Registration Woes and Cheerful Reunions

30 September - Woke up and was given a traditional (Russian I believe) breakfast and, not too much later, a traditional (could have been german) lunch by Irina - the lunch was preceded by an apeterif of a different flavoured vermouth (i think it's going to be difficult to reveal the fact that I think that vermouth is absolutely undrinkable), we also spent a fair amount of time going through her photographs (some of her early days with dad and some others - fascinating stuff) one interesting factoid I found out that her current apartment was actually the one that she used to share with dad many years ago, and there were some photographs of the dad in the same room we were in when he was pretty close to my age ... it was kind of spooky (it has to be said that the apartment bears no signs of dad's spartan design aesthetic. It is nice to be able to speak to someone who has a different insight into the old guy (without him there to contradict it!) - i'm sure Maria, his sister, has the best information but unfortunately it is hidden by a wall of languages which can only be broken by me learning my new native tongue (because I have a feeling that she's not going to learn English) - after this we headed down into the rainy Kosice town and found our way to the marathon registration. Went to the counter and was told that my name wasn't on the list (a good thing I had Irina there because their English was pretty poor - damn Eastern europeans didn't have the courtesy to learn my language, the nerve of thm!!!) - we were told to come back n 20m when the manager arrived. I wasn't really worried although it would have been an interesting travel tale to come halfway across the world to run and then be told that my registration wasn't completed properly and I wouldn't be allowed (maybe in the soviet era it would have been like that although some palm greasing could have solved that particular problem). Anyway, after a nice Turkish coffee we returned only to find out that we'd been in the half marathon desk and everythingwas right with the world. I think i'm the only Australian doing the run (the girl was very surprised that I was from so far away) so i've got a grave responsibilty not fuck it up ... too much. Got a very cool souvenir bag as well, much better than the sydney marathon. After this and a short trawl around the shops we were met by Stano (cousin by marriage) and Maria (cousin) and young victor (first cousin once removed), who had grown up from a little eight year old into a long haired extreme sportsman specialising in fixed gear racing and downhill biking (his hospitalisation stories were quite revolting). We returned to Irina's and had a short whiskey (you want to drink alcohol before the marathon??? I'm not sure what kind of an introduction dad has given the family over here but they seem to think that i'm a hard core puritan olympic level athlete - i'm feel a little guilty disabusing them of the notion. Afterwards we headed over to Bardejov, the old home town. On the way I realised that i'd presumed that Victor was stano and maria's son - I mean, a couple arrived with a kid, you're naturally going to presume that it's theirs, aren’t you? It turns out Victor was brought because he spoke the best english (stano's is pretty good tho), - the slightly awkward moment was shrugged off without too much embarassment though - i'm entitled to make a few mistakes I think (it has been eight years). Anyway, a great reunion at the dushenko household - nothing has changed except the fact that the kids had all grown about a foot on me and they're all verging on adulthood now. A very nice dinner (Slovakian food is so carb-heavy though and I again shocked my hosts by taking wine with dinner, (ALCOHOL?!?!) - I was also reminded of how the laws of physics cease to operate in Maria's kitchen - it is absolutely tiny yet such enormous quantities of food come out off it - she definitely has the magic of a slovakian babushka. Afterwards Viictor was put to hard work translating between the family and me - the Slovak/english dictionary was still needed however - quite reminsent of Alice's labours in France. I'm a bit worried about the run on Sunday though; there were lots of little pastries served after dinner which were very nice bbut unidentifiable - after the sixth one I finally managed to find out what it was - opium (well, poppy seeds). Hoping I don’t get a ny drug tests because it'll probably still be in my ststem by sunday (i know it's in two days time but they're very nice and i'll have to have some more tomorrow). I have also been informed that dad would be calling again tomorrow morning (i kind of miss being in the third world where they couldn't track me down so easily).