Latest album from Croatia, through Bosnia & Serbia to Romania
http://bristol.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2128959&l=a4320&id=193107027
and Will’s version
http://bristol.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2128977&l=761cd&id=193106809
After a comfortable night discovering that Roshan snores in the Beograd Hostel we took a slow letsgetlost walk to the fort overlooking the confluence of Sava and Danube rivers. The dirty city traffic began to get to Emily’s lungs so we’ve decided to pursue some country air and get out via the sites.
On my (Will’s) way back to get the van I ended up helping to push a nice Serbian lady’s fuelless car over the river Sava and into a petrol station. Alexandria gave me a very fast lift back to the van and I had an hour long battle into and out of Beograd via the Orthodox cathedral and several bombed-out buildings. The cathedral is massive and can be seen when driving into the city, what we hadn’t realised is that it is still being built! The inside is pretty much bare concrete and there was a guy with a pneumatic drill amending the shape of altar!
Roshan was surprised to hear that not only was there no shower fitted in the van but also that we didn’t have a drying rack, an in-house cleaner or a shoe rack (no jokes). Those following our blog who saw Roshan in London before he left will be glad to hear that his mat has been of great use and VITAL importance to our trip.
Not only has Roshan been moaning about our levels of cleanliness in the van (i.e. it’s not spotless), he has also been littering the Serbian countryside. Cleverly storing his supposedly smelly shoes (they’re nothing compared to Will’s) on the roof we then drove the next day onwards to the Romanian border only to find the roof wasn’t the best place to store them after all. Moral: one shoe isn’t as useful as two!
It’s getting dark noticeably earlier and we were forced to stop short of the Danube and national park in a wood previously inhabited (presumably) by gypsies. They’d kindly left us a stack of nice dry logs for our fire, a couple of wood-fired kilns and a semi-civilised toilet in the woods. Rosh beat me (Ben) at chess, but he plays like a girl and will pay for it soon.
Well it wasn’t really work, after a few very chilled days in Novi Sad we visited Dusko’s (a Mike South Syngenta contact) country retreat. Dusko let us in really slowly (he’d spotted we were slackers), the “work” consisted of about an hour moving some wood and picking and eating apples whilst sampling homebrew. Hard graft! Prior to this we were entertained in superb style by Tanja, Dusko’s daughter. Having a guide was really valuable and meant we definitely made the most of our short stay in Serbia, the country isn’t really geared for tourists and so many of the sights are hidden away with little or no information on how to get there. Highlights included driving to “The middle of nowhere” fish restaurant which cooks food in wood burning ovens and has no electricity… and on this occasion no fish!
Have since left Novi Sad, Dusko, Tanja and extended family (thank you for your excellent hospitality!) After almost a week’s rest (our longest break) it is high time to get back to the road – and with a crate of apples and 5litres of homemade wine in the back we shouldn’t have to stop for a while!
Successfully linked with Emily at the Airport and Roshan at the station in Belgrade so we are back up to four in the van. Staying the night at Three Black Catz hostel in the centre of the city in preparation for a little sight seeing tomorrow.
Don’t worry mums, we only followed used tracks and took local advice! It is a big problem for Bosnia though, some frontline areas are still completely out of bounds – luckily it turns out none of the roads we used were mined…
After Mostar we followed the busy route to Sarajevo, stopping for the night above the Jablanica lake which serves as a reservoir for most of Bosnia and a decent bath for smelly travellers! A friendly bar owner decided to waver the 3euro “charge” and let us use his floating fishing platform for free.
I think we only brushed the surface of Sarajevo as we were beginning to tire of city sights. The war torn buildings are left scattered everywhere as pretty blatant reminders – for better or worse – as well as the extensive cemeteries for either side. 200+ graves on any one site, all with identical date of death.
From Sarajevo we headed into the hills in search of our utopian pineforestclearingwithfireandquietness… and that’s exactly what we found! We received some funny looks from workers in the forestry yards as we plunged down the familiar shrinking road/track/path/vague direction, but our perseverence was rewarded with a perfect quiet spot to relax in. Which is just what we did for two nights; I don’t think I walked further than the end of the van! To entertain ourselves in this period of relaxation we embarked upon a whittling project, carving ourselves some pieces for the beautiful chess board we’ve painted onto a marble tile we found – see the photos!
Fully revitalised we saw off Jose; our friendly Australian, vegetarian hitchhiker; with a totally traditional Bosnian lunch – meat. Then dropped him on the road to Australia.
Expensively negotiated the Serbian border and are now being excellently entertained by a friend+family of Will’s Dad in Novi Sad; pivo has appeared in front of me as I write so I will leave it at that!
