Discovery!

Som sa dnes len tak browsovala cez tie reporty z pripady, pozerala si vyriesene ulohy co my mame, a zrazu mi to tak dokopy zacalo make sense... a som to ukazala do Prestona a on hned pochopil co s tym. No a poslali sme tam jedneho znameho, no a teraz mame tie zahadne plany. A tie teda make sense nerobia. Aspon zatial.

Ale my to pohneme. A najviac dolezito, sa mi zda, ze nikto iny o tom nevie... we might be onto something here :)))

Stuck

To je neuveritelne. Niekedy staci sa len pozriet a uz je vsetko jasne. Take tabulky alebo hlava, to som len pozrela a vedela a bolo. (Ved tu hlavu aj som musela, to by bola hanba keby ja som to nevedela.) A teraz? Life uz tyzden som leniva a Preston tiez, no a z chripky mi uz usi to... ringing...
ani neviem ci tie vety spravne su Slovensky.

Dvaja patraci

Ked rodina predala domenu detektivnej agenture, sme este netusili, ze onedlho pre nu budeme aj my pracovat. My sme s Prestonom boli prisli na Slovensko sa naucit po Slovensky lepsie a stretnut rodina. On vtedy ukazal mi webpage a sme sa pozerali a nas to zaujalo.

Phew. I fear I still can't get the grammar right, but my Slovak vocabulary keeps on improving. Anyway, since we both returned home, we are both spending a lot of time investigating the mysteries for the Haluz agency. Wish us luck :)

P.S.: google docs really rock if your teammate is half a world away ;)

Correspondence

Never ever would I dare to guess that so many people will contact me to get the puzzle papers. I'm starting to feel more and more involved in this "hunt". And somehow I can't get rid of the feeling that this is all according to my grandfather's elaborate plan. Who knows ;)

By the way, I'm starting to get the hang of all the puzzles, too. Now I only need to find someone (not involved in the competition, of course!) who will help me to give some names to the things I found in "random noises" :)

Solving all the puzzles

At first I considered it impossible, but I actually managed to solve some of my grandfather's puzzles. It was quite a surprise, as I don't speak Slovak too well, but it turned out that it's not really necessary for some of them. Try this one: maze1. It's really easy, you can solve it without even knowing what the answer means in Slovak. On the other hand, I have absolutely no chance at all to solve this one: book. I barely understand the text, something about the Russians and Englishmen sailing on some ships.

For some of the puzzles I wasn't really sure whether my answer is correct, and so I registered a team and tried to submit them. Only afterwards I realized that in this way I might have revealed my existence. My first impulse was to rename the team and hide it -- what if someone happens to notice it and...

But then I realized -- why bother? Laissez faire... Qué será, será. Nejako už len bude.

P.S.: If you are interested in the puzzle papers Abraham sent me, drop me a line: manuela at alpertron com ar

Puzzled -- twice

After I spent two days locked up in my room, and the next few googling, I now know a bit more about the entire issue. My Slovak grandfather was apparently a practical joker. Instead of dying quietly and leaving his family to argue about his legacy, he hid it somewhere. And not only that. There seems to be a huge set of puzzles that supposedly contain clues to where all the money (or whatever it is) is hidden. You can find out more at http://haluz.org/, provided that you speak Slovak, of course. Anyone can participate and get a chance to grab all the good stuff Grandpa had hidden.

But there is one thing that is far more important than all this odd stuff. I have a new family. I know who my father is.

I'm not really sure what to do. I read each of the family blogs line by line for something like ten times. It is clear that if Abraham really is my Grandpa, then Dusan has to be my father. He is still alive, and it seems that he's doing just fine. In fact, more than that. He is married, and I have two step-siblings.

And I'm convinced that this is really the case. I haven't been able to find Dusan's picture yet, but with Lenka (my step-sister) I had the feeling as if I always knew her -- both her looks and her way of thinking. How similar are we? If I grew up in Slovakia, would I be like her?

THE question: What shall I do now? Shall I announce my existence to the entire family? Contact Dusan only? Or just let them live in peace? What would be the best solution for all of us? Is there any best solution?

I don't know. I just don't.

A coin and three papers

I finally went to the post office, and imagine my surprise when I saw that the envelope´s origin was Slovakia. I ripped it open, and a small Slovak coin fell out. Apart from it, the envelope contained three papers. One of them stated that my grandfather (I never saw) is dead. The letter said nothing more about him, not even the point I was interested in most of all: how did he know about me???

The other two papers were... let´s say strange.

I´ll write about them later, now I need to lay down for a while and think about this. I´m excited, scared, and confused at the same time.