A bit of back and forth

Photo by the evil genius Khan Kanga

Serbia feels like home, its so familiar and comforting, so warm and filled with the faces of people I love and have been through so many experiences with. I am just visiting for a few days because I will work in CE in Graz next week, so it does not leave much time, but its so wonderful to even have this short time here. Every time I arrive at the bus stop in Novi Sad I feel so excited. I look out of the bus window all along every street I know, and just wait for it to stop, then I take my things and walk as fast as I can to CE. Serbia has been my home for so many years, I also did and experienced a lot of crazy things here, for me… this is the one place on earth I feel a true connection with (so far) and every time I come back its very special. This time my friend Zapa (from Graz) travelling down to Serbia with me, adding a lot of cool moments to the trip.

 

I had a real adventure getting to Novi Sad. Recently I have really rebelled from the mainstream transportation, mostly because its boring, but its also expensive and takes such a long time. I normally travel either with Blabla car or with hitchhiking. This time I found a shared ride going to Zagreb and took it, I knew I had friends t here I wanted to see, and also I like to mix it up a bit and not go directly. We were driven there by a catholic priest, pretty funny, I am sure he had a lot of interesting things to say but I slept most of the way.

When we arrived I went to see two friends who I had met during the TEDx, Martina and Khan. Martina is from Zagreb and Khan is from a bunch of different places, they met in San Fransisco and recently moved back to Croatia. Both are designers and work on many exciting projects. They are such good hosts and made a wonderful dinner for me, with lots of wine and Rakija and made me feel so warm and comfortable. They really showed me what it means to be a good host of people and how to welcome people into your home and life (the lesson is to always have Rakija available to guests). 

 After this we attempted to hitchhike first to Osijek and then on to Novi Sad, however we were pretty slow and went at our own pace, in the end we got a message from a car share going to Osijek and took the ride. Gordan was our driver, a very interesting fellow from Osijek, he owns Tufna, one of the biggest clubs in Osijek, he also owned a few smaller businesses and  hostel. This was lucky for us as the last bus to Novi Sad had already gone and we needed to stay the night in Osijek. He is a very interesting guy, working his way up in the business world, starting from square one to finally get to where he is today. He is a high energy person with lots of good business advice, I enjoyed sharing with him the story of CE and my small experience in business. Seeing as we got on so well, he invited us for dinner in an adorable little traditional restaurant, we drank a lot of wine and rakija (again) and had a wonderful time with him. It’s so amazing to see the people that you can meet along the way of your travels if you are open and have respect for other people. I always find someone to connect with and learn from, everybody has something to share. 

 

 Carrying on we went to Novi Sad early the next morning and spent the next 2 days there. During this time I got the chance to see many of my friends and spend time with them, I am so lucky to have so many beautiful people in my life, supportive, kind and inspiring. I also got to do a short TV interview on ‘Just Give’, work on my connection to the TEDx team (I will be giving some input to the Novi Sad TEDx crew), and get a tattoo… what a packed weekend.

 

CE Novi Sad is blossoming, not only does it look beautiful but the vibe and atmosphere is as sweet as ever. Looking around the city of Novi Sad I saw so many cafe's and bar's that were closed since the last time I was here. In the time CE has been open, so many cool places have closed and opened for different reasons. I am never happy to see another shop owner go out of business, but it does make me appreciate the length of time that CE has been standing its ground. We have really been through so much, a scandal, deportation, renovation… we have gone through real depression with the business and also experienced such feelings of joy and satisfaction. I really see CE as a pillar in the community of this city. Most people know about it, have been there and enjoy the place in so many ways. I am so proud of it, of myself for being part of it and for every person who contributed to making it what it is. There is no café like it. Of course there are many cool culture spots in the city, but one thing that makes it so magical is the story behind it, a real story of perseverance, courage and determination. We didn’t give up, even when all the odds were against us, I feel like the CE team has really big balls to do what they have done, and CE today still stands as a testimony to their diligence and courage in the face of many obstacles. A diverse team of 7 young people, coming from no where… to where we are today… what a wonderful story and what a wonderful life. 

Looking over at the story in Graz and how its developing, there have been many roadblocks  that we continue to face. The situation with our license has been a continual source of frustration. After our meeting with the main inspection officials of the city and some of our neighbours, we pressed forward with the changes that the government wanted us to make to fulfil all requirements of the license. These included creating sliding doors to the bathrooms, sealing off the 2^nd door and creating a automatic door in our front entrance, not such small things. We did everything that they asked and got the stamps of approval from all of the inspectors.. all but one. The main guy in charge of the paper refuses to stamp and sign the last document and send it to us. Apparently it is sitting on his desk and he just does not have the time to do it, nevermind that we have been doing the paperwork for one year now, and fulfilled all requirments around 2 and a half months ago, nevermind that we are a group of struggling young people who need to earn something to survive, nevermind that this is a start-up business and not a huge corporate entity, he does not have the time to stamp our paper and send it. To make it even more unbelievable he told our friend who regularly goes to talk to him about the progress, that he did stamp it and it was in the mail, every day we were waiting and then his secretary told us that he never sent any completed paper to the post. So we are still waiting. However because we have the news that the paper is completed (or so we assume) we are moving forward with the progress of CE and getting the business to run a bit better. We did some advertising and can now post our menu online, we also are able to host a few quiet gigs, though its kind of in experimentation. Altogether in some ways it means we are moving forward, for sure we are closer to getting the license paper then before (I guess we cannot be moving backwards). All over the story of CE has been one with many giants that we have had to fight and it is a struggle, but we all feel like it is worth it and will be worth it even more then now in the future. Whatever we do, I guess we want to know that we gave it our best and we put 100 percent . 

We are all working full time at the shop in Graz at the moment, which is me, Simon and Mary and Oli too, but he is travelling a lot at this time. After working the whole month we are really left with very little money to live, and I mean really little. I guess it can be discouraging to see that you are not earning anything with so much work and most people are earning a lot more but with less work. Of course I am not saying that they do not deserve it, but it is a hard thought sometimes when I realise I am definitely living with less then a third of what most people do here in Austria. I do feel that CE in some way will one day be financially successful, its been successful in so many other ways already, I really feel its only a matter of time before it grows in every way that we need. Even if it dosen’t, we all gained so many amazing experiences from this whole journey, it really toughened us, I feel my character and depth grew so much since the beginning 4 years ago. I cannot imagine my life without CE, with all the joys, happiness, magical moments, depression, sadness, and yes.. a lot of tears, also a lot of work. I do feel privileged in many ways, blessed to be able to live a lot of my dreams, work on something I care about and be my own boss. With all of these great benefits, the lack of money seems a small and insignificant detail, considering that so many people with so much money would for sure wish to have some of the wonderful life moments that I have had. 

There is just no way to compare or put your life in its entirety up to another persons and decide what would be better or worse, we all got our cards and we are playing them the best we can. What is important to me is to be happy, but also to be a good person, to work on my character, to see the traits of love, understanding, passion, dedication, honesty, integrity, and compassion grow in my life. It’s also important to me to be of service to others, I need to feel like I can give something important to my friends and family, all of the things I have gone through with CE have definitely given me lots of love and friendships that I treasure. May I take a moment to just breathe and say… all in all.. if I had to do this over again, if I had the chance to go back, take a different life path, study, work in a good job or go back to the UK.. I would still start CE with those 6 crazy people, I would risk it for that biscuit, because it’s a good biscuit and I like it, YUM

As you all know I like to include Adventure stories on my blog, to show some of the amazing people all over the world who are pursuing interesting dreams.  This year I met lots of cool cyclist personalities who were living an alternative life, living on the road, cycling long distance to many destinations all over the world. One such person is Manuel, I met him in Serbia, somewhere in the middle of his journey towards Istanbul. I asked him to answer some questions about his trip. I hope you all enjoy it!

Where was your adventure from and to?

I started in Rosenheim Germany, a small city between Munich and Salzburg, Austria. To get into cycling I decided to follow the river Inn and the Danube through Austria. From Linz I went down to south through Upper Austria and Steiermark to Slovenia. I followed the Drau in Slovenia and Croatia to Serbia. After that I made it on the EuroVeloRoute6 through Volvodijna to Bulgaria. After that I went down south, through the Balkan mountains, had a sneak into Greece and followed the D100 in Turkey to Istanbul.

What made you want to do something like this?

Well I finished my studies at University. Last few years I was busy with work through study breaks and time for a quite long bike trip. This year in summer I decided to cycle down to Istanbul just for doing it. Being by myself was the idea, to do something on my own. And I wanted to do something special for myself. Getting inspired by nature, road and people.

What was your favourite country and part of the journey?

The longer I was in a country I enjoyed it more and more. I guess Bulgaria was the most impressive country with the Balkan Mountains. I do like the climbs, and so I liked Bulgaria. I didn’t have any bad impressions about a country I have been in but the most hospitable people have been in Turkey. On one day I got invited twice for dinner. I was so full because I couldn’t refuse as they didn’t understand any English or German.

Were you afraid of something and if so what was it?

Before I started my trip I informed myself on cycle forums. Anybody was discussing about the wild dogs. So I got scared to. There have been some chasing and yelling at me. But that’s it. So maybe I was lucky, or maybe its better than everybody says. One guy in Croatia said: “Don’t be afraid about the animals. Be careful with the people.” – But even he was proved wrong. Some parts of Bulgaria have been scary a bit if you are on your own. But there wouldn’t be an adventure if everything would be nicely, straight and easily. And if you are through it, it makes you feel bigger, stronger. It makes you think different about countries and things you would have been saying before there is now chance doing that or this.

 Why do you want to travel by bicycle to these countries and do your travelling in this way?

My opinion about cycling is if you are using it for travelling is you’ll get to see the most of a country in less time. If you are in a airplane you will miss it all. If you are in a bus or a train you can’t stop where and when you want. If you are in your car your behind a window. If you are with your motorbike you are to fast. If you are on your feet it takes you ages. The bike is giving me the chance to see whatever I want, to stop wherever I want, it makes me feel tired, it makes my hungry to see more, I hurts, and it makes me screaming and above all. If there is just you and the bike it’s getting your Wilson and you know what’s happening – you start talking to it.

What would you share with other people to inspire them?

If you could give someone you meet one important piece of advice for their lives what would it be?

Go out there with your idea, whatever it is, and don’t start thinking about how should this work?  Just get a goal and go for it!

What are somethings that you have learnt in your adventures so far?

1.     There are good people and there are idiots

2.     Animals are not dangerous, people are

TED talk,

As I mentioned in my previous post I was invited to give a TEDx talk in Osijek this week. First of all I want to thank Ivan for not only inviting me to speak, but paying my travel expenses and being such a great host of the whole event. I want to thank my friend Mickey who picked me up from the train station, took care of me so perfectly and went with me to the TED talk. This world is full of wonderful and inspirational people, I feel like they should be up on the stage speaking instead of me, but they are inspiring me every day through their simple acts of love and humility. Surely this unseen kindness and love is a far greater power to change the world then all of our bigger efforts in business and visionary action.

To get to the seminar I first car-shared a ride to Zagreb, everyone I REALLY recommend you use BlaBla car when travelling in Europe, not only is is safe and cheap, but a great way to meet new people, share your story and make friends. After arriving in Zagreb I wandered around a bit to check out the city before continuing on the train to Vinkovci. The next morning we went to the TEDx seminar, my talk was at 7.30 in the evening, so I had plenty of time to watch the other talks and get really nervous. The stage was pretty small and not intimidating, but I always get really bad nerves when performing or speaking. I often start to shake or get a bad stomach before any such things and I was definitely getting nervous before this one, especially when I saw that most other speakers did not have notes. Watching some of the other talks really helped to inspire before I went on stage, even though all the local speakers were in Croatian, there were also videos shown from all over the world, with great life advice. I suggest you all take a look at some of these

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtBsl3j0YRQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

When it finally came my time to talk, I took a deep breath and told myself that no matter what happened it would not be the end of the world. I did feel really nervous but towards the middle of the talk it edged off and I felt strong confidence in my story and a real connection with the audience. Its such a fascinating story, its so hard to put it into 18 minutes and there were so many different phases we went through and so many things we learnt. To concise it is hard, to tell my life story or what I do in a few minutes is really hard… its such a big story with so many twists and turns, colours and shades.

I wanted to talk a little bit about some of the beautiful people that I met on this trip. I had the pleasure of staying with my friend Mickey for these two nights and met his mom. This crazy strong lady does not have a husband anymore and runs her farm single  she gets handed. 

She gets up in the morning to feed and care for the pigs and the chickens, to tend to their garden and clean and prepare food. She drives a tractor and is as tough as nails. When I look in her eyes I see a strong resilient toughness, a hardening from the many experiences she has had living in the part of Croatia that was one of the most violent areas during the recent wars. She must have seen so much sorrows, sadness and suffering. Yet shes not only tough, when you look at her you also see love, you see her care for me… a little girl from UK staying with her for just two days. Oh and did I mention she won awards for shooting a gun when she was younger, it was a really funny to see her take the airgun that they have at home in her hand, and practise her shots.

We also visited more of Mickeys family, all of them sure pure and beautiful.  I can’t describe to you how much I love these Balkan people, they are such good souls, so kind, so caring, so good from the inside out. I sometimes just stare at them and I am amazed, how can people who have gone through so much, been working their whole lives very hard, struggling for everything remain so pure hearted and good, with all the evil that they have seen, how can they do this. Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia…. Are truly special countries, truly special people.  You have to just walk into their homes to see that they are full of love, see the way they interact with each other, such strength,  such humour but above all such love. Everyone hugs and kisses each other, everyone speaks kindly, everyone shows trust and faith in you when you enter their homes. 

 The Flow State
 
Again a long pause before an article.

Now this one is going to be loooooong, its been a very crazy month and half. I wanted so many times to sit down and write what was going on because so much was happening, but with all the work and filled up days I just didn't have the time.
For the last 3 weeks or so i was working with Danny and Lani on rebuilding the CE in Serbia. There are no two people in the world that I would love to have such an experience with. If you ever meet Danny and Lani in real life, you should regard them with the highest respect and love, hug them lots and treasure them. They are real treasures, people with pure hearts and I could not be happier to pass the running of CE in Serbia on to the two of them. That's right, they will be the main people running the cafe and bike shop in Serbia, they are more then up for the challenge and will do an amazing job. Before we could open we had to get renovating, I don't think any of us really knew that we would be renovating the Cafe to that extent.

We got new ventilation through the whole place, really beautiful lighting, a new floor and remade most of the furniture. The whole project was a challenge for each one of us, but a wonderful one. There is something really special about working in CE, it has this great feeling, like you are doing something so worthwhile and special. I feel the Cafe in Serbia has had such an impact on its surroundings and its has a truly magical air about it. We had to learn to do so many things ourselves, me and Danny were youtubing so many of the jobs that we did not know how to do and learning it all from scratch. That's part of what CE means for me... doing stuff that you never did before, trying, sometimes failing... but in the end making it work. I learnt how to build a table-top, put a laminate floor in and use all the power tools... I feel really accomplished and grown from this time. Not only that but how incredible to see the work of your hands open, filled with people and flowing with positive energy. I feel so blessed from this precious experience and so thankful to everyone who came along to help us with all the little jobs.


To mention a few special people i have to explain a little bit behind the story. A lot of our customers who come to CE in NS kind of mention to us that the reason they don't come more often is because a lot of young people are hanging out there, drinking their hot chocolate and relaxing... I can agree that when there is a crowd of loud young people it can be a bit annoying... but i kind of think that goes for a loud group of any kind. I have to say that i love the young people that come to CE, they are the future of the city and I am happy that they have a place they feel comfortable and hang out, i got to know personally so many of them and share moments with them. They are so young and full of life, venerable and honest. In particular two of my young friends came almost every day to help us rebuild CE. Sara and Lea came after school and worked with us on so many annoying and tiring jobs, they never complained. We asked so many times if anyone wanted to help us with the work of rebuilding and many people came a couple of times (thank you so much). I just want to say that these young people (who I am happy to call my friends) are so inspiring and pure hearted, giving their time and effort without asking anything in return. CE should always be a place where everyone feels comfortable, and especially those people who care about it enough to not just drink a hot chocolate or beer there, but to actually work along side us and be our friends in every difficult moment.

Danny and Lani still have visa struggles in Serbia, actually they are waiting now, every day for their paperwork to come through. Apparently the police are pretty suspicious about why they are back, they think they are spies. All you have do it meet Danny to understand he would be a completely useless spy... i think they should consider that... I will admit Lani is a sneaky one,... but as far as I know she is innocent. Also even though I have a year working visa in Serbia, because I have given the company name over to Danny, I cannot work in CE.. its a the wild, wild east out here and its pretty hard to understand the logic behind rules such as that. I feel I have really adjusted to the Serbian way of life.. i take everything that happens now with a grain of salt and laugh a little about it.

I had some really interesting travelling during these weeks of going back and forth between Serbia hitchhiked with my friend Bozi from Graz to Novi Sad.. it was a wonderful adventure, we made it in 9 hours even though it was pouring with rain the whole day. Between the next trips I managed with car sharing (blabla car), the bus (which is super long and boring) and on this last trip, i did part by car sharing and part by hitchhiking. I broke my virginity of hitchhiking alone... It was a strange feeling to be standing on the side of the road with your little bag and ukulele and putting yourself out there. I thought of going back to my friends in Maribor and staying the night and then continuing on the journey... but then I thought how that will ruin my faith in life and in people. I want to believe that the world is good and that people out there are kind and want to help, just as I am kind and want to help them. I wanted to experience rejecting in any form that people wanted to give me. I stood there and thought 'I am here, I am alone, I don't have to be, but this is a choice i have made, and I am not afraid'. I realised then that through those hard depressing months in summer I had come away stronger, more courageous and that i was not afraid of the future. The questions about where I would live in Graz, what would happen to me.. would I ever find some life partner and all the rest just floated along on the calm seas of my mind. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing and I was there, young, strong and with a heart full of love and courage.. how could I fear? at this moment I knew that life is beautiful, a treasure and that i am thankful to be here. I have no idea what will happen in the next two months or so, I still need to find an apartment in Graz and find a way to earn some real money... but I believe it will come to me, that everything is flowing as it should.

So looking a few days into the future... I have a TED talk coming up, 10th of October. I am very excited... I have not prepared at all, but I will the next few days and will be posting the video of what I do end up talking about.
I want to talk for a moment about the CE team.. the ones that I work most closely with are Danny, Lani, Simon and Mary. As some of you may know, building CE and working on it has not exactly been a piece of cake. Every single one of us has made some sacrifices, lived on a tiny budget, given up some other dreams and worked very very hard. Lets talk for a minute about Danny and Lani, Danny and Lani are kind of from Miami.. as we know its most peoples dream to live and work in Miami. Danny's dad operates a successful business and Danny could work there too... Lani could live in a cute little house, go to the beach every day, have her kids taught in English speaking schools and go shopping with her friends. But these guys decide to come back to Serbia, the country they were humiliated and deported from. They decide to invest the money they have worked for 2 years to save in a tiny little cafe business with a bike shop, they decide to put their kids in a school where they don't speak the language, they decide to risk everything to try. Simon is from the States and Mary is from Greece, Simon was working in America and doing a successful job, their kids went to and English speaking school. They decided to uproot their family, put all their savings and time into building a new business in a country where they did not know the language, did not know anyone and had never lived or worked in. Their three wonderful children go to a school where they have to learn German, they work every single day all day on building a new concept here in Graz and work their way through the maze of heavy paperwork and physical work to make CE here real. Not only are they the hardest working people I know, but no one has a better heart then Mary, who works constantly and never gives up.
Why do they do this? why do any of us do this? we know its hard, we know its unusual, we know we will have to work very hard for an indefinite amount of time, we understand the risk.. it could fail, we could all be left with nothing, back on square one, forced to uproot and change once again. We all know that this is not an easy or well walked path. I know the feeling I have when I am working with these people, its the feeling that we are building something important and that lasts, the feeling that your life  is building into the future and that this project is worth fighting for. CE is very special because of the people that run it, the story that  is behind it and all the feelings and battles we have faced to get it to this point and we still have a long way to go.

Business 101

It appears that the Cafe side of the CE business in Graz has been closed down. In the recent months we have had a lot of setbacks in almost every area. The main problem being our full premises licence was not yet given to us. Because CE was never a cafe or bar location before, the assessment time and checklist is pretty exhausting and it takes a lot of time. We received a simple permission verbally from the officials at the baumant in order to start business... and we started on April 11th. 5 months since that day and we still have not received the documentation we needed to really assert ourselves a local business and be fully legally open. We didn't exactly tip-toe in our opening months and that is part of the problem, several loud shows and parties caused a storm of complaints from our ever vigilant neighbours, thus causing authorities to take action and indefinitely close the Cafe. This leaves the bike shop and the VELOBLITZ bike messengers (also co-renters of Grazbachgasse 47) as legal tenants... therefore our door is still open. We can conduct business on a very limited basis and the impact of this is working on the moral of all of us. We also got two large fines for the use of the outside area during the opening party and for the noise complaints from the neighbours. Its been a tough long road and i guess there are so many turns and twists that its hard to see straight ahead. Every one of us is trying to keep our chin up and see the positive in the whole situation. We have one Cafe under reconstruction to open and the second one under a temporary closure. We work around the clock and try to figure the solutions to each problem. But can we do all of this before we run out of money?

The weight of the whole situation sits on each one of us, we all understand opening a business is hard. We are also thankful for the help and support of friends who have tried to help us see our way through the dark maze of paperwork that we struggle through. The next step is that we have a meeting on the 17th of September with the people in charge of the business premises licence and in that case will hear what will be next for CE in Graz.

We have been told to make the cafe look as closed as possible in case of an inspection, so we put a sheet up to cover the main bar area and have to have the counters cleared, lights down. The space is still open because of the bike shop and the cyclists who can legally use the property. Its been a very interesting few months... and I feel this is the most positive way of saying it.

CE in Novi Sad is under reconstruction. Danny and Lani are there, also moving their family yet again half way across the world, working night and day on the physical labour of the interior and also on their visa paperwork to avoid deportation this time. We had to push back the opening till sometime around the 20th, it seemed that there was not enough days to do the work that we had to do. Progress is being made and although it is slow, its happening. We aim to bring CE back to NS in the next few weeks which means I will be travelling there tomorrow (attempting to hitchhike from Graz), I will stay there for 10 days and then return for the meeting on the 17th, head back to Novi Sad again for the opening and then back to Graz to finally find a real house and settle a bit. Are you confused? I am. For the last 6 months I have moved around constantly, between the two countries, in a positive light.. it has been adventurous and unpredictable. When I think of the displacement and lack of centre I feel, I think about the Syrian refugees and how they must feel... at least I have friends in both cities to stay with. We should always be thankful, if not for what we have... sometimes for what we don't have. I am travelling not from war, but for a purpose that I believe in and in that case... lucky me.


I have also been invited to give a TED talk in Osijek about CE (TED slogan, 'Ideas worth spreading'... haha.... hmmm). I was thinking to begin with... 'If you think opening your own business is a good idea, you are very wrong'. Just kidding, I will somehow muster up the strength to talk about the beautiful moments that we have all experienced in the last few years as part of the never ending struggle. The TED talk is on 10th of October... something to look forward to... stay posted