Footprints in Novi Sad

Day 3 – Belgrade/ Jamena/ Novi Sad

After another night of too much talking, this morning I get up at 11am, which isn’t too bad considering I think I went to sleep when the sun was just about to rise. Over the last few days, I’ve discovered something about myself. I have discovered that I don’t actually need a lot of sleep. There is a point of sleepiness that I can surpass and overcome and when I do, I become wide awake again.

So there I was, 11:30am, fresh out of the shower, watching Serbian tv, waiting for my guide to awaken from his slumber…

I think the uncle must’ve felt bad seeing me, a tourist in his country, stuck in his apartment watching tv so he went to wake the sleeping giant.

He was a nice man, and even though he barely knows me from a bar of soap and we didn’t speak the same language, he still tried to be really accommodating and even showed me some photos… I gathered that some of them were of himself as a young man, some of his brothers, his daughter, grandchildren, his wife and his parents. I think those were pretty good guesses considering I spoke absolutely zilch Serbian. In return, I showed him some of my photos... I don't think he knew what I was talking about, I had no family photos to show him...

When the sleeping giant finally showed his face, we were presented with a dish of some kind of bean baked with yoghurt. It didn’t look great but it was rather tasty.

After our feed, it was down to business. First thing’s first, change the flat tyre! Can’t go anywhere without the wheels. After a quick lesson on how to change a car tyre, we were on our way, first stop Jamena.

According to Mr Tour Guide, the journey will only take us 40-45mins… hate to tell him this, but it took us a lot longer than 40mins to get there. Nice drive through the countryside though.

When we arrived in Jamena, it was around dinnertime but still light and it was a great light to see the cute little town. The immediate feeling you get when you first step out of the car is a very relaxing calmness. It’s very laid back and for reasons I’m still not sure of, it made me feel like I was in Apollo Bay, one of my favourite places back home. Jamena is nowhere near the beach and in no way even remotely looks like Apollo Bay, but it made me feel very comfortable.


So comfortable in fact, I went hunting and brought home a pair of souvenirs :)

ok well, so I found these antlers.... but look at the bloody size of them! I don't know if I could shoot an animal, I'm too much of a wuss.

It's a pretty looking place. We didn’t stay very long in this little town, but I liked it there.

We headed back to home again when it started to get dark, because it was time for a little rest and a change of clothes before heading out to the next stop.

Only thing was, it took us a lot longer to get home than it did to get to Jamena because we made a pitstop to grab a not-so-quick bite to eat. Once again, a huge serving of food for a little person to eat… this probably explains why my face looks so much rounder than I remember.

Look at that! Not one, but TWO pieces of chicken, and one big fat hamburger for the boy.

After getting ourselves into a fresh change of clothes, we head towards Novi Sad, another city in Serbia. We arrived around 1am and had trouble finding a place that would sell us a drink because at that hour most bars were nearing closing time (it’s a small city). We finally settled on a place that offered to sell us last drinks before they closed and when they started turning off the lights, we took that as a sign that they wanted to us to leave, so we did. Walking around a bit to see the little city and get a feel for the place, it was nice. What more can I say, it was late (or early, depending on how you see it), it was dark, and there weren’t that many places still open, nor that many people around…. for me, Novi Sad seemed like a very quiet little city, which I’m sure it isn’t during the day. I must see it again properly another day.

After that, we tried to find Petrovaradin Fortress without a map, and surprisingly it wasn’t that difficult to locate. It’s a fortress, it’s huge, it’s kind of hard to miss. This fortress is famous for, amongst other things – the annual Exit Festival (if you want to know what it is, JFGI).

The night we visited, it was 5 days before the Exit Festival so lots of fencing and stages were being set up around the Fortress. We also saw what I think was a rehearsal show for one of the acts, some dance/ techno thingy. Lots of doof doof “music” which is not my thing. That kind of noise just gives me a bloody headache, but all the pretty lights made it look good.

Mr Tour Guide has spoken a lot about this Fortress, which contains amongst its maze of tunnels and walls a number of bars and restaurants, a hotel and an underground nightclub.

No, no clubbing for this girl, wasn’t dressed for it, didn’t feel like it, hate clubbing.

We did one entire round of the Fortress, taking too many silly photos of too many stupid things along the
way, it took us about an hour and by the time we had almost reached where we started from, the sun was beginning to rise…. I don’t think a more perfect photo opportunity could be found. Sunrise behind this stunning fortress setting, how perfect! But of course, things do not always go the way you want it to… after an entire day of being the token snappy-happy-asian tourist and one too many stupid photos, my camera’s battery died just as I was setting it up for one last photo with the awesome sunset. BUGGER!

These were some of the silly photos we took.... ahhh, the memories...

This was the last photo taken before the battery died....

Why couldn’t I just take ONE MORE PHOTO?! Just one more!

So, instead we just watched the sun rise while enjoying some Serbian crepes by the roadside. It could’ve potentially been a very romantic moment, to be remembered for many years to come, if only I was with the right person…

Instead, it will now be remembered for very different reasons. While we were both enjoying this early morning delight (I’m talking about the crepe, of course), when a rather comedic road rage incident unfolded before us. We saw it happen from beginning to end, definitely a story to tell!

It was an interesting day.

Now, time to head back to Belgrade and pack my bags so I can make my move towards Amsterdam. As soon as the car began moving, I was being lulled to sleep and I had a good hour or so of snooze time by the time we arrived back in Belgrade. My poor Serb Guide, he hadn’t had any chance to sleep for well over 24 hours AND he had to chauffer me around, what a trooper.

There was a little rush to get me to the airport on time to catch my 8:30am flight, and I reckon I made it in time to be the last person to check in.

I flew JAT Airlines to Prague, this is the Serbian airline, and even though I enjoyed my time in the country, I hate to say that this airline is only marginally better than Ryanair, and my view on Ryanair is that they are possibly the worst airline I’ve ever flown with.

From Prague, it was Czech Airlines, which was basic but does the job. What I didn’t understand was, the flight landed on time (including the 1 hour delay), but why did it take over 20 mins to park the plane?? I slept for most of the way to Amsterdam, and when I woke, the plane had just landed, and I checked the time. Then the plane just circled the runway for what seemed like eternity, because of the movement of the plane, I fell back to sleep again and when I woke again, people were getting their bags and moving out and I had somehow lost 20 mins of my life.