When I was growing up I lived near to a town where there was a brewery, it was on a hill and on some days when the wind was in the right direction, you could smell the hops when they vented them. I have been living in Ljubljana now for 19 months and they also have a brewery here. This morning for the first time I could smell vented hops as I walked into the city.

Over a 9 day period we had a lot of snow and this past few days we have been getting rain and warmer temperatures. As a result there has been a lot of snow melt and it kind of feels like early Spring with the river high and fast running. When you walk over bridges you can hear the river rushing through them. Probably soon the snow will come and stay and the snow melt will be repeated in the Spring.

The temperature dropped to -8C overnight, so I decided to wait until late morning to go out for my run. It was still -1C when I went out, but the sidewalks were most clear with the occasional icy patch needing to be careful of. I have decided that since I am approaching my 57th birthday that I need to work on my flexibility a little more and have this plan to introduce yoga back into my life. I have not really practiced it for quite some time, but will do a few exercises each day and slowly increase the range as I become more comfortable.

For the last 8 days it has been snowing on and off some days are light snow some days more. We have accumulated about a 1/2 meter of snow during that period. At the beginning of the week it kind of reminded me of New York and say January of February, but this morning on the way into the city it reminded me of the 3 weeks I spent in Montreal, Canada one winter. I know from a city point of view it is probably a pain, but to me it is what winter is all about and I am sure it is really beautiful in the countryside.

Happy Birthday to Purupriya

Well I spent a week in Bosnia, half of it in Sarajevo and half in Banja Luka. As it turned out I took the beginnings of a cold with me and it got worse after a couple of days. I was taken well care of by my friends and it gradually got better.The first part of the week was rainy and the second part colder, but we did mange to avoid the snow that was forecast. However when I got back to Slovenia it was a different story and I was greeted with about 20cm of snow and it has stayed near freezing so far.Part of my trip has hopefully opened up the possibility of some coffee business in the future and we will see how that goes.

Sometimes when I am walking through the city I see groups of school children with teachers telling them something about the history of the city and stuff. This morning I saw one group and standing with them was a street person standing near to the teacher and listening to what she said and sometimes pointing to where she pointed, as if mimicking the teacher and pretending to be an interested bystander. It was quite amusing to me and brought a little joy to the start of my day.

The last few days have been quite busy for me as far as my coffee business goes. I have the opportunity to get a good customer in the near future and I have been looking at suppliers. One of the things that I have noticed is that in these modern times in Slovenia coffee grinders, are not so available as in the past. If people want to enjoy my coffee to the best of it's flavour they should grind the beans freshly before brewing. So I am in the process of finding a supplier of coffee grinders so that we can sell them along with the coffee. I have just found a company that looks promising and they also have milk frothers and I think the price is acceptable. So there you go things are moving along slowly.

It has been pretty rainy here this last week or so, but on the weekend I was in Germany and the weather there was really nice. I was visiting with some friends and also trying to make some potential business arrangements for the coffee. I was also had a surprise when I saw an old friend from New York, who it seems is in Europe for a week, so that was nice. I have had a problem with viral conjunctivitis in my right eye, which I got while in Russia. I was given some Homeopathic medicine and it seems to be working.
Looking forward to better weather later in the week.

Where was I. Oh yes during our second night in Vaasa the rest of the WHR team arrived from Iceland. So in the morning we started at a ceremony in the city square near a market. Then with a police escort we ran once again to the park where the statue was. On the arrival of a local runner we made our way to a nearby stadium where the Vaasa marathon would begin. We were introduced to the runners, did a lap around the stadium track and started off on our run towards Helsinki. Some time after our departure the marathon began and as our runners ran with the torch we were joined by the the competitors as the first part of our run covered part of the marathon course.
Since the full team was now here and we had 2 vans we split up into 2 teams we use a method called leapfrogging to cover the distance and also make various ceremonies along the way. The final ceremony was near the place where we would stay the night and we were greeted by a former winter Olympian and medal winner in cross country skiing. We spent our first night on the road in a log cabin

On arriving in Helsinki and finally getting our bags we drove with 2 of our friends to Vaasa in the north, where we got to stay in another friend's apartment for the night.
We had 26 schools to visit on our first WHR day in Finland, we split into 2 teams of 3 with one team visiting 17 schools that were close together and the other visiting 9 schools further apart. It was very cold and windy, but at each school we had a warm welcome. There are 2 official languages in Finland, Finnish of course and Swedish. each of the schools spoke of these. I was on the team that visited 17 schools. We ended our running in a park where we joined with the other team, some school children who came with us and some local officials, near a statue of Sri Chinmoy, the founder of the run. There was a ceremony at which a Peace tree was planted and everyone got to have their photo taken and some interviewed by a local newspaper.

So I have been back from the WHR for 11 days now, so here is the start of my report.
We were scheduled to fly on Baltic from Belgrade to Riga and then on to Helsinki on September 1st.
We arrived at the airport and proceeded to go to check in, but there was no check in. We then looked on the departure screen for our flight and it was not there. After an inquiry at the information desk, we found out that Baltic does not operate flights to Helsinki via Riga between September and February, even though they let us book a flight for September 1st. It seems they had been trying to inform us of this without success. So they had an obligation to give us an alternative flight and booked us on an Austrian Airlines flight through Vienna for the next morning. This did not create a big problem with our Finland schedule so we were happy and we had a better flight.
We arrived in Helsinki mid afternoon the next day instead of late evening the day before and apart from the fact that our bags were delivered to another terminal everything was good. I was in Finland for the first time ;)

I have just come back from spending the last month of the European leg of the World Harmony Run as part of the team. I got to go from Finland, through the Baltic states, Belarus and to the closing ceremony in Moscow. Spending a month living out of a van during the day and having to go out and run several times during those days can seem like a tough deal. That is so far from the truth. Yes there are days when the body is telling you it maybe does not want to run so much, but I am a multiday runner and I am used to that. Even if you struggle a little bit some mornings the feeling you get when people greet you on the road, or the look in the faces of people ( especially children ) when they get to hold the torch, takes away any tiredness that may be present.
Over the next few posts I will try describe what it has been like and focus on each country I ran in. I hope you will enjoy my journey.

So this morning I picked up my visa for Belarus and I am now ready to go. We fly on Baltic Air through Riga to Helsinki om Wednesday afternoon. I am not sure if I will have any internet access during the trip, but when I do I will post something. You can check out how I am doing here http://www.worldharmonyrun.org/ .

I have been in Belgrade now for 2 days, the bus ride was quite pleasant, but the temperature seemed to get hotter and hotter the closer we got to Serbia. I finally got access to the internet so I am now able to make this post.
My 2 WHR team mates and I had a very nice meeting with the consular general for Belarus this morning and will have visa's on Monday. So now I have a few days to relax and there is a possibility that tomorrow I will go on the boat of a friend of mine for a trip around Belgrade, which should be pretty cool.

Today I picked up my visa from the Russian consulate, tomorrow I go by bus to Belgrade where I will get a visa for Belarus and in 11 days time I fly with 2 friends to Finland where we will join the final leg of this years World Harmony Run. Starting in Finland we go to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus. Before entering Russia via Smolensk and finish in Moscow late September. It should be quite an adventure. Not sure if I will have much internet access, but when I do I will try to post something.

It has been 15 years since my mother was killed by an intruder in her home.It is quite a long time but at this time we can easily see how strongly how our loved ones remain in our hearts.
Yesterday I spent around 4 hours at the Russian embassy in Ljubljana applying for a visa for an up coming trip there. A few hours after returning home I got a message that one of my Uncles had had a stroke and is now in hospital, but quite stable and even making jokes. So life has it's challenges, but we go on.

Yesterday I went to the Russian Embassy here in Ljubljana to apply for a visa, but was a little surprised to find out that I needed to give them a photo. So back again today only to find out that my visit constitutes a Humanitarian visa and needed to say that on the invitation. They were nice enough to call the WHR guys in Moscow and arrange for a new invite to be faxed and told me to come back tomorrow. They were actually quite nice to me, but it seems it is not so easy to get a visa for Russia.

First of all it's Friday the 13th. I need to catch up on a few things. Two days ago August 11th was my sister's birthday, so of course Happy Happy Birthday!!!. She just recently had elbow replacement surgery, so I imagine this one was not quite as happy as previous ones. But I am sure she will ultimately be happy with her unusual present of a much better functioning elbow.
Also on that day 2 friends of mine from Serbia came by on their way back from the English Channel, where one helped and the other successfully swam the English Channel. When I was young and growing up in England it was always magical to me to hear that someone had swum the channel. So it was really nice to hear their story of this great feat.
By the way this Friday the 13th is a rainy one here in Ljubljana.
These are some of the White plums at my place in Croatia, in the photo above.

So on Saturday morning I got a ride out to the 3rd stage of the Trans- Slovenia Mountain Edition race where my friend was running. There was some tough mountain running and I got to do some of it with him. I also got to stay in the Youth Hostel where the race ended on Saturday night and where the runners and organizers stayed. On Sunday I got to share the running and helping duties with my friend Milan. The last 30Km or so of the final stage was on the same road as last years classic race so it was familiar to me and I liked the downhill section into Koper.

It is amazing to think that this time last week I was at my place in Croatia and it was raining. Here I am now in Ljubljana and once again it is raining. I was really happy to spend some time there even with the rain, but as you can see from this photo it was quite sunny on the Sunday just before I left. In the photo are my neighbours Vajo and Majca who kept me fed during my visit, though I did buy some supplies from the one store in the village. It is nice to think that I am now adding to the economy of the village where my father was from. OK more to come.

I spent 2 days at my place in Croatia. When I got there it was raining and rained on and off for the first 24 hours I was there. As you can see from this photo I managed to cut down some of the grass and weeds. I eventually removed some of the trees from around the side and back of one end of the old house. It was so nice to sleep in my own house and my neighbours kept me fed by inviting me for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I still have a lot of work to do. I have many white plum trees and gave away many plums during my visit. I had to leave many to be eaten by the birds who seem to love them. It is very peaceful there and the roads are pretty quiet for running on. Over the next few days I will try to post more photo's.