When it’s hot, go underground

We have a short break in Novi Sad feeling very welcomed by our Airbnb host Vešna. I’ve read that we must register at a local police station when we first enter Serbia. We dutifully go to the police station and they seem quite surprised to see us and hear our request/more. After some fluffing around we get ourselves registered. Vešna seems a little surprised; she’s never heard of such a requirement.

The other thing I have heard and have seen written several times on other people’s blogs is the need to be collecting ‘white slips’ from every place we stay. The word is that these are counted and collected by the border guards on exit, and that you have questions to answer if they don’t match with nights spent. Vešna doesn’t know anything about this either.

It’s a dreadfully hot day – it feels like this weather is repeating day after day like a broken record. We go across the river to the Petrovaradin Fortress. An underground tour of the fort sounds just the trick but the only one leaving is in Serbian. The guides take pity on us and take us along anyway, giving us a quick spiel before doing the main commentary in Serbian. Underneath the fortress the relief from the heat is amazing, but the heat feels even more intense when the tour ends are we are ejected back outside.

We meet up with Vešna for a drink later in the day and she tells us about her life as a child during the war. She speaks of having to leave her home and go into a bunker to shelter from the bombing and of waking up to see the bridge – the very bridge we see from the window of our apartment – destroyed by bombs. One can only reflect on one’s own idyllic childhood where the biggest traumas were skinned knees and stolen toys.