Novi Sad and a date with Tito.

I have been trying very hard to fight to geek within but, with the temperature in Belgrade reaching 37 degrees today, I had to give in and I may have started a love affair with a communist leader...

...ok so he is dead and therefore will not be returning my affections but, as of today, you should all look forward to hearing a lot more about Tito as I, not only visited his grave today, but also bought a book about him. (Don't worry, as an historian, you can rest easy in the knowledge that my comments will be as balanced as possible.)

After a very nice, first Serbian day strolling the streets of central Belgrade, basking in the glory of vegan shopping opportunities, I decided to take a day trip to Novi Sad, (Serbia's second city and the capital of the Vojvodina region). The Lonely Planet says that it is about a 2 hour train ride and I thought it would be nice to see not only the Petrovaradin Citadel but also to spend a few hours looking at the scenery. (The Vojvodina region is the major food production area of Serbia - essentially it is a vast, fertile plain that stretches north to the Hungarian boarder.)

So off I trotted, down to the train station early, with no idea of when the trains to Novi Sad leave or how frequently - it seemed I was in luck, as one was leaving in the next ten minutes... well, the train hadn't actually arrived yet and no one knew where it was leaving from but that was the plan. In the end the trip to Novi Sad took three hours; enough time for some more reading on Montenegro and Macedonia, and some scenery watching. (Leaving Belgrade itself was very interesting, especially going through New Belgrade and past the Roma slums beside the railway lines - I guess this
is the unattractive side of the city that the LP was talking about.)

By the time I had got to Novi Sad, and had, once again, made a poor judgement call and walked into town, I wasn't really in the mood to visit may of the major sites (not that there are that many). It seems that, since the few days of rain in Veliko Tarnovo, the temperature in this part of Europe has steadily risen and risen - in other words, it was hot weather to be walking in. (And it was 37 degrees today in Belgrade!) So I walked the 2.5km into the city centre and then the further 1.5km to the citadel AND managed to get up to the top... at which point all I wanted was something to eat and drink. The views of the city and the Danube where pretty great and having the 'Gibraltar of the Danube' as the setting for my little picnic made it even nicer... although dread of the walk back did hang over the whole thing. So in the end I pretty much spent 3 hours on the train there, walked 4km in the boiling sun, ate some lunch and went back to the train station. The ride home was punctuated by a sudden stop at a random place called Indija, where we were told to get off the train and then had to wait for an hour for another train... a pretty spectacular summation of the poor Eastern European train system. So all in all the day was little more than a glorified picnic and train ride - it did (strangely) make me want to come back for the Exit Fest next year though. (A big music festival, held every summer inside the citadel - there were heaps of posters up around the city, advertising the acts for this year's festival, that was on a few weeks ago.)

I got back to the hostel boiling hot and really tired but the promise of some dancing on at a floating club made me wake up pretty quickly. Firstly, a few of us from the hostel went to a party being held by the hostel owner to celebrate the opening of his second hostel, in the middle of town. So we spent a couple of hours there, chatting and waxing lyrical about how great the new place was and then we headed down to the Sava River, where there are a number of clubs on barges. Some of these places are pretty amazing; not only good music but the 'interior' and lights were pretty great too, with open sides so the place stays cool and you can see the city. (V - you would be so proud of how out of control some of my moves were.) We went to one bar that was relatively empty but was playing really good music... so we stayed there til it closed, which did mean that the sun was coming up and, by the time we walked home, it was seven by the time I got to bed. (And I was starting to feel a bit old! Pah!) It was a really good night but it did mean that, due to my sleep in this morning, I had much less time to peruse the Historical Museum of Yugoslavia.

I have been getting more and more disillusioned with the Lonely Planet (especially after it said that Belgrade was ugly... and it actually isn't) but one thing I really wanted to see, (that I wouldn't have known about without the LP), was Tito's grave. Now, as a you know, I have been trying hard to avoid any more historical obsessions and I have also never been overly enamoured with 20th century History nor anything about the rise of communism in the mid 20th century... until today. The Historical Museum of Yugoslavia (or the Museum of the 25th May, as it used to be called) was orginally a way of showcasing Tito's idea of brotherhood amoungst the southern Slavic people but now (apart from being mostly empty) it is used to display some the pretty amazing things that were given to Tito by foreign representatives, during his time as leader. One thing that really stood out was not only how much he was loved by the Yugoslav people but also how much respect he commanded from foreign leaders - Apollo 11 even took to Yugoslav flag to the moon because of the good relationship Tito had developed between Yugoslavia and the USA! So yes - it seems that I have developed a little bit of a crush on a communist leader who has been dead for 25 years... have even bought a boook about him for light reading on the way to Montenegro. (It was well worth the 45min walk through 37 degree heat to see his grave - sigh!)

I also went and had a look inside the Sveti Sava (the 'Temple' of Saint Sava), which they started to build in 1935 but had to stop twice; once due to Hitler and once due to a cash crisis. The thing is massive - it is meant to be the largest orthodox church in the world and I wouldn't doubt it for a second. It is pretty much complete on the outside (copper domes and white marble tiles) but inside there is scaffolding and safety fences everywhere. It is interesting to see all the tools and the structures being used and to think that for centuries amazing churches were built without any of this (albeit, generally, on a smaller scale).

So tomorrow is my last day in Belgrade (there should be enough time to do a couple more museums) and then I am catching the overnight train to Montenegro, where I am going to meet my friend Jade.

Will write from Montengro in a few days.

Rose x