10-16 June 2008

Ladas and skodas overflowing with passengers. Farmers travelling to their fields on the road with horses and carts. Communist era hotels. Belgrade, a gritty, alive and buzzing city, providing a contrast to Bratislava where the old town is a pristine, cosmetic enclave, outwith its walls is a city under re-development with communist buildings and rough streets. Taxi drivers push their cars to move up the taxi rank to conserve fuel. Chess obsessed men.

We pushed on across the plains, covered some impressive distances and stopped for a taste of city life.

Szentendre to Domsod, Hungary (60 km)
We experienced our second torrential downpour after leaving the industrial roads from Budapest. We had had a challenging day in Pest, trying to find decent maps (=difficult) and a cash machine that took our card (Nationwide has free withdrawals abroad by visa debit, but Budapest is the only city we’ve been to so far where the majority of banks do not take visa debit). We were fortunate that the campsite on our map did exist and we arrived sodden and starving to what turned out to be a fishing and hunting spot, not quite open for the season. We felt justified forking out for a hut as the rain was still pouring and as they had no food for sale. We fired up the cooker and made a mean feast of fruit and nut mix with couscous – an excellent combination and staples we will keep on hand for future occasions.

Domsod to Baja, Hungary (131 km)
A long day, but again no hills to contend with so we had good speeds and plenty of contemplation time. We ran into a “couple” of German cyclists in lycra (christened Hans and Haans) who let us photograph their map – the one we had searched for in B’pest.

We reached Baja in the early evening to find the campsite we were headed for was closed for rennovation – however we soon checked into another communist-retro establishment and enjoyed multiple burgers and beers at this attractive Danbue-side town. We also allowed ourselves a rest day and took the bus for a spot of sight seeing at Pecs. The Rolling Rash had a turn of good luck and his hands now appear to have adjusted to the heat and the rash has cleared. Now he’s just rollin’.

Baja to Sombor, Serbia (91 km)
We cycled the plains of southern Hungary to cross the border at Backi Breg into Serbia, devouring more burgers on the Hungarian side and quickly donning our waterproofs on the Serbian side to combat another afternoon storm. When reached Sombor we were fortunate to experience Hotel InterNacion, a retro-communist hotel that had a bouyant wedding celebration, a room with a view and fantastic décor – breakfast inclusive. The Roller anticipated our first hotel breakfast all night long and was highly miffed at a plate consisting soley of yesterday’s loaf and the absence of eggs when the other guests were tucking into plates of four frieds per person.

Tip: never ask for tea with milk – or tea at all, for that matter – in Serbia as you will receive a luke-warm brew of lemon tea and a full cup of warm milk.

Sombor to Novi Sad, Serbia (101 km) (then to Belgrade by train)
As it was a Sunday we decided to take the main road to get to Novi Sad, which was a good choice – more direct (though less scenic) than following the Danube and not too much traffic. Whilst on a pit stop with a packet of crisps and peaches, we encountered two friendly Serbs who were interested in where we were going and where we had been. They offered us some great advice on how to get to Novi Sad by tracing routes on our map. This cultural interaction carried on for at least 45 minutes and the best thing was that they could not speak a word of English and ourselves not a word of Serbian – amazing how arms and hands can break down barriers. We then ignored their advice and continued on our planned route to Novi Sad. The old town in the centre of Novi Sad was well-restored and had a good vibe. It would be a pleasant place to while away a bit of time, but our destination was Belgrade by train so we just lingered for a short while before moving on…

The bogan* express brought us into Belgrade Central late Sunday afternoon. We witnessed veteran bogans interacting wih the bogan youth of Serbia in an excellent example of getting boozed, constantly smoking ciggies under ‘No Smoking’ signs and mutual appreciation of satan pumping from the youths’ MP3 player. Robert J Murray was pleased at the prospect of Beograd being the bogan capital of Europe. Belgrade not only has an impressive bogan culture, but also has good nightlife, lots of lovely ladies, barge bars on the Danube and great restaurants.

*Bogan = someone who is into heavy metal music. Also known as westies, munters, metallers and Sam.

As in the rest of eastern Europe, there is also a thriving cigarette culture. Ciggies, ciggies, ciggies… we didn’t smoke any but inhaled at least a packet each over our two days in Belgrade. At less than 2 euros for 25 Marlboroughs it’s not surprising that the locals light up for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

A couple of nights in Belgrade was enough to see the sights and get a flavour for the culture, pizza and pastries (and lagers of course). We had intended to stay in Serbia for a few more days but messed up the train times to our destination outside the city, so decided to head for Sofia and spend a few extra days cycling in Bulgaria. An excellent decision.