Tough Times

So these last few days have been very hard for me. Ania and I officially said goodbye to each other. I wish it was a simple situation, but it obviously hasn’t been what I had hoped. Anyway, I have seen and talked to her for the last time and now am trying to forget about the past as much as possible and move on with my life. The next week or so will be a battle to get through as memories will haunt me, but thanks to a lot of your support and advice, I now feel that this is the best thing and that something better is out there for me. I have to believe that to keep my spirits up.

The stupid rain here hasn’t helped much with my spirits. Since I arrived a week and a half ago, there has only been one day without rain. In Krakow, the Wisla River has flooded all the walking paths along the river and all of the restaurant boats that are located on the river. It was actually pretty cool to see. I did get to go for a nice hike yesterday in a new area. I got to walk along the Polish-Slovakian border for the whole hike, and actually hiked into Slovakia a ways (illegally, of course) to check a few important areas for wolves. Unfortunately, after a thorough sweep of the area, my colleagues and I found no evidence of wolf presence. This is a little discouraging because we tracked two wolves near here in the winter. Sadly, there is a decent probability that they were shot illegally by Slovakian hunters. Hopefully, they are still out there and just occupying an area deeper into Slovakia than we dared to venture. We’ll see in a few months.

That is mostly it for the past few days-- a lot of Ania, and not much of anything else. Thanks again to everybody who has helped me out through these difficult times. I really owe you guys. Time to let the healing process begin.