Sunday 9^th September 2012

Jenelle

Weather Report: Another perfect day in Serbia.

Breakfast (do rucak) at the Serbia Tis Hotel was exceptional and stood us in good stead for the day’s activities. First stop was another Roman walled city Felix Romuliana on the Roman road. It was established by Galerius in conjunction with Alexander the Great. We spent some time here exploring the ruins. There was evidence of Galerius’s Royal quarters (including his bath house and private chapel) and also a larger chapel with steps and the footings of the columns at the front, a larger bath house and barrack block. An outer wall around the original city was built later when Galerius’s mother, Felix Romuliana came to live there.(Nice to know he was looking after his mother.) The mosaic floor was covered with sand to protect it, but the drawings and patterns were on display. Replenished by icecream we drove up to two mounds above the city. It is said this is where Galerius and his mother made their ascension to the after- life. This practice was abandoned after the conversion to Christianity.

We headed south from here to Sokobanja and prepared for our assault on the Sokograd fortress. Following reconnaissance by scouts Ewen and Bruce, the fortress was finally claimed by the Victorian ARDF group and the flag proudly flown. It was at least another hour before we could celebrate our victory at the “Cave Restauant”, a cool and shady retreat on the banks of a creek. Not sure just what path we were on (two creek crossings and only one wet foot), but tough enough to do justice to the good food and drink consumed and excellent preparation for the coming week’s activities.

About 5.30 we left Sokobanja and took some back roads before entering a Toll road and finally arrived at our hotel overlooking the city. In the cool of the evening we walked into the main city area and purchased a light meal, a burek and a drink each, totalling the princely sum of about $3 AUD for the three of us.

Bruce: Cleaned that pesky black dust off the bike and went for a short night ride through Nis just then. Fabulous night. The weather forecast for Kaponik and the RadiO is looking a little less inviting, but we’ll see what happens ! Check out the view from this hotel room below. Dogs are barking like crazy at who knows what.

Friday 7^th September 2012

Jenelle

Cool, clear breezy morning and no sign of yesterday’s misty rain. The trip to the museum was declined in preference to a walk / ride around Valjevo, while Danny went to have the van washed. It was eventually 11am before set off for the trip across central Serbia to Smederevo. This area reminded me of the “patchwork quilt” farmlands around the Darling Downs (QLD) and the Southern Highlands of NSW, except the blocks are much smaller. (I know this description is not much use to the Victorians on the post list.)

The windy roads seemed to take quite some time to navigate and this necessitated the purchase of emergency rations (ice cream) to sustain us until we reached Smedervo. The anticipated trip to the Roman wall and little town did not disappoint. We spent some time here exploring and climbed to the top of one of the towers for a spectacular view of the Danube and the surrounding area. To add to the occasion there was a special festival for the town. Not unlike a country show, with people sporting big wads of fairy floss and something that resembled battered sausages on sticks (I’m told that’s a QLD thing too!). There were also many stalls with pigs being roasted on the spit, with every conceivable vegetable to build your own tortilla or roll. Bruce and Ewen opted for the fish soup and I discovered some rather tasty baked treats. There seemed a certain fascination with vegetables used as decoration, with a cauliflower sporting a red capsicum slit several times and placed on top as a hat. The displays of supersized vegetables caught my eye, as well as the handwork. Live music and girls in traditional dress added to the festivities. We gave side-show alley a miss.

From here we headed for Viminacium, a Roman city and Military Camp. This dated back to the 1^st and 2^nd century AD. (It seems the Romans were quite widespread in their travels) While waiting for the guide I spied the perfect outdoor setting for the vine covered gazebo (see previous blog). We actually got to walk around the excavated mausoleum with genuine skeletons exposed and then down darkened corridors to the frescos dating back to these earlier times. The scenes were still visible, but the glass protecting them needed a good dust. (No photos allowed here) Other parts of the dig included the porta (entrance) and the therme (heated bath house). As you can imagine there was some discussion about how everything went together.

Still more driving, and finally at about 7.30 we reached our destination of Veliko Gradiste on the banks of the Silver Lake and the Danube River. The accommodation is excellent and dinner at a water side restaurant was most relaxing.

Bruce: Shortly after the van overheating episode a couple of days ago, the brakes did seem to be doing a bit of squealing, but since it didn’t appear to have much relationship to the use of the brakes, so I relegated it to a background concern. Then later the right front wheel started to make grounching noises. I muttered stuff darkly about brake pads, but Danny didn’t seem to want to be concerned. Peter C may recall a trip back from Jindabyne with the brakes on my Subaru making noises hauntingly similar to those I was now hearing. Yesterday the noises got worse. I explained my possible diagnosis a bit more emphatically to Danny, and later, once we got to the Hotel, I put together my headtorch to have a look. Yes, the outside of the RHS disc was badly scored. Therefore, whilst Danny had to go off this morning in search of a mechanic, I went for a ride around the lake. It was supposed to be 13km around, but perhaps I took the scenic route right beside the lake, as after 10km I got to a small village, Kisiljevo, still on the East side of the lake I’d started on ! The track had gradually degraded from a pavement, to a nice track, to a grotty black sandy corn field thing that made the gears grind, so though I was glad to get somewhere, the 13km wasn’t looking likely. 5km after tjhe village I gave up when the ashfelt road turned to dust again and decided to retrace my ride back. As it was, Danny had only just got back after my 27km “brief” ride, so I was able to have a quick shower before checking out. New pre-loved brake pads fitted, but no disc machining possible, so it’s a sacrificial pad pretty much to last just the next few days.

Saturday 8 September 2012

Weather Report: Fine, sunny, no cloud, winds light to variable and some haze.

Last night’s accommodation at Villa Dincic was very good, the rooms were large, cool and extremely quiet making for good sleeping conditions. Breakfast was just a short drive away. I a slowly getting used to the idea that yoghurt comes under the drink option at breakfast, making it a bit difficult to add fruit to the cup.

The van needed more attention this morning, new brake pads on the front passenger side. This gave Ewen and I the chance of a walk along the lake, while Bruce attempted to circumnavigate it. Stall holders were already setting up their wares, and one fellow was roasting capsicums, given the pile we saw last night, he had a fair job ahead of him. We were joined on our walk by a small companion who followed us for quite some time and took on anything with 4 legs.

This was the obvious place for a weekender, some under various stages of construction. There must be some highly artistic plumbers here, (perhaps you could try this Eddie), There were also private jetties on the bank and gardens (Apart from the roses and geraniums, this pompom bush was also familiar), On the other side of the lake there was a training lane for rowers. No bike path for the coach, just a speed boat instead. (Special note for Phil Ainsworth).

Danny returned with the van and we left about 11am to travel the road alongside the Danube to see the Iron Gates. First stop was the Fortress at Golubac. It is hard to believe something so old is still standing; nobody knows who build the original and when, but additions were made in 15^th century. The archways were only small and large trucks only have centimetres to spare as they passed through. There was a set of stone steps up one side but from here the path disappeared. Further up the road we visited a museum showing relics from 5500 to 7000 bce. This archaeological dig commenced in the 1965, and from this discovered the floor plan was approximately based on isosceles triangle with one vertex cut off. In the centre of the floor was fire pit with a stone surround. A replica of this type of building was outside the covered complex. Original early 20^th century Serbian houses were also on the site.

A quick lunch today at 3pm of soup and bread , an empty soup bowl on a large plate topped with linen napkin and spoon appeared first, there was a high degree of anticipation as we waited for the food trolley to appear with steel jugs of hot soup. All 3 varieties of soup received our mark of approval. We left here about 4pm and the road travelled along the Danube past an amazingly steep narrow gorge, which I suspect is what is referred to as the Iron Gates. It was difficult to stop in places so we let Bruce out to run back down the road to get a photo, just like a foxhunt. We had a quick look at the Iron Gates Dam and ship lock. No photos allowed here either.

At 7pm we were still heading to our evening stop at Zajecar and light was fading.

Bruce:It happened yet again, Murray. Over dinner, any mentioning of my hotel room for tonight, with an extra seperate longeroom, complete with (live) potplants and longe chairs, was not to be tolerated. I heard dark mutterings about cat swinging and individual beds. I also just noticed the spa bath…

Bruce: Well this will be another epic blog. We haven’t really had decent enough internet till now, here in a posh hotel in Zlatibor. Since some of you only look at the pictures, I’ll include them first this time, so you don’t have to goto all that effort of scrolling down so much. Most of the blog is by Jenelle, with the red comments by me 🙂

2 September 2012

A very leisurely start to the day with breakfast at 9 am and time to write some more blog. We have had several frustrating moments trying to login into the hotel’s wifi but rather embarrassingly it was more to do with operator error than hardware problems.

We are now reasonable confident in navigating our way around the old part of Belgrade. The morning’s activity was to visit the Residence of Princess Ljubica – a bit of culture and less technical, but the operation of the light fittings did attract some considerable discussion. Apart from the Turkish bathroom, it was more a display of period pieces with just a lot of sitting rooms and a notable absence of a dining table and kitchen. Come to think of it there seems to be more bars in Belgrade rather than proper restaurants. An earlier side trip to a street market, and some necessary purchases for the forthcoming ARDF did cause some interesting looks.

On return to our hotel to get some lunch we came across a street food and wine festival. It looked quite inviting and Bruce was most disappointed that Ewen could not be persuaded to stop and indulge in some free lunch. Given the security presence I don’t think we would have been welcomed.

Bruce: Actually they didn’t seem to care less what anyone was doing, or even that we walked through.

The afternoon activity was a bike tour of Belgrade. I approached this with some intrepidation given the hills around the old part of the city. There was some compensation for my senior status and scored a geared bike. The ride around the river bank soon restored the confidence and kept up with the pelaton. We crossed the river to New Belgrade with the aid of an elevator up to the bridge concourse and headed west. Nathan our tour guide told us about the Nato bombings of the Hotel Yugoslavia and the Chinese embassy. The hotel was not badly bombed but is now largely abandoned. From here we headed to the Western Gate, two concrete towers, one an apartment block of 30 levels and the other office space, currently only half occupied. Quite spectacular from a distance but all a bit run down and dejected looking close up. It would seem bike paths are an integral part of footpath construction here and I was quite pleased that there was not too much street riding, but you certainly had to be alert to cars appearing in the slip lanes from unexpected directions.

Bruce: My photos of the bike ride slipped into the last blog, so now you know what they were about 🙂

It was thirsty work getting to the lake and the plan of an alcohol free day went out the window. The water was quite a good temperature and it was quite mistake not to have taken the bathers with us. On the ride back to the start, Ewen lead a breakaway from the peloton, closely followed by Bruce. Somehow I don’t think the locals were too amused!! All good fun and definitely gave a different way to see Belgrade. We met a young couple from England (IT students) who were making the most of their last long holiday before their final year at Leeds University. They had begun their holiday in Istanbul and were heading to Venice via Bosnia and Croatia.

We dined on a converted barge on the river bank, a really pleasant way to spend the evening. I was rather glad to get back to the hotel after another 4 km of walking along the river bank and through the back of the bus depot. Well exercised and guilt free after the earlier indulgences.

Bruce: Since we’d gone to dinner straight from the bike ride, I still had my bike so I was able to zip back the the Hotel.

Special Note to Raf and Shona.

All those leg exercises in pilates worked a treat. All I have to do is find the thera band hidden in the bottom of my case.

 

3^rd September 2012

There was a rush to pack this morning to be ready for our 9am departure. We thought we had it all organised but needed to take a drive around the block to allow Bruce to retrieve his special purchase from yesterday. Our tour leader and driver for the remainder of our trip is Daniel, a graduate who majored in German and English. We took the scenic route to Topola, via a communications tower.

At Topola, we visited the Peter 1 Church and Mausoleum, built in local white stone and it was the intention of Peter 1 to have the names of the huge number of Serbian troops who had lost their lives in WW1 inscribed on the walls. Too many names and so instead the walls are covered with about 6 million mini tiles in 1500+ colours. 720 scenes on the walls in stunning colour. Underneath was the crypt with even a few spare spaces for future deceased royals. During its construction King Peter1 lived just across the road so he could supervise the construction. This villa which is quite small has ben opened as a museum. There was a picture on the wall that looked familiar(a bit like the Queen Mother), not surprisingly Queen Maria wife of King Alexander (son of Peter1), was a descendant of Queen Victoria. From here we visited Karagorge’s church and museum, the ethnographic part was interesting, the corner cupboard and the wheat storage – a hollowed out tree stump with a piece of wood on the top. The mandatory wine tasting and tour at the Royal Winery followed, huge vats on separate floors for red and white wine, some old wine making equipment (more technical discussion, specially decorated vats for the wedding of King Alexander and Queen Maria, and a magnificent vine covered gazebo, the like of which Ewen is going to build in Greensborough. The grapes hanging underneath were very tasty.

Bruce: It seems 1st September marks the time when many a rural Serbian starts to consider firewood. The roads are jammed with tractors, or smaller craft, pulling mini trailers piled high with cut logs, and many front yards feature families industriously chopping and stacking impressively large stacks of firewood for the winter months ahead. In front of other houses are messy piles of unsorted dumped timber ready for chopping.

It was quite a drive from here over Rudnik Mountain to Gorni Milanovac and we were starting to get pretty hungry by the time we arrived at about 3pm. I now know why Daniel was keen to get to our evening stop, a guest house fairly high on a hill outside the town. We were greeted by our hostess Ziza in the traditional Serbian manner, with special bread (wheel shaped) with salt. This was followed by a cool mint drink, a small glass of liqueur (your choice of walnut, cherry or black currant?)  and then a hot minty tea. This was served outside. We were then invited inside for a light lunch of 3 courses. Salad of tomato and cucumber, sliced belly pork, white cheeses and some magnificent tri coloured plaited bread – that was first course. The chicken soup, the flavour was just superb, and then the fried chicken, buttery mashed potato and carrots. Dessert was served outside, a bitter chocolate topped slice.

We were definitely in need of some exercise so Bruce headed out on his bike. The husband of our hostess had just arrived home so Ewen and I sat and chatted with Daniel interpreting some parts. There was just enough time for a short walk (straight up a big hill to a spring on the side of the road) before we were to help with the evening meal preparation.

Bruce: After our late lunch arrival at the peaceful Melodai villa, I took the bike and our hosts recommendation to go for a ride up the hill and out along a spur to see a view of the town. As it turned out, I rode all the 6km or so into town and had a look around, but the 3km hill back up onto the spur just seemed to take forever. On the way back stopped at one of the clear water springs (with convenient tap) that seem to be a fairly regular ocurrance in Serbia. Evan, the husband (who runs a shoe shop in town during the day), asked later, with a smile, if I had any trouble riding back up the hill (I suspect he expected me to say I had to walk up).

Instructions for White Cheese dish

Grease and dust with maize flour a 25 cm round enamel pie dish.

Break 3 eggs into a basin (Ewen’s job), Beaten with a fork (Bruce took over at this point)

Add 4 lumps white cheese and mash to a uniform consistency.

Add 12 heaped spoons of maize flour, 6 heaped spoons for flour, a packet of baking powder, 3 small coffee cups of oil and a glass of mineral water. Mix well and tip into pie dish. Smooth top and arrange slices of belly pork in a wheel pattern on top.

Bake for 30 minutes at 150 degrees C.

It seems in this part of Serbia that lunch is a large meal and dinner is a small light meal.

The weather was so nice we then sat outside and more chat. After about 35 minutes I mentioned the pie and Ewen and Bruce went running inside, but our hostess had already retrieved dinner from the oven. The pie was served with homemade yoghurt. Very tasty indeed, but needed some lubrication to help it down. Homemade Schnaps appeared and some of us were a little slow in saying stop as the host Ivan filled the little glasses. Lots of laughter ensued. Just before 9pm the boys all headed out to get water from the spring, and so our hostess and I took to the recliner chairs and viewed the stars and made conversation in slow broken English. (All that practice at work helped!)

Bruce: In the interests of an authentic record, I feel bound to mention that it was I who actualy made the pie, under instruction from Ziza, and some excellent egg cracking by Ewen.

By the time the guys had returned with the water, it was becoming quite cool outside, so were retreated inside for sleep.

 

4^th September 2012 (yes it’s Tuesday)

Quickly losing track of the days. This morning began with a traditional Serbian breakfast. More bread but this time with finely sliced potato in the mix. Quite yummy. It was served with yoghurt to which I added some sliced banana. This was met with some puzzled looks. Toasted tri-coloured bread and hibiscus jam and more of the hot minty tea. Made from mint, lemon balm, stinging nettle and flowers of the linden tree. After the water is infused with the herbs, the mint and lemon balm are replanted in the garden – the ultimate recycling.

Today’s adventure started with a trip to 2 monasteries. Zica monastery dating from the 13^th century. Like all buildings of this age there was some restoration being done. This was actually a nunnery. Apart from the main church there were several outer buildings surrounded by a stone wall. I’ve yet to work out what “male” and “female” are in Serbian, so it was a good job there were no other tourists around to embarrass either me or them.

From here a fairly circuitous route to Studentija monastery, we ended up on the same road we had started on to get to the first monastery. This should have been a signal that the sat nav was not behaving. After repositioning ourselves, we made it to Studentija via a rather mountainous diversion (Bruce: see haybale picture). A good view of a national park which I suspect is somewhere near the championships next week. This monastery (built in 12^th century)was another walled community with a main church and several outer buildings. It seems they liked to redecorate back in the 16^th century, so to get the new frescoes to adhere to the wall they virtually had to destroy the originals underneath. (No pictures of this or other works allowed inside.) There were several caskets containing the remains of the original founders of the monastery. The one for St Anaesthasia was made of made of solid silver and elaborately decorated in scenes of her life. In the refectory outside I rather liked the white marble tables as they would have made an excellent kitchen bench.

The planned diversion to visit Vranga Banka for a late lunch on the way home didn’t work out as planned. It was a very scenic route and much slower than the main highway. About 3 pm a car behind started to toot, so we pulled over to find we had a flat tyre. Out with the “mini” air compressor, this didn’t sound too healthy from the time it was turned on, and realising it would take some time to work its magic several of us went exploring the creek alongside the road. Ewen soon alerted us that it had thrown in the towel and luckily there was enough air in the tyre to make it to a fuel stop nearby. Both tyre and occupants replenished we headed up the mountain. Just about 10 minutes past the entrance to Kopaonik the temperature light came on. Another road side stop, Danny certainly appreciated the engineers on board as they took over and ascertained that the water in the radiator was well below the minimum. We quickly consumed the drinks we had purchased and proceeded to fill these bottles (and others lying on the side of the road) with water from the creek beside the road. The human chain gang began with Bruce filling bottles in the creek and launching them up the bank, me retrieving them and Ewen filling the radiator. All this with lots of laughter helped lift Danny’s spirits and soon had us back on the road. With all this nervous energy consumed Ewen was in need of real food and we stopped about 5 pm for a recharge. There was still the tyre issue and not long after starting off again we discovered the tyre had gone flat again. Danny disappeared into a nearby house and reappeared with a manual tyre pump and we took it in turns to pump up the tyre again. This allowed us to get to the town where we were to have had lunch. Danny went off to have the tyre repaired and we investigated a large mall sort of area with many shops and stalls. It was about 7.30 before we set off again and eventually returned to Villa Melodie around 9.30. A fairly tiring drive for Danny.

We settled in for some serious eating (and drinking) which Ziza had prepared in our absence. Sunflower bread (wheel bread in both rye and white with a star pattern on top and sprinkled with sunflower seeds, floured and egg battered roasted capsicum, along with the usual tomato and cheeses, with cinnamon spiced apple and walnut slice to follow. Time to unwind after the day’s misadventures. Bruce: see photo.

5^th September 2012

Late start this morning as we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast outdoors. Again more of Ziza’s beautiful cooking, special breads, savoury omelettes and the usual accompaniments. We would have willingly stayed longer here but still more to see in Serbia.

Here the scenery had more rugged quarried mountains, deep rivers by the road side and more greenery than further north. We had an impromptu stop to check out a dam wall. More technical talk. From there we headed to the cave at Potpeck. The climb up to the upper cave was about 100 steps, certainly keeping up the fitness levels. At the entrance to the upper level small ferns were growing out of the rock face, and further inside the cave there were some interesting shapes. Apparently the cave stretches for 10 km but only 2 km is open to the public. The stories of how the patriots used the caves as refuge from the Turks were pretty harrowing. They actually perished as they held under siege.

The ethno village nearby had a some artefacts dating back to Roman times right through to 20^th century, including more versions of coffee pots that you could imagine. Bruce, Ewen and I sat up at the desks in the school room, and gave more cheek as Danny tried to keep his class in order. He even threatened us with the cane.

We had our lunch here and tried some Serbian pear cider. The food was incredibly good value 350 dinar for a big bowl of beans and smoked meat. Both Bruce and Ewen opted to supplement their meal with apple pie (more like apple strudel).

No worries with getting to our final destination today. We even found time for a walk through the market before tea and another brisk walk to a monument afterwards. (The speed increased as the flashes of lightning appeared in the distance.)

Bruce: This afternoon we walked past a stand in the Zlatibor village centre promoting downhill mountain biking at the nearby ski resort. It looked pretty cheap, including the chairlift ride up with bike, and a number of diffrent grade tracks down. Danny checked at the booth for us and we discovered, unfortunately, it only runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Pity, since I just happen to have the bike right here with me.

Previous Blog: https://ardf.org.au/WordPress/2012/karlovci-no-exit/

1 September 2012 

Jenelle (with extra Bruce comments)

Today we visited the Vojvodina region west of Belgrade. We were collected by our tour guide Zlatan from Tours2Serbia about nine o’clock. Zlatan was not only a very informative tour guide, but more importantly a good navigator and driver as well. Serbia has a complicated history of invasions and takeovers for thousands of years.

After some high speed (120 kph) roads down to narrow potholed single lanes we reached our first stop at the Krusedol monastery on Fruska Gora mountain. It seems even there you can’t avoid the tourist buses. Small but beautiful Orthodox Christian chapel(built ~1726) and tower, but unfortunately no photos inside and definitely no climbing of the tower was permitted. Apparently the Austrian Hungarians let the Serbs live here unhindered, on the condition they would be the first line of defence when the Turks attacked.

From here we headed to the Petrovaradin Fortress on the outskirts of Novi Sad. An amazing construction with 16 km of tunnels in 4 levels. Another feature of the fortress was the Drunken Clock, fast in summer and slow in summer. There was a museum of artefacts from bronze, iron age right up to early 20^th century. A display of beautiful furniture from late 19^th to early 20^th century was upstairs, and included musical instruments and porcelain (of interest to some of the group). The moats and escarpments surrounding the fortress have to be seen to be believed. Just huge.

Bruce: Each year in June the Karlovci (Pertovardin) Fortress has it’s own Big Day Out style, 14 stage music festival called the Exit festival http://www.exitfest.org. I’d heard of it before, but didn’t connect it with Serbia.

Next stop was Novi Sad, where we bought some fruit at the market, and to be ecumenical we visited the Jewish Synagogue. This was quite plain but also quite elegant inside. From here we took leisurely stroll past municipal offices, a statue of another important citizen and then through the main pedestrian area down to a lake and gardens – a good place to end our walking tour. We spent some time enjoying the coolness. On return to Belgrade there was a little time to attend to some housekeeping issues, before heading out to dinner.

Dinner was at Belgrade’s oldest restaurant, called “?”. Why “?” ? When the restaurant changed owner’s early 20^th century it was given the name “Cathedral Café”. The priest at the nearby church complained that it reflected poorly on the church and requested a name change. Not knowing what to call the place the owner put up a “?”. The temporary name stuck, but only through a couple centuries so far. Appetiser of beans, several varieties of cheeses and sliced meat, tomato and cucumber salad and a platter of barbeque meats with bread, wine and beer as well. All in good supply. We said goodbye to Zlatan and yet again found the scenic route back to the hotel.

Bruce: Bumped in Tyson again (!) just outside our hotel as he was heading to the railway station opposite with backpack and we were about to head out to dinner, on his way back to Switzerland. There has to be something weird going on here with the laws of chance !

Bruce: Note the picture of the emply block in New-Belgrade. Why take this picture ? Well, here used to stand the Chinese embassy, till last year. It was demolished because it was bombed in the 1990’s war by NATO. It is still not clear why US decided to bomb the Chinese embassy as one of their selective targets. They claim they got the address wrong. This was taken on a bike tour we took around Belgrade today (more details to follow later).

Bumper Edition !

This is a bit of a combined blog form 2 different blog streams, so it may be a bit disjointed this time !

First is Bruce’s stuff, followed by Jenelle’s & Ewen’s extra details of their adventures.

Thursday

Visited the Pecs city centre by bike this morning, and had memories of seeing parts of it before, on a whirlwind tour given by Gyrui’s former wife quite a few years ago.

 

Gyrui and Anna drove me to Kelebia in the afternoon, in order to catch the train to Belgrade. Unfortunately a couple of hours drive, but other options were limited (eg. catching the train back the wrong direction to return again on the Belgrade line). The train was running late, and ended up in Belgrade over an hour after it was due. Perhaps this was due in part to the two lengthy passport checks each side of the border, and the somewhat languid pace the train maintained till we finally sped up a little getting closer to Belgrade. Perhaps the track improved ?  Still, not quite up to the expectations set by the Austrian and Hungarian high-ish speed trains. Once within Belgrade we seemed to spend inordinate amounts of time waiting at non-descript stations, or even in between stations.

 

 

 

Still, I didn’t mind too much. I’d stocked upon munchies, fruit and water before the journey.

Friday

My room in Belgrade appears to have been upgraded to palacial, also with balcony (complete with flowers).  This is of course with keeping with the superior accomodation allocated to Murray and myself in Veszprem, for no particularly good reason 🙂

 

 

We walked to the Nikolay Tesla museum, an essential visit for any electrical geek. Tried to see if they happened to have a circuit diagram of the remote controlled boat Tesla demonstrated (surely the staff here must be used to geeks by now..). Alas no, his documented notes only started in 1899, a year after the boat.

Just on the point of departure I hear my name mentioned ?  Huh ? Well well, it’s Tyson B from Tele-IP days. What are the chances ?  He’s here in Serbia because his Schengen visa (elsewhere in Europe) has nearly run out, but he’s also trying to get into Russia where his girlfriend is from. He’s been living in Switzerland recently.

Also at the (free) PTT (Postal & Telecoms) museum we each were given a small book. Like the small telecommunications museum I visited in Zagreb, I think they are just thrilled when anyone techo visits them. Other  than 2 pages of English text it’s all in Serbian (ok so the pictures aren’t in Serbian, so you can look at them too) but the thought was nice.

Joined Tyson for dinner this eveing in the cobbled resturant district.

Full Photo Gallery down the bottom.

https://ardf.org.au/WordPress/2012/on-the-right-pecs/

 

Now over to Jenelle T

29^th August 2012

Having left work at 4.30 and a good run home on the Ring Road managed to get ourselves sorted and attend to the last minute bills and garden watering. Lindsay took us to the airport with plenty of time to spare to peruse the duty free and chill. Not that we needed to worry as the flight was 30 minutes late boarding. Thank you Jill for the advice to choose central seats in the aircraft. That worked well and although I did not sleep a great deal could get up and wander around. My advice to you is take your air cushion, it worked a treat and did not get a sore back for the whole flight.

30^th August 2012

Arrived in Dubai at about 5.15 and 30+ degrees and 90 percent humidity, took a bus to main terminal and then another to the terminal 2, a little down market but the best bit was they had proper toilets. Phew. Another wait. Realised I’d swapped my purse from the one with the 20 UAE Dhirans to the one with 50 US dollars, so need to change some money to buy some snacks. The Fly Dubai flight left on time and the flight went quite well apart from the altercation between the petite steward and some gent who had consumed a third of a bottle of Johnny Walker. Needless to say she confiscated his bottle and the ensuing argie bargie was rather entertaining. She won and in the end he apologised after he had slept most of the remainder of the flight.

We were met at the airport in Belgrade (under going building work) by Zlatan (husband of the woman we had been corresponding and his side kick Danny who is taking us on the country part of the tour). Very happy to see the sign “Ewen and Jennelle” in the arrivals hall, almost correct spelling but who cares. A quick trip into town and we were installed in our hotel opposite the Railway Station.

For the next 9 hours we managed to get ourselves geographically misplaced 3 times (I keep telling Ewen we need to take the compass with us, not leave it in his bag). Each time it took us 45 minutes to sort it out. There are some vital tips we need to follow, the sun is in the south, look for land marks and if lost ask where the hotel Moscow is. A gorgeous old hotel in central old Belgrade. We did find somewhere to have dinner and for just under 20 Aud for the two us we considered it good value and that included salads and of course the mandatory beer.

 

 

Eventually got back to the hotel, rather feeling rather guilty thinking we weren’t back in time to meet Bruce, only to discover that he was yet to arrive. However his train from the Czech border was 2 hours late. Metro doesn’t have it on its own to be late. About 10pm the hand held crackled. Bruce had arrived .There was only time for a quick chat and then sleep.

…and over to Ewen T

(Ewen’s notes follow, done on very little sleep)

Left home about 1815. Lindsay took us to the airport and we arrived there about 1900. After we checked in the baggage Lindsay left and we went thru customs. After looking thru the shops we had a some coffee and cake and went to the departure lounge. We needn’t have hurried as the flight was 30mins late boarding & departing. U’d think it would be reasonably easy to load an aeroplane with people but some confusion was evident. Eventually we were on board and departed. Managed to sleep for a reasonable time. Flight was a bit rough at times. Arrived in Dubai about pretty much on time at 0515 and caught the bus to terminal 2. Converted some $US to Dirhams and bought some munchies and drinks. Flight to Belgrade wasn’t till 0910 so had some time to read the New Scientists I’d brought along. Flight left on time and once again managed to sleep a bit. Not much provided on the flight entertainment, had to buy everything except the most basic video. At least we could see the flight path. We were glad we had some Dirhams. Flight attendant had a bit of trouble with a somewhat drunk passenger. Fortunately he didn’t cause too much trouble. Very smooth flight over some very rugged country.)

 

31^st August 2012

Woke about 7am, feeling considerably refreshed. Headed down to the breakfast room, rather good spread and tucked in.

First job of the day was to relocate Bruce(room upgrade). We headed off to find the tourist info office at Republic Square. 3 orienteers, 3 different maps and a compass. In the end I had to ask someone and even then it was difficult to find. The course setter has a lot to answer for, dodgy maps, poorly placed controls and controls markings obscuring vital parts of the map. From there we went to the Nicola Tesla Museum, the information provided by the museum was supplemented by much technical discussion by you know who. The main attraction was a large Tesla coil which failed to light up Jenelle’s fluoro tube. Also there was much deliberation over the remote controlled boat. A request for a circuit diagram was not forthcoming and so we headed to the next control.

It would appear that much of Belgrade is having renovations, this museum was no exception.

Lunch was purchased for about $5.50 for the three of us and consumed in a park near St Mark’s cathedral. The next control was Museum PTT, public transport we thought. Wrong! Postal, Telephone and Telegraph. Another case of checking the block on every side before we could locate the entrance. Quite small but interesting and again more technical discussion. We were each given a book about it, very useful if only we could read Serbian.

 

Next point was the Kalemegdan – the fortress. Very good control easily seen from a great distance with good catching features – the Danube River. Not lot off guard rails, just a sign. Note who is sitting and standing on the edge. There was a good view of the walls from the top of the tower.

 

 

 

Next challenge was to locate the Residence of Princess Llubijana. Alas we ran out of time on this control (they locked the gate just as we arrived) and had to head back to the hotel via the icecream shop.

Well, surprisingly I do have internet.

I’m at a small hilltop town in NE Hungary called Bükkszentkereszt. We had some adventures getting here !

Gyuri (a radio orienteering guy from Hungary/US/Canada..depending on which hat he is wearing), mentioned in an email that there would be 2 days of training, after the weekend’s Hungarian ARDF championships.The champs also serve as a selection trial for the Hungarian team to travel to Serbia. Murray and I decided we’d head that direction, via a scenic route and see what happened.It also meant I could get a lift to Pecs with Gyrui whilst Murray returned to Budapest to fly home.

We headed north from Veszprem, as I’d noted how scenic the train journey was from Gyor, then the idea was to head NE towards the Danube and travel along the bank, avoiding the centre of Budapest.

The scenery was great, and a cool change was blowing though at last. We saw this ruined castle and windfarm on the way:

 

We momentarily visited Slovenia, due to an inadequate map, but then crossed back to Hungary (the hire car isn’t meant to leave), and then a bit later had lunch on the bank of the Danube. Unfortunately a bit windly so not as pleasant as it sounds.

Bükkszentkereszt is about 200km ENE of Budapest, so we ended upon the motorway.The normal highway limit is 90km/h, but the motorway is 130km/h !  I got used to it eventually my first day back driving on the wrong side.

We had to contact Gyrui to let him know we were coming, so sent a text from Miskcolc to his mobile. No reply. Oh wellwe’ll keep going. A few km up the road we came across an official waving at us. He couldn’t understand us so waved us on. Soon it became clear.There was a rally stage in progress, and we could go no further. Only a few km short. We watched the cars as we wondered what to do. Murray happened across a “block road ahead” setting in the GPS, and it found us a roundabout alternate route. Good thing as it turns out as it was a beautiful drive around the mountains.

We wandered up and down the rally car and fume filled streets of Bükkszentkereszt hoping to find a free WiFi so we could ring Gyuri on Skype. No luck. Tried the public phone….phone card only it seems (the Visa symbol on the front Gyrui later told us is a lie). Finally a return text !  GPS coordinates. Off we go, onlya couple of km down a side road to here, a sort of basic cabin style thing. Went out to dinner with the Hungarians, so all turned out well.

 

Last blog here: https://ardf.org.au/WordPress/2012/wmmtbo-the-long-long/