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From GRAZ to ZAGREB and HOUSE of HOPE…DAY 34

Back to the stories about our adventure from the beginning of this year.

Link to TIMELINE of our 62 days long journey 🙂

03.02.2013. GRAZ – MARIBOR – ZAGREB : DAY 34

Our short stay in Graz was lovely in a great company of our host.

After a quick breakfast she walked with us to the bus station where we  took a bus to the hitchhiking spot. We took a goodbye photo before leaving 🙂

On the way to the bus I have seen a Bosnian food place with the name of my birth city 🙂 Sarajevo was still a place to visit on our route and this reminded me how excited I am about it. I haven’t seen it for 9 years and I was looking forward to meet some family and friends.

Hitchhiking spot was bad or we were just unlucky, so after more then two hours, I decided to go back to main train station center and hope on S-Bahn that would take me nearby Slovenian border where hopefully we will have more luck getting a ride.

While we were waiting Evelyn got a nice treat and she fully enjoyed it

When we got there, there wasn’t much traffic so we went on a another train for a short ride to Maribor. I had to ask a conducter to let us travel for free as I didn’t had enough money for ticket and I had to save some for food too.

She wasn’t too happy, but she let us go to Maribor.

At this stage I was already getting very stressed about not making it on time to Zagreb and I am sure that this unnecessary stress affected our luck with hitching a ride that day.

This whole trip couldn’t be really planned in any details as I only had a route in mind but without any arragments in advance of how we will travel and where we will stay. And it was working great for us as I wasn’t stressing at all about when I will arrive to the next city, up until this day when I put a pressure on myself trying to get asap to Zagreb.

At the end I relaxed after exchanging few messages with my friend Danijel who was waiting for me.

Another try to hitchike was not successful so eventuallyI got a ticket for a local train to Zidani most, where we got Intercity train to Zagreb. Another talk to the conducter and a little longer chat with Slovenian border police who were not happy that I stayed few days longer in EU over the limit of 3 months for tourists. But at then end they decided not to fine me. I didn’t even realized I broke some rule until they mentioned it.

So finally after all day on the road we were in Zagreb and I was very happy to meet my dear friend Danijel at his workplace in “Dom nade” ( House of Hope) where I shared stories from the trip so far and got all the news about the project of DAILY CARE CENTER for homeless in Zagreb.

More about that project you can read on a blog of our non-profit association.

Please  have a look at the link  DOM NADE

I would like to say THANK YOU…

I have been thinking about writing a special THANK you page for a long time and this post is an intro to that page.

When I started writing this blog  I was still living in Dublin,Ireland and I didn’t foresee that the road will take me to so many different places around Europe since then. The places can be special on their own but what makes them amazing are the people you meet there. And not just people, but animals too 🙂 like my dear Evelyn ❤

In 7 years of living in Ireland, that land and its people became a place which my heart and soul can call HOME.  But at the time when this blog came to life I was feeling a great need for a change and I started by quiting my job in a very good Dublin pub then I moved shortly to Galway, thinking maybe to stay there over the summer. That never happened as certain events and the people that I met triggered my move out of Ireland and I have started traveling around Europe, starting with Grenoble in France. There I was with someone who deserves very,very BIG THANK YOU for everything that our friendship has given to me. She is also a fellow blogger, so here I invite you to have a look at her blog.

She is one of many people that I am grateful for being part of my life. It doesn’t matter how long you know someone, but the quality of relationship with that person. We all have people in our lives that we don’t have to see very often but when we share time it is mutually enjoyed and we feel blessed for the connection.

It is important not to forget some connections that have might been lost as they have influenced our life at the time they were actual.

Since that initial move, I have been living a life mostly following my intuition which meant I was probably confusing friends with changes of my plans. In my mind I was keeping the doors opened to many possible paths and I know that sometimes I made mistakes and took the wrong turns. I felt I needed to explore,make mistakes, learn and deal with all the guilt that sometimes comes with all the changes that you are experiencing. It takes time to accept yourself and not to feel guilty if some of your friends and family don’t understand your changes and what your path is about. Even I sometimes don’t understand it and that is why I am exploring and looking for the one that is closest to my heart and soul purpose.

Some connections have been broken in the proccess, some have changed, many new have been born.

There are many wonderful people that I wish to express my gratitude for being a part of my life.  That is why I am starting with a THANK YOU PAGE…

Thanks to all the followers, friends and secret admirers 😛

Love from Muppetofaman

Look at the sky :)

Take a moment to have a look at the sky 🙂

Sky above Zagreb at sunset; photo by Rogi

DAY 29(1/2): we found EVELYN in BRATISLAVA

My dreams were mostly about Evelyn, since I got her in August last year there was only one night when we weren’t together and it felt weird that she is not curled up beneath my feet.

I woke up determined to find her and I wasn’t to worried at the time as I had a feeling that she is in safe hands and that we will see each other later that day. After coffee with Tomas and our second farewell I went to Janka’s office to collect A4 leaflets with Evelyn’s photo and information about where and when she got lost.

Janka said that we had over 1000 shares on Facebook pages of associations in Slovakia helping to find dogs. Even the hockey fans of Slovakian national team have put Evelyn’s photo on their wall. I was pleasantly surprised by this and I thanked Janka for sharing it everywhere last night.

Then I went to Horski park as she got lost nearby.

 

I spend next few hours posting leaflets in the park and around on all the bus stations and asking some people with dogs if they have seen her.

 

 

It was raining so I had to take a break and warm up with hot chocolate. I kept thinking about Evelyn and I hoped that someone is taking good care of her and that they will realise whe has an owner.

 

 

Once I finished putting up all the posters I went back to Janka’s office hoping she would have some good news soon. It was almost 3pm and I thought that someone must know something about her as more then 3000 people already shared her photo on Facebook and people on many locations around Horski park could see the info leaflets I have put up.

And then Janka received a message on facebook with Evelyn’s photo on another page of an associtation that is looking for new home for dogs. This guy has seen our post and compared the photos and then realized it could be a same dog. AND IT WAS, WE FOUND EVELYN!

I was really relieved and I rushed to the tram and then bus to get there.

She was in Vozovna Hrobonova, where I was that morning leaving leaflets on a bus station. But at the time I didn’t think of going to security guys in their box who were guarding a troleybus depot 20m from the bus station. She was with them since the morning and they kept her safe despite constant  nagging from their boss who didn’t want her there. THANKS to these guys and everyone in SLOVAKIA that has shared her photo online we have found each other again.

and SPECIAL THANKS goes to JANKA for sharing her photo all around the net and calling around different organizations. Above is Evelyn enjoying her treat in Janka’s office.

As a result of this little drama EVELYN’S BLOG got record views from Slovakia, so we joked afterwards that this was her PR stunt 😀

Then I called our next host Josef from TRNAVA to let him know that we are together again and that we can come and visit him there….

DAY 26: all day exploring BRNO and we meet Anna’s friends

After a great night sleep, Evelyn and I went to explore city of BRNO. I got the address of Armady spasa, so we first walked to there.

I had a nice chat in a mix of Czech and Croatian with people who work there and again I got an email of the director(pastor) as it was a weekend and he wasn’t there. I will have to contact all this people in Czech republic when I finish a trip and hopefully get some more info about their work.

For the rest of the afternoon we walked around Brno and Evelyn met really nice big dog to play with.

 

 

 

 

We were at a beautiful viewing spot when we came across this dog an his owner.

 

 

 

Around 5pm we met Anna and went to join her friends for a beer.

 

Then two of them were taking a flight to London where they live so we went to airport together. After few shots of Becherovka and few beers I was so ready for another good night sleep 😀 😛

 

 

But we went to another club and had few more drinks so as we arrived home around 2am I fell asleep in a second…

Evelyn was already napping in a club 😀

DAY 22: WROCLAW-visit to Ostoja and their center for kids with special needs

Our host Adrian used to volunteer in Ostoja therapy center as a music therapist.

We went there in early afternoon and on the way we stopped in a park nearby where Evelyn chased the birds and ducks and again like in Berlin she had a short swim in a cold water of an almost fully frozen lake. She was quick to get out and continue running around happily…

Ostoja has different centers and I got a contact from a girl that works in a therapy center for kids with special needs.

Margarida was very kind to take some time to show us around. They have different types of therapy for kids and we had a chance to see the dog therapy room and talk to a lady that was working there with a 12yr old kid.

The dogs are specially trained, they have soft fur which is great for touch sensitivity of kids. With each kid they have an individual approach depending on their needs.

She took us to other rooms, one of them was a stimulation room with music and light features. Margarida was trained in Portugal and this is her second time in Ostoja where she first volunteered few years ago.

Evelyn was all this time playing with the dogs outside and she really enjoyed it… they were sad when she was leaving…

It was great to see this center and everything they do there. I didn’t have time to visit their center for adults, but maybe some other time.

Later that day we met with Adrian and few other guys. We had a beer in a cool studio apartment where our host made a nice bar 😀

DAY 21:WROCLAW- hangover and meeting with Majka from’ House of Peace’ :D

I spent all morning sleeping after a long night out.

We went for a walk in the afternoon. I went to get some food in Bar Mewa where they serve food with reduced prices, so I had full meal for 8 zloti or 2 euro.

Then we went to same space where I watched documentary night before and there I met Majka and she works for House of Peace that has been active locally for last 5 years. Their main projects are focused on improving relations between different ethnic groups in Wroclaw Nadozde area.

They have been working a lot with young people in the community and she gave me as a present a music cd of a teenager hiphop band 😀

Wroclaw is beautiful in the evening and I enjoyed walking around with Evelyn.

Day 20: WROCLAW..with Adrian around the city; WrocDoc at night

We arrived very early to Wroclaw.

It was 6am as we walked around town. Our host Adrian has worked the night shift so we met at 7.30am at his place. After few hours of sleep we went together to city center and I liked the architecture and colours…

Then he took us to a nice healthy food restaurant where we had great time together.

They make excellent soups and vegetarian dishes and really good smoothies..

Later that night I went to see a documentary and there I met some of Adrian’s friends and we had interesting discussion after the film. It was a documentary about religion and science by Richard Dawkins and it served as a good base for debate. I wasn’t to impressed with the film itself as it seemed a bit too subjectively presented, but it still made some interesting points that were discussed afterwards.

After we went out for a drink as the organizer of WROC DOC Paul had a leaving party. Of course, few of us stayed for more then one and this resulted with my first hangover of the trip 😛

It was  7am when I came back to Adrian’s place…