{"id":2607,"date":"2019-10-29T19:50:47","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T19:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=2607"},"modified":"2019-10-30T17:09:57","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T17:09:57","slug":"11-frenemies-friends-and-enemies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=2607","title":{"rendered":"11. “FRENEMIES” FRIENDS AND ENEMIES"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today we are in Novi Sad, Serbia.\u00a0 Grab our passports and go!<\/span><\/p>\n

The city was founded in 1694 when Serb merchants formed a colony across the Danube from the Petrovaradin fort.\u00a0 It developed into an important trading and manufacturing centre as well as a centre of Serbian culture, earning it the nickname Serbian Athens.\u00a0 (How that follows, I’m not quite sure!)<\/p>\n

We had a rather strident guide.\u00a0 Maybe I should revise that.\u00a0 Extremely strident.\u00a0 She was a university lecturer, tourist guide and music teacher.\u00a0 I’ve noted earlier the need for people to hold down several jobs to make ends meet.\u00a0 She seemed to be doing just that.\u00a0 Actually, once she got over her tirade about NATO bombing the city, she was actually a very good communicator.\u00a0 Not saying that her comments were wrong.\u00a0 Maybe totally to be expected from someone who spent their formative years in a war zone.\u00a0 And I don’t suppose in wars that either side is ever totally blameless.\u00a0 As Andras had said – there are at least two sides to every argument.\u00a0 Listen to both – or, indeed, all of them!<\/p>\n

All three of the city’s bridges over the Danube had been bombed to destruction during the Kosovo War of 1999.\u00a0 Just 20 years ago!\u00a0 The story we heard was that one bridge couldn’t be destroyed by NATO bombing.\u00a0 In the end, the locals couldn’t stand the continuous barrage so they blew it up themselves.\u00a0 Well, you can believe that if you want.\u00a0 The destruction was massive.\u00a0 Not only the bridges but all the infra-structure.\u00a0 The TV stations, the hospitals, communications, water, and electricity supplies were all targeted. Residential areas were cluster-bombed several times while the oil refinery was bombarded daily, causing severe pollution and widespread ecological damage.\u00a0 Officially NATO had given advance warning of targets to be hit in order to prevent civilian casualties.\u00a0 But you can see how that might not work perfectly.<\/p>\n

Anyway, it’s complicated.\u00a0 And I’m not an expert.\u00a0 So I think I’ll leave it at that.<\/p>\n

However, the area has obviously experienced a lot of unrest over the ages.\u00a0 We have seen remains of Roman forts.\u00a0 And standing atop a riverside bluff is the massive Petrovaradin Fortress.\u00a0 Much of the structure dates to the 17th and 18th centuries.<\/p>\n

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There are apparently 16 kms of tunnels under the fort on four levels. There are 12,000 gun ports and, at its peak, the place was manned by 24,000 soldiers.\u00a0 Allegedly the place was never taken in any conflict throughout it’s time.<\/p>\n

Talking of time, the fort has an iconic clock.\u00a0 Known locally as the Drunken Clock.\u00a0 It’s back to front.\u00a0 The large hand is the hour hand and the small hand counts the minutes.\u00a0 I suppose if you aren’t working to a tight timetable you are probably happy to know it’s “about coffee time” or “approximately lunch time”.\u00a0 However, the clock is apparently always either fast or slow depending on the air temperature.\u00a0 Hence its name!<\/p>\n

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(Not my photo – we didn’t get that close!\u00a0 If you look at the photo of the fort above you can just see the clock at the far left hand end below the pigeon!\u00a0 For the record it says its 2.58 pm!)<\/p>\n

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Research has shown that it was originally built conventionally, but sailors and fishermen couldn’t read the time from the river.\u00a0 So the hands were swapped over!<\/p>\n

Novi Sad was founded in 1694 when Serb merchants formed a colony across the Danube from the Petrovaradin fort.\u00a0 It developed into an important trading and manufacturing centre as well as a centre of Serbian culture, earning it the nickname “Serbian Athens”.\u00a0 Although how that follows, I’m not quite sure!<\/p>\n

In 1941, Yugoslavia was invaded and partitioned by the Axis Powers, and its northern parts, including Novi Sad, were annexed by Hungary.\u00a0 During WW2, about 5,000 citizens were murdered and many others were resettled.\u00a0 During just the three days of the Novi Sad Raid (21\u201323 January 1942), Hungarian police killed 1,246 citizens, among them more than 800 Jews, and threw their corpses into the icy waters of the Danube. On the river bank there is a plaque with the names of all the victims including 23 members one family.\u00a0 There is also a memorial statue…<\/p>\n

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Our guide gave us a rather more gruesome version of events.\u00a0 She told us that the Jews were unceremoniously thrown LIVE into the river by the Fascists.\u00a0 That would be bad enough in Summer.\u00a0 But at the time the river was frozen.\u00a0 These poor individuals were pushed under the ice to drown.\u00a0 I wasn’t there, thank goodness, so I can’t really comment.\u00a0 Maybe Ms Strident has the correct version!<\/p>\n

The total death toll of the raid was around 2,500.<\/sup><\/sup> Citizens of all nationalities – Serbs, Hungarians, Slovaks, and others – who fought together against the Axis authorities.<\/p>\n

Yugoslavia (which literally means Southern Slavs) was formed after WW2 and in 1975 the whole city was awarded the title People’s Hero of Yugoslavia.\u00a0 Nowadays, Novi Sad is the second largest city in Serbia – home to about 350,000 people and 35 banks!\u00a0 And the general view is that all 35 are money-grabbing crooks!\u00a0 (Just passing on the news and views!)<\/span><\/p>\n

We walked towards the centre of town along lively streets…<\/p>\n

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… to a square with a statue of King Peter<\/p>\n

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…and then on to the Bishops’ Palace…<\/p>\n

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… followed by a little diversion into the Orthodox church that can be seen behind and to the left of the palace. St. George’s Cathedral.\u00a0 With its own\u00a0 iconostasis – obviously!<\/p>\n

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… and in the centre of the church our guide talked us through the marriage ceremony.\u00a0 The lucky couple who were about to get “re-married” were stood beside a lectern thing in the middle of the main body of the church.\u00a0 The witnesses lined up behind – for witnessing duties, obviously.\u00a0 But come on Tom – get your hands out of your pockets and look happy!\u00a0 Else Glenys might change her mind!<\/p>\n

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The congregation (us) decided to sit on the uncomfortable side ledges (see earlier post for more details).\u00a0 Weddings can take a couple of hours at least!\u00a0 Just imagine walking into, say Salisbury Cathedral, and acting like this!\u00a0 Unlikely!\u00a0 And, no doubt, you’d have to pay just to get in the door.<\/p>\n

Another magnificent church – the Name of Mary church is the largest Roman Catholic church in town.\u00a0 It’s located in the city centre on Liberty Square.<\/p>\n

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With it’s massive vaulted ceiling…<\/p>\n

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Outside, in the main pedestrian drag, there is a statue of a famous children’s poet, Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj.\u00a0 Obviously, famous mainly to Serbians.<\/p>\n

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There was some weird story about how he came to focus on poetry for children.\u00a0 He had been a doctor, I think – but some life changing event had changed his life and he started writing poems.\u00a0 To be honest I’d kind of switched off to our guide by this stage.\u00a0 It was getting chilly and we needed a coffee (and a loo).\u00a0 So that’s what we did – on Liberty Square looking at a statue of a (mad) mayor (Svetozar Mileti\u0107<\/span>) giving a rather “unsavory” arm gesture.\u00a0 That and his fly-away coiffure reminded us of Boris (who has just agreed to call an election to see if we really meant what we said three years ago) .<\/span><\/p>\n

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OK.\u00a0 That’s Serbia’s position.\u00a0 Tomorrow we get to visit Croatia.\u00a0 But that’s another story!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we are in Novi Sad, Serbia.\u00a0 Grab our passports and go! The city was founded in 1694 when Serb merchants formed a colony across the Danube from the Petrovaradin fort.\u00a0 It developed into an important trading and manufacturing centre… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-danube-2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2607"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2634,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2607\/revisions\/2634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}