Turned Back at the Border

Baja, Hungary to Selenca, Serbia — 74.0 mi, 13.4 mph, 820 ft

After 15 miles or so, we came to the Serbian border. This would be the first time we’ve had to stop at a border the entire bike trip, not Czechia, not Austria, not Slovakia, and not Hungary. That’s the beauty of the EU. In any event, when the border agent left his kiosk and walked into the main office, I figured there might be an issue. My passport is almost full and has dozens and dozens of stamps from our 15 months of travel a couple years ago. The agent came back with another guy, perhaps someone that spoke better English. This border crossing, we were told, is little and only for Serbian and EU travelers. Uh oh. We were neither, so we would have to cross at a larger crossing. Arrgh.

Riding to the border... 

... and away.

The agent showed us our new destination, Hercegszanto, on Google maps — cool, only 27km away!  Oh well, we had no choice, so we made U-turns and started pedaling realizing our 100km day had just gotten a little longer. So far, it had been a beautiful day on relatively quiet roads. A half a kilometer back up the road, we passed a road to the west and discovered that Google gave walking directions to our new border destination that was only 11km away— yes, please!  It was at that point we discovered that the funny clunking noise from Meg’s bike was from the rear rack whose mounting bracket had cracked. I dug out my dwindling supply of tie wraps (don’t leave home without ‘em) and cobbled together a repair.

Doh!

Tie wraps to the rescue

The new “shortcut” took us through 7 or 8 bumpy and sometimes sandy kilometers of unpaved road between farmland. It was a bit more work, but we definitely saved miles. Border crossing attempt two was successful.

Shortcut through the fields

Since Dex and Kylie were not interested in stopping yet, we set our sights on Sombor some 25 km away. By the time we got there, we were plenty hot and thirsty. We eventually found an excellent upscale jazz bar/restaurant.  We were all very happy to sit on wider padded seats. Something about flat roads with a constant pace all day had made our butts very sore. Before leaving town, we decided to knock out a few chores, we needed to exchange our leftover Hungarian Forints, pull extra Serbia Dinars from an ATM, and buy new SIM cards since Serbia, unlike the other countries we’d been in, is not in the EU and not covered under our phone plans. Dex was not pleased with waiting around, but, this being a Friday afternoon, it was best to strike while the iron was hot.

Yeah, successfully into Serbia

Padded seats, air conditioning, cards...

... and pie!

Speaking of hot, it was now 32C (90F) and increasingly muggy. There was nothing to do but start cranking. We were on car roads the entire way to Selena, alternating between high-speed two-lane affairs with truck traffic and no shoulder, and quiet one-lane roads through farmland or residential areas.  

Busy Serbian roads

It was almost 6:30 when we rolled up to our hotel. My impressions of Serbia so far have been positive. People have been friendly in the shops, restaurants, and hotels. Drivers have been courteous, and the roads have been better than I expected. However, this has been a smelly country so far. We guessed that maybe the fields were recently fertilized. That however was not the problem in our hotel room this evening. Turning on the tap or shower releases a flood of hydrogen sulfide. I guess that’s why there was a sign posted saying the sink water was not for drinking.

End of a long day

The other notable aspect of the day, was it being Meg’s and my 16th anniversary!  At dinner tonight, we tried the traditional fish soup, halaszle, that this part of Hungary is known for. We also tried an apple and raspberry Palinka, which to me tasted like straight whiskey. We agreed to have a proper celebration back home.

“Palinka” brandy