Days 7 and 8 - Croatia to Serbia

Today was going to be a very special day. On the way to Serbia I was looking forward to stopping by one of the most famous landmarks in Croatia. Built in the 60s and regularly targeted by the Serbian military during the Siege of Vukovar in 1991, it now stands as a solemn reminder paying homage to the soldiers and civilians of the town who endured the pain, bloodshed and loss of life during the 87 day battle. The Vukovar Water Tower was impressive and sends out a powerful message. It’s now a museum and popular tourist spot, there were lots of people around but it didn’t spoil the effect of what it now represents. More here if you're interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vukovar

It felt odd when I rocked up in Novi Sad, Serbia later that day but as always, the people of a country rarely represent the government of a country. The Serbian border guard was and still is the friendliest border guard I've met so far.

Novi Sad was the complete opposite to what I expected and though I thought my Russian might become useful here, this is simply not the case. The languages are very similar throughout the former Yugoslavia (more dialectic) and though the Cyrillic alphabet is to all intents and purposes the same as the Russian, the language itself is quite different. I could, however, if I looked at a word long enough, read what it said but not necessarily know what it meant. The city was really lively just like any other city on a Saturday night so I treated myself to good old fashioned, traditional Italian cuisine! It was a delicious calamari salad followed by a few Serbian lagers and a traditional Serbian desert of Lava Cake (which was overcooked so no lava, but still very nice. Yes, I was shocked as well but Italian seemed to be the cuisine of choice in Novi Sad. It was good to be eating al fresco again.

What a view from my hotel window, the main square and imposing buildings

Cyrillic, I managed to work out this one - It says Cafeteria (the J would not appear in Russian it would be Я (ya) and the A would not be necessary). The word also sounds like Cafeteria but in a thick Russian accent btw.

Here is the only footage I have of the Saturday night as I lost the entiure 360 footage from that day having had too many Serbian lagers by the time I was transferring all the video files to the laptop later that evening. Oh well, I'm still not completely over it but time heals!