A Trip to Serbia

We began the day, yesterday, trying to find our way out of Timisoara.  The streets here, like most other large Romanian cities, are not marked well L  This makes it very difficult to figure out where you are, where you’re going, or where you’ve been.  We did, however, luck into a route sign that directed trucks towards Belgrade.  So, off on another adventure………..

The drive to the Serbian border only took about 30 minutes.  Once at the border, we went through the Romanian checkpoint, then the Serbian.  Both times we had our passports stamped.  Unfortunately for me, the officer was holding my passport in his hand when he stamped it, so you can’t tell that it has a Serbian name on it – bummer.  Oh well, there’s always the stamp leaving the country.  We made it through the checkpoint with no problems and headed into a new country, culture, currency, and language.

The country was pretty unimpressive.  Reminded us somewhat of south Texas…flat, with a lot of agriculture.  The first town we drove through greeted us with the landfill.  Unfortunately, they don’t do a very good job with containing the trash, and stuff was all over the place.

We stopped at a MOL service station to top off the car…..cost for gas = 153.9 dinar per litre!!  How many times has your gas total equaled 3920.00?  Thank goodness we only needed 25 litres.   As we were getting ready to leave, we noticed this guy putting air into the tires of his contraption.  Talk about ingenuity.

Our drive into the city of Belgrade took us over the Danube River.  We were so excited and I was all set to take a picture of the sign………………no sign, nothing.  What a disappointment.  There was nothing that identified the river.  Once on the bridge, I couldn’t take a good picture due to the fence.  Oh well, at least I can say I drove over the Danube River.

 

Belgrade.  Known as Beograd to the Serbians, it is Belgrade to other languages..  But you can also find it spelled Belgrad.  Wonder what counts on a spelling test?

  Our first task was to find the Kalemegdan Castle, then parking.  Thank goodness it is a tourist sight, that meant signs directing you to the right location.  Now that we found it, where do we park?  We found a small area off the main street that looked like a parking area.  We drove in to find it one way and the same way out.  We parked the car and then began looking for a place to purchase a parking ticket.  Dennis went to a local business, but no one spoke any English.  Back to the sign to see if it could provide any help.  Dennis met a man who explained that you call a number and register your license plate and the amount of time you want to park.  Somehow, you are charged 35 dinar per hour (guess it’s put on your cell phone bill).  Anyway, the man helped Dennis to dial the number and enter the information, but the call wouldn’t go through.  After trying a couple of times, the man called from his cell and put the charges on his phone.  We offered to pay him, but he wouldn’t accept.  Instead, he said, “Welcome to Serbia!”  That was a very nice way to start.

Across from the parking area is where we started our exploration on foot.  Located on a hill, Kalegmedon Castle (actually a fortress) overlooks the Sava and Danube rivers.  Most of the fortress has a park setting within the walls; there is also a Military Museum, and lots of military equipment.  There was also a lower fortress. 

 As we walked and looked, we realized that our 2 hours was almost up.  As much as we’d have liked to stayed and looked more, we had to head back to the car.  On our way back, though, we did stop by a couple of vendor carts and look for souvenirs.

Now it was time to find our way out of Belgrade and head back towards Timisoara.  We decided that we’d go back a different way and see what else the country had to offer.  The route we chose was quite lonely.  We only passed through about 5 small towns before we hit the border.  We did, however, stop in Zitiste, where we ate a very late lunch (3p).  While walking into the restaurant, I noticed a statue across the street…….Rocky Balboa.  Go figure!  Dennis and I were trying to figure out what Rocky had to do with Serbia.  I’m still not sure.  Guess we’ll have to google it.

Made it back to the border with no problems.  Unfortunately for me, I didn’t get a return stamp from Serbia on my passport.  Guess I’ll just have to show the pictures.  Another adventure taken; more yet to come.