Budapest - Subotica - Novi Sad

15 JULY 2009 - WEDNESDAY

Well, it’s the first day of my ‘big trip’ and already it is proving quite eventful. After spending a few days saying some ‘final’ farewells and packing and shipping my things back to Australia, it finally came time to leave my house in Tooting. Since my flight was at 16:45, I thought I would allow myself plenty of time and so left at 12:30. The first leg of my journey was the number 77 bus to Clapham Junction. I had gotten no more than about five stops before we could see just a short way ahead so many TFL and Met Police on both sides of the road it was astounding. They were supposedly doing spot checks on tickets - but if that is the case, they had too many people there!! A few of them boarded our bus checking tickets, before they started to let passengers on. And then we sat. And sat. And then the driver switched off the engine. And we sat a bit more - until he told us there was an issue and to basically get off and get on the next one. So we did - me lugging my backpack at a slightly uncomfortable 18.5kg. And we waited for about another 10 minutes alongside about 10 cops waiting for the next bus - which of course was crowded. The police had to have been looking for someone but really who knows? Maybe they had nothing better to do today.

At Clapham Junction I bought a train ticket for Gatwick and boarded a train - which kept telling me it was going to separate somewhere so I spent the entire trip worried I would end up somewhere I didn’t actually want to me. Arrived at Gatwick airport in time for check in to open and got rid of my big bag.

The lines at security was ridiculous. I still think I must look suspicious when I go through because the ‘random’ buzzer always goes which means I usually have the pleasure of a pat-down frisk search. Today was no different - although quicker than normal. The security guard also commented on the small size of my laptop - even though I saw her do exactly the same with the person a couple in front of me - can’t they think of anything to say??? She actually asked what it was. It had the words DELL in big letters on it and I took it out of a case when she asked if I had a laptop… they don’t hire the smart ones to work security… or maybe she was just having a really bad day.

Through security I realised my own brilliance when I went to grab my pre-made ham and cheese sandwich out of my bag - to remember I accidentally checked them in. Fun times already!!

So ended up settling on a maccas meal and coke before getting some of my uni reading done. Flight was delayed so I had a bit of time to kill. Was also trying my hardest to source some Bosnian and Serbian currency and while waiting in the queue to get some money we hear this high pitched, terrified scream. Not just once, it kept going and going. People went running to the escalators that lead up to McDonalds and there were a whole lot of people standing around. I’m not clear what happened - but the escalators got switched off pretty quickly and a large crowd gathered. Then someone from the airport put up a cordon fences and put people inside - so I can only assume someone got injured as I later saw a stretcher. It sounded like a kids scream but I don’t know. There was a shoe sitting at the bottom of the escalator so I guess that means someone got their foot stuck or something? Would love to know but will probably never be able to find out. What is it with me and eventful incidents on route to holiday destinations? There was an in-flight emergency last time, saw a car on fire last year while going to the airport, and even while I was in Australia it was the same - although usually it was over turned trucks and cars on fire!!!

Adding to the drama, when I put my water bottle into my carry on luggage I managed to knock the lid off which meant that everything got nicely drenched - passport and books included. Then the flight was delayed for about an hour which meant that I didn’t arrive into Budapest until after 9pm. Managed to sleep for most of the flight though.

By the time I got to Budapest Airport, I decided I couldn’t be bothered hassling with local trains and the metro system - so got an airport shuttle directly to the hostel. I chose this particular hostel because it was walking distance to the international Ngliget bus station where I was getting a bus out of the next morning. What it did mean however is that there wasn’t a whole lot nearby. So I checked in, locked my valuables in the locker and headed out for a walk and a drink before a very uncomfortable nights sleep. I ended up in a six bed dorm to myself which was nice since I was going to have an early start the next morning, but it was bizarre. No air con which made it very sticky in the room - when I landed at the airport it was still 31 degrees!

THURSDAY 16 JULY 2009

Having not had much sleep I was up earlier than I needed to be this morning. Breakfast was included so I had a quick bite to eat before wandering slowly down to the international bus station. Found the Eurolines office where I needed to pick up my ticket, and managed to get the 7am bus to Subotica, Serbia, without incident. It took about four hours until we reached the Hungary/ Serbia border. It was more of an ordeal getting out of Hungary than into Serbia, with the exception of the long car queues. When leaving Hungary (aka the EU) the guy collected the passports and took them away. When we got to the Serbian side he just walked down the aisle of the bus stamping - I don’t even think he looked at them. Subotica was only about another 15km from the border but since the bus went through some little towns along the way.

Arrived into Subotica just before noon and my first stop was to get money out of the ATM. I couldn’t remember the conversion so I ended up getting 600 Serbian dinara (?) which I later calculated to be less than 15 euro. Oops.

From there it was a bit of a walk to get to the train station where I was planning to leave my luggage for a few hours to go exploring. Got to the train station to discover there was no longer any left luggage facility - so I bought a ticket to Novi Sad, a packet of crisps and a coke (ie/ lunch) and jumped on the next train out quite disappointed. I had heard good things about Subotica, and thought it was worth a visit, but there was no way I was going to be able to manage that lugging 18kgs with me!!

When the train pulled up it was one of the oldest I think I have ever seen. It was on par with some of the trains I got last year around Bulgaria/ Romania. The seats were ripped and old, you could barely see out of the windows and I didn’t even dare to glance at what the toilets would have been like! There was no air con but thankfully you could open the windows for some ventilation. The floor and most of the seats were relatively clean, just incredibly old. Smoking was obviously allowed (either that of some of the passengers just ignored the rules!) which meant that the carriages had the distinct smell of stale cigarettes.

The trip was incredibly slow. We stopped at places that didn’t even resemble stations and which appeared to be in the middle of no where. We went through corn fields and scrub land, open fields and bypassed little towns. At every ‘station’ we stopped for about 10 minutes which just added to the painfully slow journey. Luckily the train wasn’t packed full so I had a few seats to spread out on. Mostly everyone just left me alone - although a few people started speaking in Serbian to me - obviously asking me something and I just had to shrug my shoulders and say ‘English?’ like a moron. The ticket man that kept wandering up and down the train also kept speaking to me - I just kept giving him my ticket for him to check so he would go away!!!

Finally arrived in Novi Sad at about 4pm or just after. A lot later than expected to say the least!! Got off the train and made my way to get the number 4 bus. I had a rough idea of where to go from the directions I printed off from the hostel - and while I got on the right bus, and off of it at the right time, I walked the wrong way which meant that it took me a while to find the place!! Once I did - I was quite taken aback by what greeted me at the ground level. Basically it was a construction site. There was a mound of dirt in doorway and beyond that everything looked like it had once been bombed. Needless to say, it very well may have been!! Up four flights of stairs to the second floor - and there was a massive hole in the ceiling. The door where I walked through to the hostel was ok - and despite the initial appearance of the building, the hostel was in reasonably good shape - especially given it was costing me nine euro for the night!! After a quick shower I headed out to have a look around Novi Sad. Saw a large range of different churches - although because I was in flip flops I couldn’t go into any of them. Plus I had my shoulders showing!! Big no no for churches.

After walking around for a few hours I stopped at one of the little pedestrian cafes and grabbed a pizza and beer and watched the world go by. It was one of the oddest pizzas I have ever had - no tomato base at all,. But with a slatering of plain old tomato sauce in about two areas on top of everything!! As I sat and watched the world go by I made a few odd observations which I will recount.

1. There was a toddler with a broken arm - he was no more than about two years old - how did that happen and where were the parents?
2. The amount of VPLs I could see was astounding, Why don’t women realise they shouldn’t wear tight white trousers.
3. All the men looked like they were on their way out for a run - the shorts were too short and definitely inappropriate.
4. Saw a couple of huskies and retrievers - not a good climate for them to be in!!
5. The hostel had given me a year-old guide to Novi-Sad (like a what’s on) - despite the fact that it is updated every three months…
6. I forgot how much the lack of a smoking ban bothers me
7. I don’t think I have ever seen so many pregnant ladies and kids - they were everywhere!!

There were lots of others as well but I won’t bore you with them!!

After that it was still light so I headed back to the hostel for a nap and a couple of hours waiting for it to get dark so that I could take some night-time photos - and then headed to bed.

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