Monday, June 2 Novi Sad

Shortly after 8 this morning, Betty, Mary Ann, Miles, Celeste, and Glenn boarded the bus for the planned half hour 20-25 km drive to Pilisvorosvar, where Betty had traced her family. More than an hour later after fighting our way through rush hour traffic, at one point taking 30 minutes to cover three blocks, we received our reward. We easily found the three hundred year old church and took several pictures, although it was locked and we could not get inside. Johannes was able to learn from a neighbour that the cemetery was nearby and pretty easy to find. We found three Hasenfratz headstones in a quick search before hurriedly returning to the bus.

We arrived back at the hotel at 11 am, an hour later than planned, but no one was really surprised, as our timeline was a bit optimistic. We picked up our well rested and full of coffee traveling companions and set off for Serbia. It took another hour to get across Budapest and join the autobahn (or whatever they call it here).

We cleared both borders with relative ease. The Hungarian guard took all our passports in for a check and eventually brought them back all stamped. The Serbian wanted to see our passenger list and also stamped our passports. Other than the usual bureaucratic red tape, no problems.

We met Stasa Cvetkovic, our guide, at the border. He led us to a restaurant at Palic Lake where we enjoyed a very nice late afternoon dinner. From there we drove to Subotica for a tour of the city centre. Finally, after, 7 pm, we left for the last leg to Novi Sad, with the hotel guests settled by about 9 pm. Some of us stayed at Stasa’s apartment. We talked until 11 pm before packing it in.

The hotel is a new five star hotel with a lobby as big as a gymnasium and oodles of staff everywhere. It was a bit expensive, but good value for the rooms and breakfast according to those who stayed there. Stasa’s place was very good value also!

Very warm day again today.