Serbia! The Steps in Novi Sad & Day 24

I’m amazed at the city noise I am learning to sleep through.  My room is on the first floor meaning one level above the main hotel floor at the corner of two busy streets.  I sleep, or try to sleep, with the window open since the room is too warm for me.

What will silence be like when I return home!

We are heading to Petrovaradin Citadel, a towering fortress on a hill above the city, built by the Austrians in 1692.  Ahhh, we catch a bus for part of the way.  I injured my foot in Ljubljana, and I’ve been limping slightly, but no one has noticed.  Perhaps that is good since I don’t want to complain and impact others.  However, I’ve been living on 800 mg ibuprofen and keep on going!

Novi Sad hasn’t shown very much character yet.  The area of the hotel is in a newer part of town and centrally located, but the city looks very generic.  As we reach the older part of town which was once part of fortress, the buildings become much more interesting decorated with trim and painted pastel colors.

 

Where am I?

Forget Dubrovnik being the Stair Master of the Balkans.  After 168 steps…I counted each and every one, we reach an upper level.  It’s a foggy morning, but the views of the city and the Daube are still amazing.  

 



The Daube turns, and I can see how this was a great defensive position.

The clock was a gift from the Austrian empress after the city purchased their town from the empire.  The time on the tower clock looks like 4:46.  However, it’s really 9:25.  Is it incorrect?  Broken?  

 
In medieval times, the hour was most important for the townspeople to see so the longest hand pointed to the hour while the short hand indicated the minutes.  If you look at the hands with this knowledge, the clock is right on time!  Known as the “reversed clock”, it is one of the landmarks of the fortress.  The clock has operated with original parts until very recently when some repairs were made.

Then there are more steps to reach the upper level!  Fifty-six and a breather before fifty-three more!  As we walk around the outer wall, I notice cars coming into the museum parking lot.  I ask, “We could have driven up here?”

After that when I crossed the roadway at the fortress, I took my time if a car was coming.  You can wait, I walked up here!

There is moss and grasses growing on roofs and along the fort’s walls

 

and you can see the steep drop into the river.

The fort was built in late 1600’s and continued to be redesigned and added to for over seventy yrs.  It has a star shape pattern and three sets of brick walls several feet thick separated with a 10 foot space between them filled with dirt.  However, before the dirt was added between the walls a tunnel was constructed which ran between the walls.  These tunnels connected with the next set of double walls and then the third resulting in a labyrinth on five different levels!

Three sets of moats between the three sets of walls could be flooded from the Daube on the “wet” side which also faced the swamps.  On the opposite higher “dry” side, tunnels under the empty moats were laid w/ explosives.

Three drawbridges crossed these moats and 

gunports litter the exterior walls with larger spaces below used for cannons

 

Thank goodness for English translations in the bathroom and elsewhere!

 

As we head to tour the underground tunnels, the fog has started to lift.

 

We enter the tunnels through a gate and …oh boy, more steps and these are in the dark!  The floor is hard-packed dirt with a curved brick ceiling and 

the view a soldier would have inside the tunnel at the gunsport.

Imagine these tunnels packed with running soldiers, gunfire, and smoke!

Looking through an opening with a pulley system to send supplies between floors, I drop my phone!

Thank you, Lord, it fell on the ground because the next opening was four levels down, and there would have been no way to retrieve my phone other than wait for another archeological dig!

In 1716, Ottoman Turks attacked with 150,000 soldiers, but they could not breach the fortress.  An interesting note about Turkish soldiers who were usually kidnapped as infants and raised with a life goal to serve the sultan in the military.

We  exit the tunnels into one of the moats

 

and you can see the steepest of the walls.

The fortress is also home to the EXIT music festival held each summer on the grounds with multiple stages and over 200,000 attendees.

The fog has totally burned off, and we have a great view of this bridge that was totally destroyed in the NATO bombing of 1995.

We cross a “lovers” bridge with multiple locks as couples declare their love as eternal and 

a look back at the fortress.

 

A beautiful park with fountains and fall leaves is filled with families on this Sunday.

 

We enter the main pedestrian square filled with shops, restaurants, and people while interesting architecture line the streets.  

 

An elderly gentleman dressed in traditional Serbian clothes plays the flute and a one-string guitar-like instrument while singing.

 

Now the beauty of Novi Sad shines!

 

 

The tiles on the spire of this church are all ceramic.

 

Young boys and older men are gathered nearby trading cards of “football” players since World Cup Soccer begins soon.

We have a delicious lunch at a typical Serbian restaurant.  It’s amazing that some of our best food has been in Serbia!

I am exhausted from little sleep, an injured foot, almost 3 1/2 hours of standing and walking…and climbing steps!…with no bathroom break nor a chance to sit down.  As we linger at lunch, I close my eyes and wish I could just crawl under the table to sleep!  I know I am also anemic, and I have hit a wall!

I take the afternoon and evening to rest, FaceTime the family, eat an apple, wash my hair, and regroup.  I missed out on exploring more of Novi Sad and an ice cream dinner…again!…with Robyn, Pam, and Tom, but it was the right thing to do.

Our group of four needs a name.  I suggest Tom and his harem, but the more politically correct is The Fearsome Foursome!

I have a confession to make.  I am a smuggler!  From Albania to Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina back to Croatia, Slovenia, and finally to Serbia, I have smuggled a persimmon around the Balkans!  It wasn’t intentional at first, and I kept meaning to eat it, but then it became a joke.  I haven’t filled out a custom form at any border crossings or been asked about any fruits or vegetables so I haven’t lied about it.  It has just been living quietly in my backpack!

However, I am NOT taking it back to the US so I must eat it in the next couple of days.  GJ does not want to be TRAVELING to a detention center for smuggling an illegal fruit!

Until next time!