Sunday 22 April 20224
Highlights: Exploring the Petrovaradin Fortress, discovering Novi Sad.

Today we left the realatie comfort of Eastern Europe and moved further east into the Balkans. G Adventure had upgraded the transportation today from public bus to private mini van which was very welcomed.

The first adventure was leaving Hungary and arriving in Serbia. Just before the border we had a comfort stop as border crossings can be very long. This wasn’t a European border that you drive across and later realise you are in a new country. We had to be stamped out of the European Union and than accepted into Serbia. In the end the progress only took 34 minutes in the private bus lane but in general lanes I think I saw two cars served in that time.

Just before arrival Our CEO Nadya explained the history of Novi Sad, how it was part of Hungary for a long time and was the border of Austria-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. This meant a great fortress was created to stop the Ottoman from advancing too far.

Our accomandation was just off the main street of Novi Sad. We did a quick walk around and saw Freedom Square with very impressive buildings including the City Town Hall and The Name of Mary Church.

From here it was a 30 minute walk to the impressive Petrovaradin Fortress. The Fortress is sometimes called the “Gibraltar on the Danube”. On this site the Romans built a fortress (now long gone). In 1235 monks built the monastery upon the remains of the Roman fortress. This was later built into a Fortress but fell to the Ottoman’s in 1526. The Austrian army regained control in 1687, destoryd the old structure and built the current Fortress I saw today.

A highlight of the Fortress as the Drunk Clock with the clock hands reversed so that the long hand was for the hour and the short for the minutes. This was to allow sailors on the Danube to see what hour it was.

As we got to Novi Sad earlier than expected Nadya was able to organise a tour of the catacombs and Fortress defenses. The defenses were very impressive, with multiple lines and traps. Petrovaradin Fortress in 1716 was the location of the last major push by the Ottoman’s into Central Europe with their defeat here using these defenses.

In the evening our new group had it’s first dinner together. Serbian menu are very heavy on the meat options.