I think I slept almost the whole 7hrs from Budapest to Novy Sad, in Serbia. I don’t remember there being any problem with the border crossing, but I think it took a while. When I was in the Middle East, we had a very hairy border crossing either into or out of Syria. We got abandoned by our drivers and ended up walking across over 2km, in forty degree heat, with these cars chasing us and the drivers yelling at us out the windows and cutting really close to us. We were in no man’s land so there was no protection forthcoming from the police or tourist police, and we had no idea whether these guys had any kind of weapon. They also went to the border into whichever country we were entering, and tried to bribe the guards to not let us through. Thank god the guards ignored them. Comparative to that, sitting at a border for two hours while they go through an entire train stamping passports really doesn’t worry me at all.
I liked Novy Sad. Our hotel was about 15min walk from the train station, and I would never have found it if Sara hadn’t been there. It was in a residential street, from what I could tell anyway, and the only evidence of it from the direction that we came was a sign over the door. The side of the hotel, which we could see when we were coming back from town, was bright green. It was just the front that was completely unremarkable.
Kat immediately liked Serbia’s good looking men. And I have to completely agree. That’s the first time since Russia that we’ve seen seriously good looking men. It’s so weird what you don’t see in particular countries – in Russian there were no children; most of the area had no attractive men. Serbians were really nice people, the young people spoke quite a lot of English and they were always friendly and laughing with us and interested in where we come from.
We went for our obligatory city walk. Nothing against city walks, they’re really good for orientating yourself and ticking off the churches and that sort of thing. As we were walking into town the sky was looking a bit dark around the edges, but I didn’t think much more about it. I found it weird that the area we were staying in was looking pretty rough, and the footpaths were a mess, but we were only five or ten minutes from the centre of town, which was beautifully kept and had lovely buildings and pedestrian streets with pavement cafes all along them and pretty churches. You literally walk around a corner and it changes. It was reasonably late by the time we got there, so we walked into town and had a quick look around, then Sara offered to take anyone who was interested over to the fortress, but it was 15min in one direction to get there, so some of us decided against that. Kat and I had already buddied up with Kylie, an Aussie (of course) who works as an economist (another one), and who’s about my height or slightly taller, and has the same slightly oddball turn of phrase and way of looking at situations as I do. It was Kylie’s 37th birthday, which I would never have guessed from looking at her. So the three of us and Cameron and Marsha went and found a pavement restaurant for a beer and a meal. We sat down and got our drinks and ordered our food, and it started to spit. Then the spits got much bigger, and the wind starting blowing underneath all the umbrellas and across the tables. Then it really started raining. Marsha bailed first and we all followed. By the time we got inside and sat down, there was thunder booming and rain pouring and wind howling. Very atmospheric. By the time we left the restaurant, it had all stopped except for sheet lightening flashing around the edges of the sky for the rest of the evening.
The other random thing was that having hardly seen any Cyrillic since we left Russia, suddenly everything was in Cyrillic again. Which is fine by me, I really like it and I’m on a mission to learn the alphabet. I’ve got about 75% of it now.
The main attraction in Novy Sad is the fortress, so that was where we went the following morning. It’s much bigger than it first appears. We had a guide who took us around the museum (which was ok, lots of Roman artefacts etc, the most interesting thing was the big canoe that they’d found at the bottom of the river), and then through the tunnels underneath. The tunnels were part of the defence system, and I think there’s something like 60km worth, but we only went into 1km of them. They were built to be a labyrinth, and they are very confusing. There are lots of dead ends and rooms off to the side and very short tunnels that connect back on to the same one. It’s quite amazing how much thought they put into what they’d do if each level of their defence system was breached. The Danube bisects the town, so if the enemy could get across that, they’d have to find their way through the labyrinth of outdoor channels that they built, some that could be flooded and some that were dry. If they got close to the main fortress, they could be blown up by the barrels of gun powder that were underneath them, or shot through the holes in the walls. If they made it into the tunnels, there’s no way they’d ever find their way out, and the fortress soldiers were trained to be able to navigate the tunnels in pitch black, and they built places that they could erect barricades really quickly and trap the enemy. So the fortress had never been taken. The guide was excellent, she was really interesting and interested in what she was telling us, and she was stirring everybody up about this legendary anaconda that’s supposed to live in the tunnels somewhere. She’d be maybe in her early thirties. We also liked her because as soon as she’d finished the tour she thanked us and left, and was quite embarrassed when someone went to find her and give her the group’s tip. So many guides hang around waiting to be tipped, or say thanks-bye at a time when it’s really awkward to then not tip them or to give them a smaller tip than they’re expecting.
After the tour ended, I went with Kylie and Kat and Kylie’s roommate Kim (that’s a lot of Ks) and we sat on the terrace at the fortress and had a coffee. Food and drinks are so cheap in some of these places that you don’t even care that you’re being absolutely ripped off and paying tourist prices, because it’s still far less than it’d cost you at home. Then we wandered down into town and into a little lane that looked like it was going to have nothing on it, which turned out to be an absolute treasure trove of pavement bars and cafes. So we had lunch there. The waitress had this fantastic husky, low voice. Kim and I decided she should be a jazz singer.
I liked Novy Sad. Our hotel was about 15min walk from the train station, and I would never have found it if Sara hadn’t been there. It was in a residential street, from what I could tell anyway, and the only evidence of it from the direction that we came was a sign over the door. The side of the hotel, which we could see when we were coming back from town, was bright green. It was just the front that was completely unremarkable.
Our hotel, and a representative of the buildings on our street.
We went for our obligatory city walk. Nothing against city walks, they’re really good for orientating yourself and ticking off the churches and that sort of thing. As we were walking into town the sky was looking a bit dark around the edges, but I didn’t think much more about it. I found it weird that the area we were staying in was looking pretty rough, and the footpaths were a mess, but we were only five or ten minutes from the centre of town, which was beautifully kept and had lovely buildings and pedestrian streets with pavement cafes all along them and pretty churches. You literally walk around a corner and it changes. It was reasonably late by the time we got there, so we walked into town and had a quick look around, then Sara offered to take anyone who was interested over to the fortress, but it was 15min in one direction to get there, so some of us decided against that. Kat and I had already buddied up with Kylie, an Aussie (of course) who works as an economist (another one), and who’s about my height or slightly taller, and has the same slightly oddball turn of phrase and way of looking at situations as I do. It was Kylie’s 37th birthday, which I would never have guessed from looking at her. So the three of us and Cameron and Marsha went and found a pavement restaurant for a beer and a meal. We sat down and got our drinks and ordered our food, and it started to spit. Then the spits got much bigger, and the wind starting blowing underneath all the umbrellas and across the tables. Then it really started raining. Marsha bailed first and we all followed. By the time we got inside and sat down, there was thunder booming and rain pouring and wind howling. Very atmospheric. By the time we left the restaurant, it had all stopped except for sheet lightening flashing around the edges of the sky for the rest of the evening.
The other random thing was that having hardly seen any Cyrillic since we left Russia, suddenly everything was in Cyrillic again. Which is fine by me, I really like it and I’m on a mission to learn the alphabet. I’ve got about 75% of it now.
The main attraction in Novy Sad is the fortress, so that was where we went the following morning. It’s much bigger than it first appears. We had a guide who took us around the museum (which was ok, lots of Roman artefacts etc, the most interesting thing was the big canoe that they’d found at the bottom of the river), and then through the tunnels underneath. The tunnels were part of the defence system, and I think there’s something like 60km worth, but we only went into 1km of them. They were built to be a labyrinth, and they are very confusing. There are lots of dead ends and rooms off to the side and very short tunnels that connect back on to the same one. It’s quite amazing how much thought they put into what they’d do if each level of their defence system was breached. The Danube bisects the town, so if the enemy could get across that, they’d have to find their way through the labyrinth of outdoor channels that they built, some that could be flooded and some that were dry. If they got close to the main fortress, they could be blown up by the barrels of gun powder that were underneath them, or shot through the holes in the walls. If they made it into the tunnels, there’s no way they’d ever find their way out, and the fortress soldiers were trained to be able to navigate the tunnels in pitch black, and they built places that they could erect barricades really quickly and trap the enemy. So the fortress had never been taken. The guide was excellent, she was really interesting and interested in what she was telling us, and she was stirring everybody up about this legendary anaconda that’s supposed to live in the tunnels somewhere. She’d be maybe in her early thirties. We also liked her because as soon as she’d finished the tour she thanked us and left, and was quite embarrassed when someone went to find her and give her the group’s tip. So many guides hang around waiting to be tipped, or say thanks-bye at a time when it’s really awkward to then not tip them or to give them a smaller tip than they’re expecting.
Various photos from around the fortress and tunnels.
After the tour ended, I went with Kylie and Kat and Kylie’s roommate Kim (that’s a lot of Ks) and we sat on the terrace at the fortress and had a coffee. Food and drinks are so cheap in some of these places that you don’t even care that you’re being absolutely ripped off and paying tourist prices, because it’s still far less than it’d cost you at home. Then we wandered down into town and into a little lane that looked like it was going to have nothing on it, which turned out to be an absolute treasure trove of pavement bars and cafes. So we had lunch there. The waitress had this fantastic husky, low voice. Kim and I decided she should be a jazz singer.
And then we had to be back at the hotel at 3pm, so that was about it for Novy Sad. Then on to Belgrade...
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