Stopped by the cops

Continuing to Novi Sad

At midday, I checked out and took a taxi to the bus station, rather than repeat the walk with luggage in tow.  It was a cheap ride for the short distance.  At the station, I had hoped to get a sandwich for lunch but there was nothing.

Someone pointed out that there was a bakery nearby but being Sunday, it turned out shut.  I ended getting a decent pastrami sandwich with very tasty mustard.

We seem to be on the refugee route here with some Middle Eastern people walking through the town and at the bus station.  There are signs for help centres around.

My bus to Novi Sad left on time for the 90 min journey.  But about 15 mins out of town, just before reaching the highway, a police check stopped us for over an hour while a serious issue was sorted.  Apparently, the drivers hadn’t properly updated their log prior to the journey.  I was told by a fellow passenger that this ended up with a fine of about EUR800 for each of the two drivers.

We waited for over an hour while our drivers were deal with by the police.

Once along the way again, I noticed a number of Turkish roadhouses enroute and Turkish-registered trucks too.  I think there’s a lot trade with Turkey in the Balkans and this was something I saw even back in Hungary last night.

We arrived in Novi Sad around 1545, some 1h15 late.  After that delay, I couldn’t be fussed with looking for the bus to the Hostel Exit Labirint Center.  A small taxi had just left the rank leaving only an oldish Mercedes.  The driver said the charge would be by meter and voluntarily estimated that it would be around EUR10, as a warning.  It turned out to more than EUR12, which is pricey for an eight-minute ride.  Ouch!

Petrovaradin Fortress

I more or less put my stuff in my room and went out to Petrovaradin Fortress just across the Danube from my hostel.  The weather was gloriously clear and the temperature very pleasant.  I wasn’t the only one there to enjoy the view of the river, the city and the countryside.

It is worth noting that all the city’s three bridges across the Danube were destroyed during the NATO bombing of 1999, which helped stop the genocide against the Kosovar Albanians.

After a big circle of the perimeter, I returned back to the city to explore the old city.

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Looking around for dinner options, I realised that pricing here was rather strange compared to New Zealand.  Some groceries in the supermarket were far more expensive than what I’m used to, McDonald’s was similar but restaurants and gelato ice creams were far cheaper.  There were very few fast food places (or kebab shops like in Budapest) but more nice restaurants.

Walking the old centre, I stumbled across an amazing salad shop called Sweet and Green.  My choice was delicious but probably not so healthy with a creamy dressing and salty crunchy bacon bits.

Garden dining and drinking near old town Novi Sad.

Learning more about Serbia 

On my bus ride today, I sat near a local historian who spoke good English and I learnt a fair bit more about the country.

• Serbia isn’t made up of just Serbians.  During the days of Yugoslavia, people came from all over the country, especially to the capital.  The country now has people from all over the Balkans.
• Minorities like Hungarian and Croats have the right to education in the native language. While they learn Serbian in school as well, some grow up to be not conversant in their national language.
• I wondered if Serbian, if written in the Latin script is effectively Croatian. Apparently not, because Croatian spell some words differently because they do pronounce some words differently.  For me, I find it hard to believe they are considered different languages here whereas dialects that are totally mutually-intelligible in Chinese are merely dialects; not languages.
• I had gotten the idea that in advertising and popular media, Latin seems more popular.  Maybe more modern and westernised?  I tried to get confirmation on this but she didn’t seem to take the bait.

Actually, a lot of people speak enough English to be helpful.  For those that don’t speak any/much English, there’s always Google Translate. 

Unfortunately offline translation isn’t available for Serbian so I downloaded Croatian instead.  It should do just fine; in fact it is better for me as I’m very slow reading in Cyrillic.