Today was our last day in Croatia and the start of our five-day journey through Hungary.

The day began with a ceremony at Josipa Juraj Strossmayera School, in the centre of Zagreb. There we met the principal, Nenad Oremus, an hononarary member-runner of the team, and a representative for the Ministry of Sport. As so often in the Croatian schools we have visited, we experienced some great children’s performances.

As so often in the Croatian schools we have visited the children put so much enthusiasm and dedication into their performances. Some older children recited some quotes about harmony, peace and friendship. One that we especially liked was, “If there is not harmony in the world run for it”. So that is what they did...

We left the school in a rush as we had a busy schedule ahead of us. The runners had run 5 minutes from the school when we realised that we had left the World Harmony Run flag behind at the school, before we had realised that we had also left Ana behind at the school. After negotiations with our police motorcycle outriders, and numerous mobile phone calls we headed back to the school only to find that Ana had left the school with the flag. Thankfully, the flag was save! :-) However, eventually we retrieved Ana and the flag.

We welcomed back our Croatian friend Ivan, from Vrgorac. He is a big ultra distance runner with a big heart, and he makes everyone laugh and smile around him.

Before midday we visited two more schools, at Sv Ivan Zelina and Novi Marof. At Novi Marof the children lined the street waving beautiful flowers.

From there we headed 18km to Varazdin. We were joined on the road by some of Ivan’s running friends. There was a man aged 82 who has run a four hour marathon, and a woman aged 62 who has run 150 marathons. We were in some auspicious company as Ivan told us that this guy is a legend.

At the city of Varazdin many children, from local sports clubs who ran with us, to the square, joined us.

The mayor greeted us with open arms, lovely smile and some performances.

Our very capable Croatian Coordinator Ana Jerkunica offers her thanks to everyone who supported the run in Croatia.

With time pressing we swiftly ran to Cakovec.

Along the route so many children joined us. They were all wearing the World Harmony Run t-shirts and the city had put so much energy and commitment into making a good ceremony for us. Unfortunately, we sadly had to leave early to meet our Hungarian runners on the border at Gorican and to attend more ceremonies.

At the Hungarian border we met our Hungarian co-ordinator Szabolcs. The Team said its farewells to our Croatian friends. Thank you Drazen and Mirela, for making our stay in Croatia so special and memorable. Many thanks also to Ana who patiently translated for us and was always a wealth of information and continually assisted us.

Our day ended with a meeting with the mayor in Nagykanizsa, 24km into Hungary. Along the way children for the final 3km to the town square joined us.

At the town square over 30 Hungarian runners joined us to swell the number of runners, as our International Team is currently down to four. It was nice to see the Hungarian local WHR team coming.

Our small International Team feels that Hungary will be very special with so many runners assisting us with running the kilometres.

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