Shining Novi Sad

I didn't know anything about Novi Sad except for that it exists, and in day trip distance from Belgrade at that, and some friends told me it was worth seeing. Nela and Goran confirm this and tell me about the Danube beach park which (funny for Germans as Strand is the German word for beach) is called Shtrand. So I buy some sweet Serbian rolls with poppy seed filling and after 90 more minutes on transportation I reach Novi Sad central station, situated at the end of a huge and long boulevard that leads right down to the river and the beach.

The sky is a bit overcast and it is not as warm as in the previous days, so I take just a short dip in the river. It's a working day and it's "cold", so there are only few people, some families speaking both German and Serbian, four French girls, some older couples. The surface of the sand is damp, probably they got at least some rain, too, last night.

After just sitting and musing for an hour or so I follow my thumb rule of if possible not to take the same road back and find a neatly designed sporting path leading along the river with seperate lanes for runners (with rubber covering), pedestrians and cyclists. Eventually I do return to the boulevard for a short time - and on the other side of it, so not the same way, it really is an enormously wide boulevard until I turn right to reach the old town.

When I do it's like a light being switched on. These streets, too, are relatively wide considering the two storey houses along them and the houses are all painted in light yellow, pink and cream and seem to emit light, shining on the flowers in big pots along the roads, the café tables and the people walking in the car free street. (I am not quite able, however, to capture this light on photo...) At the main square I see the first of many especially beautifully ornated churches. I criss-cross through the old town finding more shining houses, some with even more shinig gold, blue and red icon mosaics on the walls and more beautiful churches.

The connecting street back to the boulevard is different yet again, wide, but with somewhat bigger buildings standing with some space around them and very green trees on both sides of the streets. I unfortunately have to pass by the synagogue as I want to catch the 6 o'clock train back to Belgrade. The boulevard is even longer than I thought it was so I get a little work out and after getting my ticket I make it to the right platform just in time to catch the short train, covered in grafitti, but clean on the inside and so I rumble home.
Or nearly so. It takes me almost as long to get to Nela's and Goran's home because of a tram line that was not working and a bus driver who doesn't know the names of his own stops. A boy of maybe 14 who speaks excellent English saves me in the end as he enables three helpful women to discuss my problem and lead me to the right stop.