Travel East

An airplane ride from hell landed me in Eastern Europe. I have a clearer understanding of what comprises Eastern Europe, less clear when people refer to Western Europe as ONE concept for culture, bread, cheese, chocolates, whatever. I got to ride bicycles with a 10 year old, boys are the same world over, so hands free of course, and got to do dirt bike riding on a bike with a child seat. Today will be the time to recommend Wild East: Stories from the Last Frontier. It is an expressive collection of short stories from former Eastern Bloc countries that will remind you there is literary talent everywhere, but it will do the reminder with fistfights, Gogolesque tales and vodka on the side. Soon I will hit Novy Smokovec where MFCS is being held. Friends ask me what it is like in the East, and I say, sartorially, it is like everyone, man/woman/child, is ever sports ready: if called by their club or country, they can instantly get onto the soccer field and kick, that is, Adidas rules. And I have learned not to finish a drink lest the glass be refilled, Mihai seems to have chosen to forget this lesson. :)