Another lovely breakfast spread for us of farm to table food and coffee. Once we were packed up we were off to Timisoara to drop off our rental cars and catch our transfer over to Serbia.
We had a quick visit to the heart of Timisoara which is undergoing an amazing transformation. The main square, Plata Ursii is completely under renovation. At first glance we thought maybe that the square was filled with garbage, but it turned out to be huge bags of small stones that would form the new surface of the square. It will be spectacular when its finished.
We needed to have our cars dropped off at the airport by 12pm, so we had a quick walk around and then headed off to the airport. We had scheduled a transfer with GEA Tours for 20 euros each to take us across the Romanian border to Belgrade Serbia. It was a nice drive and we were in a large van so we had a little more room to move around. Getting through the border took 19 mins! We had a bet going and Erik won. The rest of us didn't have high enough times...I for one hadn't factored in having to pass through the Romanian border, and then you travel forward and cross the Serbian border...so it took longer than I thought.
Arriving into Belgrade, it took us quite awhile to get to our hostel as traffic was bad and this is a large and busy city. We got dropped off at the address and I started to worry. Dave's phone had died and the address we had been given did not look right and frankly was a dingy run down lobby that left a lot to be desired. While we frantically tried to get Dave's phone charged up to be able to contact the host of the hostel, Bruce found the place up the road. Again, the lobby of the building if you would even call it that, was run down and honestly, yucky...but after travelling up to the 4th level and entering the hostel, it was truly a lovely place. They had given us one side of the hostel with 3 bedrooms and a bathroom. It had beautiful crown moulding and the walls were painted in beautiful colours and the doors were huge impressive and solid wood. The owner of the hostel and his employees were extremely friendly and helpful and made us feel welcome and comfortable.
It was stinking hot out as usual so we took some time to rest and avoid the hot hot heat before venturing out for dinner. Even when we did eventually go out for dinner, I think it was still in the thirties...it was incredible and very difficult to do much of anything.
We walked up our street and onto the main pedestrian street and I was instantly amazed at the vitality of this city. I was not overly impressed by its beauty, and to be honest, even now that we're gone from here, it doesn't rank high on my list of the places that we visited, but it was a truly colourful and alive city. As we walked down the pedestrian lane, we were met by multiple orchestras playing beautiful music, an amazing art display of what appeared to be almost life size Transformers, people painting, people dancing, balloon artists and so on. The street was packed with people and made you feel sort of invigorated to be walking among everyone. Again, the buildings are not beautiful, but the people animate this city in an amazing way.
We had dinner at a place called ? (not that I don't know the name...it's actually called question mark) and the patio was lovely. We had some Serbian musicians serenade us and ate some traditional food. The dinner didn't knock my socks off...and truthfully the heat was so incredible that the kids and I were really struggling. After eating we trudged back to the hostel and went to bed!
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