Serbia

In a belated attempt to catch you all up on adventures, the posts about the Balkans will probably be pretty summary. But that’s not always a bad thing; being so distanced from the ‘adventures’ now gives me a bit more perspective. Maybe.

Serbia was my first western Balkan country, and I had pretty high expectations, to be honest. I arrived in Nis from Sofia, and made a friend on the bus and another in the hostel. We spent a pleasant evening together, and the next day we visited the ‘Skull tower’ erected by the Ottoman Turks, before making our way to Belgrade.

Skull Tower, Nis

Belgrade is the city in the Balkans that everyone else I’d met had raved about. So, of course, it fell flat for me. Not only did I have to pay 17 euro for a dorm bed (get over yourself Belgrade, that’s western Europe prices), but  overall I just didn’t love the vibe of the city. I did a good walking tour and learned some interesting things about the war, and the outrageous inflation, and the general growth of the city under Tito and so on. But I just wasn’t feeling it.

Belgrade Citadel

Maybe it was because I was too tired to go out, and the ‘boat parties’ in Belgrade are what it’s all about. Maybe I just didn’t have enough time to explore the city and get a feel for my favourite places. In any case, it’s not that it was bad, just that I didn’t love it.

View over the river and ‘New Belgrade’ from the Citadel

So I journeyed north, to Subotica, a land of art nouveau architecture and Hungarian food goodness (it’s right on the border). Again the accommodation screwed us over, but Subotica was indeed a cool place to visit, from it’s Gaudi-esque town hall to it’s pleasant pedestrian street filled with colourful buildings. Unfortunately though, Subotica is one of those towns so numerous in Eastern Europe- really pretty, really nice, but after a day, you’ve sufficiently exhausted the sights.

Hungarian ‘Langos’

 

 

Front of Subotica library

 

From Subotica I traveled south past Belgrade to Novi Sad, a city made famous by the EXIT festival some years ago, calling for Milosevic’s dismissal. The festival remains an annual event in the town. I was somewhat worried that there would be nothing to do there without the festival, but I was proven wrong. Admittedly, I didn’t ‘do’ things like museums, but there is a gorgeous town square with interesting architecture, and matching streets in the surrouds. There’s a nice park, and across the river is a big citadel. I spent two days there amusing myself by mostly walking, and eating very excellent, very large, and very cheap slices of pizza.

 

Cathedral dominating Novi Sad’s main square

 

 

Very cool European feeling dining/shopping street in Novi Sad

 

 

Having ascertained that Serbia was just too much of a bastard to allow me to go to the last place I’d intended, Novi Pazar (a still very much Muslim town in Orthodox Serbia,  sounded interesting), I decided to chuck it in and bus to Macedonia.

Which I did.

I wouldn’t say to cut Serbia out of a Balkan itinerary, and there are definitely festivals such as EXIT and the gypsy festival at Guca, but for me, it was just not the highlight of the region.

Learning to Be Flexible

Sometimes traveling makes you want to go “arghhh!!!’ But especially in some countries more than others. India was definitely one, as was Nepal. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, so is Serbia.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I really like Serbia. I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect, and I have been both surprised and pleased. Although Belgrade didn’t really speak to me, Hungarian influenced Subotica was beautiful and the churches in Novi Sad are actually something different.

 

Too bad the Serbian bus companies couldn’t get the memo that I prefer hassle free travel whereby everything happens exactly as I’d planned.

 

To cut a long story short, I think I’ll be giving up on the idea of getting to Novi Pazar, a Serbian city that was Turkish until the early 1900s and is thus still quite Turkish in character. It’s not as if I haven’t seen Turkey, but I thought it would be an interesting town to see in an otherwise Orthodox country. But the stars have not aligned, and I think it’s more trouble than it’s worth, for just a day there.

 

But the silver lining of it all is, that I think I will go back to Belgrade and hop the night train to Skopje. I’ve heard pretty bad reviews of Macedonia’s capital from travellers, but the guidebook actually doesn’t give it too bad a rap, so I can’t wait to see it for myself. Hopefully there’s time for a sneaky trip to the beautiful Lake Ohrid and back before- fingers crossed- I can travel to Montenegro via Pristina.

 

I’m all for independent travel, but here’s hoping that the rest of my time in the Western Balkans won’t be so fraught. Bulgaria was just so easy by comparison!