I am a student (2nd year BA) at School of Arts in Gorizia, Italy. Don't be confused, I come from Slovenia, the school is Slovenian, it's just situated in Italy, near the border with Slovenia ;) ! Anyway...We were offered to go on student exchange to Portugal for a few months, or even the whole year. My first reaction was :"No way, it's too far away and I will not see my family and animals for a few months! That's just not for me!"
After months of thinking and talking it over with my family & friends I decided to give Portugal a chance. I am going on Erasmus student exchange and I will be gone for 4 months - from October to February. The good thing is that my best friends are going with me, too! :) But what about the dogs? Samo (my boyfriend) works long hours so he won't be able to spend much time with Deuce and Lilly.
A million scenarios and questions were running through my mind. And then I came up with something.
"But wait? Why don't I take them with me to Portugal?" Samo looked at me like I was from another planet but after a few days of thinking about it he came to the same conclusion as I did :) . Ok, so now we've got a plan, what next?
After months of thinking and talking it over with my family & friends I decided to give Portugal a chance. I am going on Erasmus student exchange and I will be gone for 4 months - from October to February. The good thing is that my best friends are going with me, too! :) But what about the dogs? Samo (my boyfriend) works long hours so he won't be able to spend much time with Deuce and Lilly.
A million scenarios and questions were running through my mind. And then I came up with something.
"But wait? Why don't I take them with me to Portugal?" Samo looked at me like I was from another planet but after a few days of thinking about it he came to the same conclusion as I did :) . Ok, so now we've got a plan, what next?
Our first idea was to travel by train. So we browsed though hundreds of web pages, trying to find a train connection that would get us from Slovenia or Italy to Lisbon. I wrote a dozens of emails, asking how could we (me, Deuce and Lilly) get to Portugal the easiest way. The replies weren't satisfying, as we would have to travel aprox. 60 hours to get there, but the main problem was not all the trains allowed dogs on board. So we were back to square one.
What now? Portugal is around 2500km away from us.
What now? Portugal is around 2500km away from us.
Then I got an e-mail. A friend on Facebook, Maja, had the same plan : taking her two dogs to Portugal with her! :) She also wants to travel from Slovenia to Portugal with two dogs, what are the odds, right?! ;)
So she kindly offered that if they decide to go on this trip with their car, they would take Deuce and Lilly with them!
Success! :)
So she kindly offered that if they decide to go on this trip with their car, they would take Deuce and Lilly with them!
Success! :)