‘Through the links as well,’ Gergő said, watching Hugó’s movements as the city man used the oil-dripping rag on the chain. ‘You have to pull the smaller rag across them, and then through the middle too, so the oil gets dispersed everywhere. Every link has to be well oiled. It has to get inside the metal, be one with the chain’s spirit.’

Hugó nodded and wiped his hand anxiously on the North Face sweater which he otherwise used for hiking. When they were packing for this holiday he acknowledged with a sense of guilt that he only owned clothes for business, sports, and the theater; he had never bought any sort of actual workwear. Now he was staining one of his most expensive sweaters, bought specifically for the annual Austrian skiing season. He saw it as a sort of self-punishment, but he knew he would buy a new one soon anyway. He plunged the rag into the bucket full of snail oil and crammed it through the first link of the silver chain. There were a dozen chains in the garage altogether.

‘Chains are getting more expensive as well,’ Gergő said. ‘There are no state subsidies for silver like in the old days.’

Hugó nodded again, then began to speak.

‘Yes. Europe doesn’t value traditions anymore. They don’t care about us,’ he said with a hurt pride that wasn’t his own.

Gergő finished oiling the first chain. He coiled the metal up carefully on the floor and took out a new chain.

‘Well, yeah,’ he said. ‘Only a few of us still do it the traditional way. Although it was the EU that gave us funding for the guesthouse. That’s why we put the EU flag and sign out.’

Hugó cleared his throat; he felt he needed to say something again.

‘Well, at least there’s some use to those bureaucrats in Brussels,’ he said finally.

Gergő nodded and lit a cigarette. He didn’t speak again.

They oiled the chains all night long.

Women start working at dawn. They wake before sunrise, consume a light breakfast, and then set out to work in the kitchen in the purple haze of the early hours. They boil the juice of the snail for hours on end, preparing it for later, when it will be used to reach the essence, a most important step in the process of the harvest.

Andrea never got up before nine, but she knew how important this trip was to her husband. She was surprised when she awoke even before her phone’s alarm sounded. She dressed and joined her hosts in the kitchen to help with the work. She began chatting to her hosts, since that was the one thing she definitely knew how to do.