A Serbian Day Trip
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2007
1
65
90
Trip End
Apr 19, 2008
Novi Sad,
Serbia and Montenegro
Thursday, December 6, 2007
One would think that after three and a half months of wondering around places I've never been before, my sense of direction would have improved. Apparently not. Coming into town, all I had to do was locate the Danube, and it's a pretty big river. Instead, I only managed to find a couple bakeries and a sports stadium with my compass and Lonely Planet map. I blame the magnetic effects of my visit to the Nikola Tesla museum yesterday. I'm sure they somehow managed to hurt my compass
A Stork and a Kiwi
. No fear, though, as the Kiwi proved himself a good navigator, and we managed to make it to the river and citadel after only a brief tour of the less visited areas of Novi Sad.The Petrovaradin Citadel rises imposingly on the opposite side of the Danube, heaping mounds of fortifications: walls and earth. At the top, with panoramic views of the city (not that it's particularly beautiful) we stop for tea and coffee. In the sun, it's almost warm. We complete a circuit of the walls with more views (including an oil refinery) and come across a statue of two reindeer. Novi Sad appears to be home to an eclectic collection of statues. In addition to the reindeer, we find a stork perched on the remains of a bomb, an odd short, fat man, and several modern, uninterpretable pieces.
Descending from the citadel, we wander the old town below. In the worst repair of any I have come across, we don't stay very long, and I wouldn't want to be there after dark (which is getting earlier and earlier). We do, however, come across a lovely Orthodox church with new, vibrant paintings of the saints, before somehow wandering into a hospital...Still not quite sure how we did that.
Heading back towards the train station, we find the nice part of the town: renovated ornate buildings, a church with towering steeple, and a main square being set up for the Christmas market. Yesterday, my traveling companions and I had been discussing the lack of Christmas feeling we have. Surely part of this is a result of being in Bosnia-Herzegovina for the last while, where Christmas is less celebrated, but the Australians and Kiwi feel it's also too cold for Christmas, and I feel it's not cold enough. Besides, where's the snow? Nonetheless, Christmas is coming, and tonight, St. Nikolaus will come to children across Europe, leaving chocolate candies in their shoes for them to find in the morning. Perhaps I'll leave out my Odessan boots, see if I'm too old for a little Christmas magic.
