a beautiful day together that we've been talking about for two weeks – all of a sudden reality.  There we were in a little park, sitting on a bench holding hands and looking into each other's eyes and trying to say the one word that is so difficult at a time like this.  It was evening and the moon was peeking as the stars curiously tried to catch what was going on down there.  We just held each other in a tight embrace not wanting to ever let the other go.  It was at that moment that we realized that from now on we would forever belong to each other.  Meeting followed meeting that were separated by two weeks initially because of school and the nursery school, but our love continued to grow and we feel that this will be true of us forever.

How did it feel to finally see someone that so far you've only known and loved through the monitor?

Zoli:  Fantastic!!!  It was very exciting at the same time I was terrified of…. for one thing, whether or not I will find where she lives.  To cover up my fears I took a friend of mine along with me so that I would not have to be alone.  I thought things would not be so full of tension this way.  Our date worked out fine even if there were three of us.  Naturally it was only for a portion of the day.  By the time we've gone for a long walk at the end of the day there were only the two of us.  You could feel the vibrations in the air that we'd passed to each other's eyes.  We both wanted so many things and at the same time were a bit afraid.  We were like two teenagers on a first date, it was wonderful!  When I think back to that day, I sense the same calm that surrounded us at that moment.  We already knew everything about the other and now the only thing missing from our happiness was that we wanted to be together.

Brigi:  Fantastic!  Although after two weeks Zoli did not come to visit me by himself but with a friend to discover where I really live, I felt that our first meeting already sealed our love.  I was madly in love with my sweetheart.  Today I feel that there is nothing in the world that I would give up this relationship for.

What do your family and friends say about your meeting?

Zoli:  Naturally the first question everybody has is  – Did you really meet on the internet?  Times like that it is great to smile and tell them that, really, such a deep and pure love can blossom from a relationship where you are able to reach the inner self of the person first.  What I enjoy so much is that everyone admires this union.  Everyone sees it as something exciting and as they see me tell it they can tell that I'm glowing from happiness.  Everybody tells us they are cheering for us because this is such a fairy tale.  We had some obstacles, first of all the distance, which was not easily conquered.  We could only meet on weekends and although we speak on the ICQ daily we still miss each other very much.  The other is the religious aspect, because you remember I'm preparing to be a rabbi and it was with a suspicious eye that this developing relationship was viewed.  But even in this aspect I've found a wonderful experience.  The love that they saw on me, the beauty and purity that radiated from us simply brought a smile from everybody.  They could not be mad at me for it, in fact I could sense a longing from many people for the same kind of love we had.  All of these things continuously confirmed to me that our love is very unique.

Brigi:  Since my love showed up at our home after two weeks of conversations, my family didn't even know who he was.  Actually, I did mention him but Zoli wanted our first meeting to be a surprise.  That may have been one of the reason my parents thought of this relationship to be a bit hurried.  The last 5 months did bear fruit, however, and now they also like him very much.  They talk with him about many interesting and worldwide events.  He even hinted to them that he wants to ask for my hand in in marriage!

I wonder if today's kinder gardeners know what the Internet is?  Have you told the children in the kindergarden about it?

Brigi:  Specifically about the internet, I don't think I've talked to them about.  But they do know that it was the internet that helped me in meeting my sweetheart.  He came to visit me several times at the kindergarden and the children were able to meet him in person and not only hear about him.  They liked him very much and always ask when will Mr. Zoli come to visit again?  They did ask me how I met him since we are so far away from each other and that is when I told them that it was with the help of the computer.  For those who did not know what it was I tried my best to explain how a TV like machine can possibly help in that.  Perhaps that was the reason that my group asked Santa Clause to bring them a computer.

How did the idea of the web page come up?

Zoli:  On December 24th I was really missing my sweetheart.  She was in Boly and I was in Pest.  I felt the need to do something that will allow me to feel closer to her.  That is when I've created the first version of the web page for lovers, which I intended to give her as a Christmas present.  It was a real surprise.  It is funny that something I intended as a personal gift actually turned out to be viewed by thousands from throughout the world and they can send messages to us.  I wanted to tell everyone what a wonderful thing is happening to us and as long as we have gone public we've asked our visitors to send us their own internet love stories, pictures, favorite poems and we can enrich our mutual love-page.

Were you able to encourage others by your example to initiate internet romance?

Brigi:  I have a close example since one of my best friends tried her luck with internet love from my machine.  After she heard what happened to me she became interested and wanted to know how it was possible to fall in love through the internet.  Since I had pictures from people I've corresponded with earlier she came over one day and I've showed them to her.  When she saw one of the pictures it was as thought lighting struck her and asked that I contact that boy because he looked very sympathetic to her.  She came over for days to ‘talk’ with the boy who after about two weeks did respond to my inquiry.  Why it did not blossom into love I have no idea, but I do know that they still talk on the phone and understand each other well.

Zoli:  We don't know if there is anyone having viewed our web page decided to look for love on the internet, but I do know that many people were happy to see the page.  That was basically our goal.  Someone who is in love enjoys reading of other people in love because it reminds them of their own feelings, their own memories of how they met.  The fact that on that web page we define love, whereby reading it the same calming feeling will surface in them again and they can relive their own happiness.  Those who are not in love or else have been disappointed we show them that true love does exist just as in the fairy tales and it does conquer all.  We encourage everyone to fall in love because it must be the most beautiful feeling in the world.  When somebody is in love all problems cease around them and the light of love sweeps everything in its way and what remains is the beauty and purity, a feeling that contains the essence of life.  Love, sacrifice and forgiveness.  If somebody can feel this throughout their life they will forever be happy, well balanced and in a great mood.  There is not a problem that could knock them off track.  Together with our loved one we can reach new heights.  That is our message to the world!