Serbia

When we crossed the border we had to walk 6km to the nearest town with full rucksack.  Here we found that there were almost no buses to the next town of Kosturica.  Our guidebook had no information for this part of Serbia.  Ok pioneering travel it would be.  We had no money and there were no ATMs.  We found a Serbian who spoke Italian (noone spoke English), so I spoke to him in Spanish and he replied in Italian and we changed some money for an ok rate and set off for the next town of Negotin.  The wonders of modern travel.  We then got picked up again (These Balkan countries are amazingly friendly as we got picked up in every one of them except Macedonia without even trying.  I think hitchhiking would be easy here) by a guy with one hand and he drove us to the Negotin where we were able to get some money and a bus to Belgrade.  Even had another chat about food with another local in German this time.  The scenery in this part of Serbia was beautiful with fields of flowers in bloom and even what looked like a crater lake on the bus ride, but I have no idea where it was or what it was called as I was drifting in and out of sleep.

Belgrade:  It's a grey city and we stayed in Habitat hostel.  We went to Kalemagdan fortress to look around and have a coffee.  Nice place, but not amazing.  Picked up a new sleeping bag to replace the one Cannelle had left on a bus in Albania.  We couldn't find Tito's grave and got pinned down an alley by a horde of football fans.  That was a little intimidating.  We went to see the giant incomplete church which was quite impressive.  Nice place to visit, but not worth going out of your way for, though we didn't try the famous nighlife.

Novi Sad:  The second best looking women in Eastern Europe after Zagreb.  Cool little city.  I ended up chatting in the evening with a Russian girl in the hostel.  She had been warned not to travel to Bosnia or Albania as the locals would rape her.  I told her that in my opinion they are two of the nicest countries I have been to for the people.  Both amazing places.  We went to the fortress where Exit festival is usually held.  We also went to Sremski Karlovci to see the monasteries.  It's very pretty but you only need about 30 minutes to get around, so we decided to go and visit some of the famous monasteries around the city.  We chose Novo Harpovo monastery as it was the easiest to get to without a car and it was very cute.  There they had photos of all the other monasteries and I think it would make a pleasant day trip or two if you hired a car and drove around the area.  It's a cute little city with a few things to do, but nothing outstanding.  We chatted with the owner and with the Russian again as we compared salaries in Serbia.

Subotica:  This is a very pretty little town on the border with Hungary.  We had a look around for an hour or so before taking the most ridiculous tin can train to Hungary.  They told us to wait for it and when it arrived it was one glass carriage that rolled over the grass covered tracks at about 3km an hour.  Interesting experience.  The Hungarian side is better maintained and much faster.