On Friday I went with some friends to Lake Ohrid in Macedonia. On the way we stopped in Skopje and did a little sight seeing. This included the new statue that has been erected there. For political reasons it is officially called the rider on a horse, but unofficially it is Alekasander the great. It is quite impressive.
I was in Orhid twice before, once for a few days in 1995 and a second time when I flew out of the airport there when the airport in Skopje was closed for runway resurfacing. We stayed in a nice hotel about 5km outside the city of Ohrid, with a beautiful view of the lake. On Saturday we climbed up Galicica mountain and then visited Ohrid city. On Sunday we went to Sveti Naum or Saint Naum. Inbetween I ran a 2 mile race ( which it turns out was 3000m ) and a 1 mile race up and down a hill the next day. I had a really great time and returned quite tired and sore to Belgrade on Sunday night. I had the opportunity to stay for 2 more days, but needed to get back to work this morning.

I have been in Belgrade now for almost 2 weeks and I think I am pretty well settled in. This past weekend was interesting for me. Saturday morning, after running with some friends. I played a little 3 on 3 football ( soccer ) and I think I surprised a few people with my goal scoring skills.
Later in the day it got pretty hot, when I took the bus into the city it was 39.1 C which is 102 F, the humidity was not as bad as it used to be in New York, but it takes something out of you.
On Sunday I heard that my old friend and spiritual brother Mokshogun Clarence Clemmons had passed away, so my thoughts were with him. He had a big heart and a big smile. In the evening it rained and now everything has cooled down a little.

I am staying in an appartment on the 13th floor.We have a balcony that give me a nice view of the river and the city just across the river. There are a lot of linden trees in this area and actually there are some in front of the building. June is the month that they flower and the fragance wafts up and is so beautiful.This morning, after my run I strained something in the right side of my back and it was very painful when I first got to work. I managed to do my job ok, but it let me know it was there from time to time.

Some 4 days ago I came by bus to Belgrade where I will stay for the next 3 months. It is quite hot here, around 30C, but there are thunderstorms at night and ocasionally during the afternoon. I am staying in an appartment in New Belgrade, on the 13th floor. It is near to the river Sava and so I can run by the river veryday if I want to. I am quite familiar with the place as I stayed here in March. I am working 4 hours a day at a cafe owned by a friend of mine, I work in the mornings. I have worked for the last 3 days and I am starting to get my job down. I hope that I will have time to write more and also to finally learn Serbian well enough to have conversations with people and that it will help me with my Slovenian. We will see how things go, I am looking forward to my time here.

It's hard to believe that I didn't post in May, I guess I was busy. First of all I went by train to Munich on May 9th, this was not wothout incident. Due to track work they took us by bus from Ljubljana to Kranj, where the train left as soon as everyone was on board. Again in Austria we had to change trains twice to avoid track work and so I arrived about 40 minutes late. From then on the week went really well. I got a 1 week subway pass and found it quite easy to get around the city. I gave 2 talks on the relationship between Sport and Meditation, both well attended. I also ran a 2 mile race in a rain storm.
On the weekend I went with some friends to Berlin, though I didn't get to see much of the city. it's an interesting place.

In the last part of May I spent a few days in Zagreb, Croatia, where I got to attend a performance of some of Tagore's music as part of Indian culture week there.

The last few days of the month were in Banja Luka, Bosnia, where I actually met the League Champions Borac the day before they celebrated their first ever league title.

I will try to post some photo's later.