r ellenberger

Second last day of the trip so after brekky we went shopping for some new runners for Jackie. We found some nice asics for about 70aud, then went for a walk through the castle. After that we went searching for something for me, new work shoes. We ended up walking for about 15 minutes to another area of the city, stopping for lunch on the way, but it was worth it as I got a pair of work shoes for about 45 bucks, and another pair of suede boots for 45. Steal. It wasn't so hot today making it really enjoyable to walk around the city. We then walked back to the apartment for a shower as we were booked in for a massage at 5pm. Later we walked to the massage place and had a really relaxing 60 minute slot. After the massage and feeling relaxed we grabbed dinner nearby. Midway through we were interrupted by some performers blasting brass horns at us - they weren't really making music, more noise, and eventually the staff told them to piss off. Seems like they were just trying to ...

We were up at 7.30 in order to fit in a look at the concentration camp museum, given our unfortunate timing yesterday. So after brekky we hotfooted it to the museum, and felt sweet relief when we saw it was open. A lady working there showed us around, and told us about the history of the camp. Its not a big place, but still a stark reminder of how horrific humans can be. Afterwards we went for a coffee in the Fortress, then went back to the room to check out. Our host took us to the train station. However, when we got there we found out the next train doesn't leave until 3.30pm! So had to wait on the platform for 4 hours. Finally got on the train (it was 20 minutes late) and turns out everyone smokes on it! Grosssssss. Even though the carriage has no smoking signs, they go out to the outside compartment to smoke and it wafts in through the air con... We arrived after a very long 5 hours and found our apartment. Then went out to buy groceries and dinner.

We decided to eat out for breakfast as we hadn't spoilt ourselves enough over the past few months, and our trip would soon be coming to an end. We walked down the main pedestrian fare which has heaps of cafes, but none were doing food, just coffee or booze. Could be how the Serbians keep so fit - no breakfast just an espresso and a fag. We found a place down "tinker alley", which is the cool drinking street where we had dinner the night before. After brekky we set off for the castle, trying our best to keep to the shadows out of the sun. It's a massive structure so we didn't explore it too much, setting off in a straight line across it. We walked like crabs, skittering between the shade offered by various trees. Once on the other side we set off for the Crveni Kst concentration camp. It's one of the few nazi concentration camps still left standing in Europe, and we were keen to see it. Unfortunately when we got there turns out it's closed on Mond...

Our bus to Nis wasn't until 2.15pm, so it was a burner day. After packing our bags, we checked out and walked to town. Bought the bus tickets, which were quite exxy compared to travelling by train (1450 dinar vs 400 dinar), and then walked over to the lake and found a grassy spot to chill out. Nature called soon enough, so we went to a nearby cafe for a coffee and WiFi to book our accommodation in Nis. Afterwards we walked back to the hotel to collect our bags in scorching 32 degree heat and decided we'd taxi it to the bus stop. Didn't arrive in Nis until 8.30pm, by which point we had really sore butts and were super hungry. Luckily the owner of the place we're staying at picked us up, so we dropped the bags of and went straight to a Serbian kafana. Had delicious traditional grilled meats.

We weren't sure what we were going to do today, but Jackie found a hiking trail on the net that left from near us so we thought we would tackle that. Our only worry was the heat because as usual it was bloody hot. Even though the hike is only about 10km long we were worried. We set off around 11 but didn't actually hit the start of the trail till around 12. The start left from the centre of town, went up towards the main road, crossed over it, then went up the hill to "Monument Zlatibor" . We grabbed some kind of sugar bun snack from the shack at the top of the hill, as well as a drink, chilled for a few minutes, then set off the rest of the treck. We were walking through grassy fields which were being grazed by cows, but the lack of trees meant the sun was right on us. After about an hour we made it to the beginning of the ascent which lead to the peak of the hill. We took it slow as it was so hot but it was still hard going. We thought we had made it to t...

Sunlight streaming through the window woke us up much earlier than intended, so we got up to have brekky and were outside by 9am to wait for our tour bus to pick us up. When it arrived, we found out we were the only ones, so we ended up having a private tour with a super nice guide named Zoran - so lucky! Views We drove about 20 minutes through some beautiful rolling hills and villages, to our first stop, Stopica Cave. A short walk and we saw the humongous limestone cave entrance. As we walked through, the temperature dropped dramatically and droplets of water fell on us, and soon enough we saw the limestone tufa tubs. They were brimming with extremely clear water, and reminded us of the calcite terraces we saw in Pammukkale. Cave entrance Terraces On the other side of the cave was a gushing waterfall, which was pretty cool as its the first underground waterfall I've ever seen. Next on the agenda was the Old Village Open Air Museum, which showcased Zlatibor village l...

Ahhh feeling very tired after another shoddy nights sleep. The apartment we had rented for the night was brand spanking new and very nicely done up, but wasn't entirely finished...no toilet paper or towels, and crucially no air con installed - not a fun thing when it was 35C and humidity was 60%. There was also a lot of road noise coming in when we did open the windows to try and get a bit of a breeze - I guess that's what you get when you book a place right next to the bus station. But at least it had a tiny lift to get us from the fourth floor. We were up at 8 and off to the bus station for the bus to Zlatibor - but again it was a real battle walking to the station as its just so damn hot. Jackie hypothesises that the Serbians are so tall to deal with the heat - more surface area to dissipate it. They seemed to be coping a lot better than we are, even in their jeans. The four hour bus ride tracked a similar path to the train we caught from Montenegro - in fact it cut thr...

It was a great effort to get out of bed this morning as we spent much of the night hunting down mosquitoes. We must have jumped out of bed at least 3 separate times when we heard the suckers hovering near our bed. We were pretty defeated by the time we gave up and even after killing a bunch of them, we still woke up with plenty of itchy lumps from head to toe. Brekky So we dragged our tired butts to a cafe to have a hearty breakfast before checking out of our apartment. We then walked over to Subotica's grand City Hall and joined the midday tour.  The City Hall, built under Austro-Hungarian rule, follows the Art Noveau style and it was absolutely beautiful inside. Every tile was handmade, the ceilings and walls were painted by master craftsmen from Hungaria at the time. Ryan and I were most impressed by  the stain glass windows which were extremely detailed and very colourful. Ryan being bausss The tour took us to see the ceremonial room, which will be used tomorrow to a...

We slept in till 9am, a result of all the late nights we have been having. This ain't due to partying, just a whole lot of football watching. We had a nice breakfast of tortilla wraps and coffee for only about 5 bucks. After brekky we went in search of bikes to do some touring. The local bike sharing scheme would lend us bikes once we were registered, however that meant finding the central office. We eventually wound up at some random building, up three flights of stairs we went to an unmarked door. In we went and we had found it! But alas we needed passports which we had left at our apartment...no go on the bicycles. We decided we would instead walk to the local flea market, only 2km away. But damn it got hot along the way, very humid and about 30C. We got there sweating and perused the goods. Surprisingly a few of the sellers were Chinese! We heard them speaking mandarin, must be a direct export import business from China. I grabbed a nice street food style burger while Jack...

We both woke up in the middle of the night to swat mozzies - killed 4! So didn't get up til late. We had a lovely omelette breakfast at this cafe the apartment owner recommended, also because there was a discount for guests. Next we hopped on a bus to go to Palic Lake. Unfortunately we got on in the wrong direction so had to get off and cross the street, and had to pay again for the bus. Luckily its only 90 dinar a ride.  When we arrived at Palic, we walked to the Lake and followed the path around it. The lake itself is rather underwhelming, with lots of blue green algae growing on its edges, and little to no activity on it (boats or animals). We even saw a dead bird floating in it. But we did see a huge stork so that was pretty cool. Anyway we did walked along the path for a bit, and it seemed like the whole area was a little run down, like it may have been really hip to be there in the 80s, but since then its been abandoned. So we looked at a few of the art nouveau building...