The Great Balkans Road Trip: Belgrade – Novi Sad – Timişoara (Day 9)

Welcome to day 9 of 13 on The Great Balkans Road Trip. This is a group tour with Just You. We started in Romania, have travelled through Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Kosovo. Today we’re completing Serbia, visiting Novi Sad, before heading back into Romania, to Timişoara. If you’ve missed the earlier episodes, you can find the full series below. This blog contains affiliate links to help support my writing.

Travel Diaries

On the Road to Novi Sad

With nothing to report from breakfast (boiled eggs again), let’s get straight on the road this morning. As I checked out of the Belgrade City Hotel, I only now noticed they offered massages. I could have done with one of those with my stiff back after lugging my case up the stairs yesterday. Perhaps at the next hotel?

Boarding the bus, one of my tour companions (friends now, perhaps?) took three bottles of water from the fridge. I commended her on attending to her hydration needs before she pointed out she was making room for a cake she’d picked up at the services yesterday. These travellers and their creativity!

Today’s first port of call was Novi Sad (which translates as ‘new garden’). En route, we were shown new bridges that had built following NATO bombing of the old ones. Our Serbian guide proudly told us about the cultural mix of people living here, including those who relocated here from Bosnia and Croatia during the war, as well as Russians who didn’t want to be drafted into the war with Ukraine.

‘There aren’t many Muslims, though. They’re mainly in the South West.’

Did he mean Kosovo?

When we pulled up at – you’ve guessed it – another fortress (Petrovaradin), which also involved an uphill walk in the heat (no thank you), I was part of a splinter group that headed off in the other direction, to grab a coffee.

I still got to see the fortress, though, courtesy of this video, which is really good, with tunnels and bats and ponies and lots of rakia. That said, I can say with conviction that experiencing this first hand would have been terrifying. And I’m pretty sure this wasn’t the tour that our group had…

There is nothing to report from our coffee shop stop, but I would like to show you this Bottlebrush plant from our walk.

After a leisurely coffee and stroll, we reunited with the group and headed into the Old Town of Novi Sad for lunch.

What is Novi Sad like?

It was a beautiful day for a beer in the sunshine in this lovely compact city.

Of course I had done my research and located Brauhaus Brewery as a suitable port of call here. It was a bit of a walk involving a subway (which always confuse me), it was hot – and it was shut when we got there, despite what Google was saying about opening hours. Grr.

We’d passed some places en route so we headed back to find a suitable eatery with beer and outdoor seating in the shade in the direction of the bus for easy egress.

We’d been trained by our Romanian guide to order food that would be quick to arrive when time was limited, so I went for this.

No pic of beer, which probs means Heineken 0.0 or pop. Roll on Romania and a choice of AF beers again!

We’d been so efficient with our lunch that we were on course for an early arrival back with the group. It was hot and we happened across an ice cream shop and it would have been rude not to stop for pudding, wouldn’t it? I was getting into this multi-course meal malarkey on this holiday.

On the walk back to the bus, I was given another book recommendation. This one looks almost as terrifying as those tunnels in the fortress…

I was pleased we’d taken this opportunity for refreshments. We needed our energy as we were about to face the border crossing from hell…

What is the Border Crossing from Serbia to Romania like?

Oh. My. Word. Well lets start with the good bit. The border control to exit Serbia was fine. But that only put us in no man’s land and we still had to get through the border control to enter Romania. We were in the bus queue, behind one other bus that needed to be processed before us. Dear reader, we were waiting behind this bus for 90 minutes. By which time I had not only finished reading my book…

…and I’d also finished writing a blog post. By now, several of our group were quite desperate for a wee, so our guide kindly made arrangements that we could use the staff toilets.

Eventually the other bus moved forward and we were next in line for processing. We disembarked, knowing full well that this would not be a quick process, if the last bus was anything to go by.

Having been seated at the front of the bus, and had my passport collected first, I was first in line for processing. They had one of these new fangled fingerprint reading machines and I was instructed to position my fingers accordingly. Nothing. Press down harder. Nothing. The guard applied additional pressure to my fingers. Nothing. Other hand. Nothing. Try again. Nothing. Press down hard. Nothing. It was at this point I noticed that the record they had pulled up on the screen was not my record, but another woman in our party. She’d been first to dive off the bus to go to the loo, so her passport was out of order and on top of the pile. I pointed this out and the guard waved me away – go over there. Was that me processed now, then? That seemed like a waste of time. I half considered applying for a job there and getting their house in order for them. Instead I took a seat on a wall and began writing Day 1 of this Great Balkans Road Trip series.

I’d almost finished writing my second blog of the day when I was summoned to a room by a stern looking guard. I duly followed him and took a seat as instructed. How exciting! What was going to happen now? Would I be stuck in the Balkans because of a mistaken identity case not of my making? This little drama was at least something to do, now three hours into our stay at border control (which I think was longer than we spent in Kosovo).

Ah the fingerprint machine again! My trusty nemesis. How wonderful. Nope – still nothing. The man gave me something to rub on my hands (sanitiser?) and then I tried again. Result! Woohoo! I gave a little cheer and half expected a sticker for my efforts. But that wasn’t all. Now it was the facial scan. Glasses on or off? I think I took them off and that scan was much easier. Now I was finally processed, I was again dismissed. Phew!

There was now a queue for the toilet, so I decided to join that for something to do, even though I didn’t need to go. As well as our group, there was an American tour group, who we engaged in conversation (again, to pass the time).

‘Whereabouts are you going?’

(blank look and long pause) ‘Romania.’

Given that we were at the Romanian border, I was kind of hoping for something more specific than that. That said, given that some of our party thought we were going to Siberia and Budapest on this trip, I had to allow the American a little slack. Also, my knowledge of US geography is probably much poorer than their European geography.

Anyway the toilet was so grim I couldn’t bear to take a photo and any thoughts of applying for a job there were flushed away with the tissue left in there by one of the women from our group (as there wasn’t any toilet roll).

I thought I had done quite a good job passing the time here today – carving out some bonus ‘me’ time in between having my fingerprints (not) taken. However my companions were not best impressed with this lengthy delay to our journey, which meant we would now be late arriving in Timişoara.

Have you got any stories from border crossings?

On the Road Again

Yippee! We’re moving again! But the clock was ticking (and moved forward an hour on crossing the border) and I had a cunning plan forming. We were back in Romania now, where I knew from past experience there was good beer to be found – and I had no intention faffing about with trying to find food when we got to Timişoara. I took full advantage of the next service station stop.

Some Facts about Timişoara

• Timisoara was part of the Hungarian empire.
• Its name means fortress on the River Timis (yay another fortress!).
• It was the first city in continental Europe with electric lighting on the street.
• The Romanian Revolution of December 1989 began here.

Timişoara is a beautiful city and we’ll see more of it tomorrow on a walking tour in the morning but for now lets ditch our bags at the hotel and hunt down that beer!

What is Berāria 700 like?

It was heaving in the beer garden – and this a Monday night too! The four of us bustled our way through to inside the building. It was a huge beer hall and restaurant, situated above (you’ve guessed it) another fortress.

Nice wall art but get me a beer!

There were four AF beer choices in here – a luxury after a few days in Serbia and North Macedonia – and I was spoiled for choice. I do like a radler so I opted for this one.

The others were a bit peckish, although not for much, as it was getting late now. I couldn’t resist picking at this plate of Transylvanian Potatoes that was ordered. I really was in love with the potatoes over here. Who would have thought it? It was the tomatoes the last time I came here but perhaps I built them up too much in my mind over the years because they weren’t that exciting this time around.

I could have stayed here and worked my way through the beer menu but we had another long day travelling ahead of us tomorrow (which again would be longer than anticipated) so we opted for the short stroll back to our hotel. One of our party had left something on the table (hat, glasses, wallet, phone – one of the things that men tend to leave behind) so I took this photo while we waited for him to retrieve it.

This monument is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the 1989 revolution.

We were soon back in our hotel, where we would get our heads down for one night only before hitting the road again, where we’ll have a mutiny en route to Braşov…

What did I learn today?

• Petrovaradin Fortress has lots of tunnels with bats in.
• Baileys ice cream is delicious.
• Romanian border control is not the quickest.
• This new EU border tech is a nightmare.
• The Romanian revolution started in Timişoara.
• Timişoara was the first city in continental Europe with electric lighting on the street.

Is this part of a wider Balkans travel series?

Yes! If you want to start at the beginning you can find Day 1 here or navigate below or via the European Travel Diaries menu. The journey takes me from Romania, through Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia, before heading back into Romania.