Subotica

Subotica-Our Last Stop in Serbia

Finding two nights in Belgrade almost enough time to spend in this lovely city, we regretfully got in the car to drive to our next destination—Subotica—which is a little town in northern Serbia near the Hungarian border which is known for its gingerbread town hall and proximity to Palic (a beautiful lake). It took about two hours in the car up the highway, and the roads were good. Our pension was one of the more Spartan accommodations we’ve booked, but it was sufficient. We checked in, and drove to the park situated alongside the lake and walked around and took pictures—and I found out that good things come to those who wait. First the pictures....

Lake Palic is adorned on its south side by an amazing collection of fairy-tale like buildings. This seems to be the central building with a massive arch focusing the attention on the lake.

Movie location people be aware - here is the spookiest, pigeon-covered, eerie structure with boarded up windows and crumbling walls any one has ever seen. Bates motel move over....

Another beach-front home, this one better cared for.

Who knows who these strange old women are.... My theory - their heads were shrunk while still attached to their bodies by the cannibals who life in the spooky house down the beach. I mean, who sees people this way?!

One of my disappointments with the monastery in Ohrid was that those peacocks didn’t open their tails for me! Well, as Don and I strolled along the streets behind the park (because most of you know that Don enjoys walking and driving through people’s backyards and taking the scenic route whenever possible), we saw about ten peacocks in someone’s backyard! They were all fenced in, but we waited quietly with our cameras ready to shoot. This one peacock saw us, slowly turned, and opened his tail preening absolutely exquisitely; he knew we were watching him! It was magical and totally unexpected. We even got shots of the back of the tail. The only thing marring the beautiful pictures is that you can see the fencing that we were shooting through, but as I’ve admitted to being afraid of birds, this was an okay tradeoff for me.

NBC, eat your heart out! We've got the real deal.

The sky darkened, and we had to hoof it to the car before the rain started—so we did find ourselves on Holy Saturday with some rain to contend with. We drove around for about an hour trying to find a place to have dinner (don’t Suboticans eat out we asked ourselves??), when at last we found a place. I think Don will tell you that he had one of the best steaks in his life for about $9 US, and I had Chinese for dinner—in Serbia. We concluded that although Serbians aren’t “foodies” so to speak, there is probably a lot here that foodies would enjoy—shout out to Keeley! We did get some nice night pictures of Subotica’s famous gingerbread town hall glistening in the rain, so we’ll post those. And here they are....

A statue with interesting lighting

Fairy-tale city hall

This was a city building of some sort. It was raining.

Easter Sunday in Serbia was quite amusing. Don is upstairs getting his stuff together, so I go downstairs to the hotel restaurant. There is a table of five men in their fifties/sixties, smoking and eating some breakfast. One asks if I am the “American,” and I fess up—yes, I am. They point to a table and tell me to sit there. I sit down, and this guy comes out with more cold cuts, cheese, and hard-boiled eggs than you would need to feed ten people! I tell him that this is too much food, and I move to the adjoining table—the five men immediately move to the table and descend on the food laid out for us like locusts—and the whole time they are inviting me to join them. Not being ready to communicate with five guys who don’t speak English before I’ve had my morning coffee, I politely decline and tell them I am waiting for my husband—what a good wife I am. I should have joined them and started drinking beer and brandy—because that’s what they do!! And it’s only 10:30 a.m. We have a more modest breakfast sans alcohol, and head for the Hungarian border—which takes us 1 1/2 hours to cross! This was our worst border crossing; we think it’s because it was Easter. The Serbian border moves pretty quickly, but it takes us longer to get into Hungary. Luckily we made it up on the highway. We are in a lovely pension in Szentendre, Hungary writing this blog entry and pre-gaming--finishing our wine before we go to the restaurant for dinner across the street—which is right on the Danube.

Shout out to Genny who starts her first official day of teaching in Korea tomorrow morning. We love you! Shout out to Eileen and Joe who are returning from Italy—glad you had a safe trip…