Unfortunately Mrs GPS kept telling us that there was no such street in Subotica, but luckily we had noted the GPS co-ordinates for the hotel so we input that data instead and set off.
It was a very nice run down (or it may have been up!) the M5 to the border with Serbia at Roszke
On the way there was one "incident" when Sherry was driving as she went to pass another vehicle. The speed limit was 130kmph and she was doing around 125kmph when she pulled out into the fast lane to make the overtake.
As we passed the other vehicle she made comment to look how close the vehicle behind was so I looked in the side mirror but saw nothing - I turned to look out the rear windscreen and here was a Ford Focus literally sitting on our rear bumper waiting for us to get back into the slow lane so that he could continue his blast down the M5. Whether he made it to where he was going is problematical!
We had read that there is usually a delay at the border and that is indeed what occurred
Firstly you had to go through passport control and once you had achieved that
you drove forward about 300m and then had to go through Customs. From the time we pulled up in the queue until we had cleared Customs was an hour and a half.
It was extremely hot sitting in the car creeping forward every 5 or so minutes and the biggest frustration of our trip to date - unfortunately we will have to go through this again when we leave Serbia into Bosnia & Herzegovina and when we leave B&H and travel into Croatia and ....
Getting into Subotica was also a mission due to the accuracy of the GPS co-ordinates but that is another story suffice to say as we drove through very ordinary areas we concluded that Subotica wasn't going to be much of a place to spend an afternoon.
Some surprises were in store, firstly the hotel is of a very high standard and when we got out into the city centre we were pleasantly surprised.
Subotica first appeared in documents in 1391 as Zabatka and has had more than 200 name changes since!
There were numerous beautiful art nouveau buildings within walking distance of the city centre
The town hall was a stunning example situated adjacent to the park and then there
was the library.
In the Main Street "Korzo" was the Subotica Savings Bank Palace built in 1907
and further up the street the most stunning example of them all, Ferenc Raichle Family Palace completed in 1904 and inspired by Transylvanian folk art
The synagogue is regarded as being the most beautiful synagogue in this part of Europe.
Away from the buildings the shops were very uncluttered and of a high standard and there was also a monument to those residents who have won Olympic medals.
The city also has a few of the life like figures we have seen elsewhere and the
street signs repeat the name of each street three times - the top being Serbian Cyrillic script, the middle being normal Serbian and the lower in Hungarian.
This part of the world was caught up in the Yugoslavian conflicts of the 1990s when it broke up due to the internal conflicts known as the Bosnian War - we saw a plaque which remembered those from this area who lost their lives in this conflict.
The cost of living in this part of the world is an eye opener. As examples 2 cups of coffee purchased on the square cost slightly less than $NZ4 and our meal tonight which was 2 mains, 2 salad side dishes, and 2 bottles of mineral water was $NZ25 and one of the mains was a whole fish.
Tomorrow we head further south in Serbia to Novi Sad before crossing the border to Sarajevo the next day.
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