Godspeed to Olympos, Sat, 02 Sep 2023 | written by Simon
Simon at a Castle, City in Europe, Serbia

On the way to Novi Sad I quickly realised another reason why I love the EU. Roaming outside of it is EXPENSIVE. As soon as I got there, I bought a Serbian SIM card and activated it with the help of some very nice guys. I managed to find a good parking spot not very far from the city beach, and what else can I do at 6pm if not jump straight into the Danube? It’s been a hot day, so a refreshing bath was great. After the Berlin autumn has started, it’s great to be in 30 degrees again.

Today morning I got up quite late and headed a straight towards the second biggest fortress of Europe: Petrovaradin. It towers over the Danube, but it’s true size is really difficult to appreciate as most of the sprawling ramparts of the fortress are overgrown or built up by the city.

The fortress was already important during Roman times, securing the border of the Empire stretching along the Danube. It saw a lot of action during the Ottoman Invasion of Hungary in the 16th century and again in 17-18th centuries as the Habsburg Empire was retaking those lands. It was then expanded to its current massive size to stand against another Ottoman invasion. What’s above ground is only a part of what’s there: miles and miles of underground tunnels stretch below ground. You can visit some, but many paths are behind closed gates. They don’t close them that well though and I managed to sneak in to one, going one whole level down and exploring tunnels with just my phone light. I need to start carrying my headtorch at all times just in case.

The fortress museum is quite small. One part is devoted to history, but half is about prehistoric archaeology. Maybe it’s just me, but shaped stones and broken pottery all look the same. They do have one great exhibit though – a huge boat carved from a single tree trunk. #NotOnlyVikings.

The other part is devoted to Mileva Marić, a physicist and first wife of Albert Einstein. Like many women she was written out of History as the discoveries they made together were only attributed to him. The exhibition itself was a bit odd – it felt like randomly selected 10% of a much bigger exhibition squeezed into a small space. But it did look beautiful and it did inspire me to look her up, so I guess job done.

I thought that after the visit to the museum I started to comprehend the sheer scale on this fortress but it wasn’t until I started working around that I realized just how extensive it is. I walked for nearly two hours, lost in between the ramparts, finding more and more places, people’s gardens attached to the wall with little huts built into it, a whole music school, dirt roads stretching across the ramparts, completely open tunnels you could walk in and out of as you please. I walked into several and honestly at some point just had to stop because I worried I’ll get lost in them. It’s incredible that they’re all just open!

One of the places I found is Borisov Atalier: it looks like an open-air nightclub that is basically hosted within the walls and underground the fortress. It looks really really cool I think I’m going to come back here tonight for a trance party. I’ll probably park the van somewhere in the vicinity within the fortress.

I went back to the other side of the Danube to check how the city center and especially the Danovar Street which is the local pedestrian zone filled with bars. It was quite a cute and quaint, but from the beginning I felt spotted by a couple guys who looked like pick-pocketers, which got me a bit nervous. I made it clear to them that I saw them and managed to lose them quite quickly. On the way I saw a wedding in a temple with a massive brass orchestra playing, walked around a bit and had some traditional Serbian stuffed peppers. Finally, the heat got to me, so I walked back to the car to enjoy the beach for a little bit longer before I head to the club at night. I was trying to ignore the smell of cooked asphalt – it is over 30 degrees and constantly sunny, I wonder how this place smells in the middle of the summer…

On the beach I did a bit of writing, but soon the mosquitos started being a bit of a nuisance, so I made it back to the van and slowly drove towards Borisov Atelier. Honestly the party was a blast. I had a fantastic time dancing to some sick beats and meeting a lot of lovely new people who made me feel very welcome. I have to say though, I wish that the age average was a little bit higher – the party crowd was mostly school kids.

I was dancing my ass off until about 4 o’clock before I went to sleep. In the morning I drove back up to the top of the fortress viewing spot I found the previous day and had breakfast with the best view in town.