Eastern Europe - Day 44 & 45 - Novi Sad

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Yesterday we had to leave the wonders of Budapest and head towards Novi Sad in Serbia. Susie and I were actually a little sad to be leaving Budapest in the end as we had actually discovered that we liked it quite a bit. However it was off to Novi Sad with us. Luckily our train wasn't until 1:10pm so we still had a bit of time to enjoy the wonders of Budapest. So in the morning we headed off down to the main shopping street Vaci Uta which was the street that we were trying to head for the other day when we went on our big walk. However there are two Vaci Uta streets in Budapest and of course we managed work our way down to the other street, which wasn't the one that we were looking for at all. The proper Vaci Uta is a lovely little pedestrian street with loads of little shops on it. And it was here that I finally managed to find my xmas tree ornament for Budapest. After a little bit of shopping we had to head back to the hotel so we could meet up with the rest of the group, but first we stopped by the supermarket to pick up some supplies (including a couple of bottles of champange).

The train ride itself was HOT. And I do mean really really hot. For some reason the weather has just complelty turned. One day in Budapest it was really cold, and then we woke up the next day and it was stifling hot. And the train ride from Budapest to Serbia was just boiling. We were all sitting there in our carriages roasting away. It was so hot that at points in time we all had to stand up and stand in front of the open windows so that we could get some fresh cool breeze (evaporative cooling).

The train was also late. Chris had warned us that this would probably be the case and it was in fact quite true and we arrived in Novi Sad one hour late. Novi Sad is just lovely. It is the second town in Serbia (after Belgrade) and is totally fill of beautiful people. Really beautiful people. And all of them seem to be really young. But I really must critique them on some of their clothing. To borrow some words from Alicia off my last trip, "I must have missed the memo". That is the memo telling me that it would be a good idea to wear really short shorts, with tight little tops and high heeled shoes. Somehow that particular memo must have gotten lost, along with the short tight dress memo, and the super tight see through leggings memo.

We only got to Novi Sad at 8pm so it was about 10pm by the time we finally got some food in a restaurant. However the food was amazing. I had the gurmanska pljeskavica which was basically just a big plate of meat. However to balance this out I also had the Sopska Salata, which is possibly one of the most delicious salads in the world.

After that enormous meal last night I didn't make it to breakfast in the morning as I just couldn't face anymore food. Susie and I therefore met the rest of the group at 9am for Chris' orientation tour of Novi Sad. This was a rather short tour and basically consisted of going to take a look at Petrovardian Fortress. The fortress has the most interesting clock in that its hour hand is longer than the minute hand. Apparently this was down so that the people coming down the river on the boats would know what the time was.


After visiting the fortress Susie and I headed off for a walk down the Danube to try and burn the meat off from the night before. This was quite a lovely walk and the highlight had to be when a local man jumped out of the river, completely naked and started walking towards us. He got a bit of a shock when he first saw us and this is usually the point when the person who is naked would cover themselves up and maybe be a little embarassed. However not this guy, he just kept walking towards us without any shame at all. In fact he quite following us with his eyes and deliberately turned himself towards us as we walked past. And lets just say that he didn't really have all that much to be proud of.

After espacing from the clutches of the naked Novi Sad swimmers Susie and I headed back to the centre of the town and grabbed some lunch at a lovely little cafe on a side street. Because we had enjoyed is so much the night before, and because it is so hot (currently 35 degrees) we decided to try another one of the Sopska Salads. One of the girls on the trip Amanda came to join us as well. After lunch I headed off by myself to do a little bit of shopping and then bought myself and icecream and went for a wander in the park.

The group was due to meet up again at 5:00pm to go and do some wine tasting of local serbian wines. We were driven out to a little vineyard in a town just out of Novi Sad where we were treated to a lovely talk about the history of honey in the region as well as a display of some of the first implements that were used in the making of honey in the region. We were then taken down to the wine cellar of the family and shown how they make their wines. The vineyard was one of the only independent vineyards during the soviet times and of course didn't make any money during those times, however the g

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Comments

[pallmall]

times?
Soviet times? you missed the space, time, geography and at least a thousand kilometers. btw, in that small little town outside of NS, among others, they also produce Bermet, local wine brand that found its place in a wine card of Titanic, and was a default wine on Austrian emperors' menus.

[PAM MAKIN]

Hi Rochelle, I am enjoying during my tea break reading all about your travels in Europe. What a great time you are having. You wll bring back to NZ plenty of wonderful memories. Keep writing. Pam