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!