On the Road...Back to Budapest...29th June

A quick post.. given I have been on this route before.... and the same wait at the Hungary boarder crossing as before. This time I definitely chose the wrong lane to queue as the cars in the adjoining lane moved through a lot faster.

The reason for the delay became apparent once I finally got to the passport check kiosk. The controller wanted my whole life story.. including my shoe size... I assume all the other cars received the same attention. I probably enlivened his day...

The odd thing about returning was the road was free of any ruts, holes and ripples in the surface, both in Serbia and Hungary. I could have been driving on another road.. How easier does this make driving. 
Another nice touch was when filling up for more petrol, there was an attendant ready to wash windscreens and the rear window. Admittedly by the time I arrived in Budapest I was peering between large splattered remnants of big bugs that my wipers couldn't remove. 

Before leaving Serbia I turned off the motorway and drove to Subotica. 
After WW1, for a brief period, this was the largest city in Serbia due to the devastation to Belgrade. I didn't have enough time to see much so I have downloaded these images....

Finally with my collection of squashed bugs I arrived in Budapest in the evening 

Beograd (Belgrade)...29th June


I met Aleksandar, the Montinvest construction director of the Rossi project for brunch in a cafe in the hills over looking the city.. it was great to catch up after 3 years since the end of the project. 

The cafe is close to where a ski slope used to operate during the winter; the drags are still there but I understand it hasn't been operating for a while..

A beautiful view and shows how green Beograd is. 

Warm.. cool breeze, families enjoying a Saturday morning..

Aleks is looking relaxed... three years of not working with me has made all the difference.....

Beograd (Belgrade)...28th June

After the downpour last night, today was fresher with a breeze.. even at 27 degrees this seems cool after the last few days. Beograd city blankets the hill; the breeze sweeps up and filters through the streets. It is also very green which avenue lined trees, parks and woods surrounding the city.

I was due to meet Maja and Milan of Spring Studios, that worked as executive architects with Montinvest on the Rossi Project in St Petersburg. 
I have not seen them since 2104 after my last visit to Beograd. Then it was a couple of short 'fly in fly out' visits so I only saw Beograd from taxis.

After my 'phone map failure' last night, I intended to make sure that I knew where I was going: I even wrote the address on a scrap of paper. My mistake was to miss a number on the address when putting this into the phone instead of 82, '2 'was added. After walking 4km in an increasing hot day.
I arrived at number 2 to realise that the local fruit stall was not where I should have been... Slightly panicking, I was able to flag down a taxi.. I think the taxi driver was more surprised in picking up an English person than I was being able to flag down a taxi in the middle of the Beograd hinterland..

After nearly 2 hours walking in the wrong direction, the return taxi trip took 15 minutes. The up-side is I did see a lot more of a part of Beograd, had I not made such a hash of putting the correct address into the phone. 
After all my wasted effort their office, once I finally arrived at the correct address, was only 200 metres from my apartment....

I meet Maya and Milan in their studio; cool, herringbone timber floors and with a balcony looking over the garden courtyard; and a glass of water... 

We went to lunch at Madera in Tasmajdan Park, an oasis after my walk. 
Both Maja and Milan were brought up, studied and have committed to work in Belgrade. Maja is also a professor at the architectural school, teaching the next cohorts of students to understand the reality of Architecture.. I have tried for thirty years to learn this.....  

Due to the city's geographical importance, located on the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, Belgrade has been fought over for centuries, including the first world war that decimated the centre and the bombing by the Germans in 1941.

The Sava meeting the Danube.. Photo taken from the fortress..

The Sava river

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgrade

The rapid expansion of post war Belgrade, including the new city on the opposite river side has created a melange of building styles.. retaining the older buildings that remain..

Walking back from the centre from the fortress, I came across a large, expensive looking showroom for a new, massive development now under construction on the waterfront.

Belgrade is similar to many cities where there is a necessity to continue investing in the city, enhancing the social and public facilities while relying on a 'partnership' of public and private investment. Reading the information in the showroom, this development brings all these issues into focus; Eagle Hills: Belgrade Waterfront.

It is a joint development between the city and a UAE property company Eagle Hills. 
Reading more about this development after reaching my apartment it appears that the main concerns for those who live in Belgrade about this development are many: the opacity of the decision making process, what will actually be built, the diminished accessibility to the waterfront and the immense scale and height of the buildings impacting on the whole cityscape.  
While there are images of waterfront cafes and retail outlets it is not clear what actually will be built and what the accessibility will be for the city.  The city has always had an inextricable link to the Sava river; for militarily, commercial and more recently social activities; will the public be able to still have ownership of the river front?

These buildings have already been constructed... who thought it was a good idea to have the balconies looking away from the river....

This may or may nor be the final design.. no one knows but the height will not change..

On the opposite bank, the 'new' city, designed and constructed in the 50's has that public connection with the river, with parks, cycle ways and real views across the river to the 'old' city. 

When in Vilnius a couple of weeks ago, i saw that the city is also developing the waterfront but ensuring the river bank will be used for the public with the commercial development behind, This seems a good social agreement. 

In the afternoon I wandered towards the fortress and the city centre..

Work on-going to repair the garden surrounding the old fortress..

More of Beograd later.......

On the Road to Beograd...27th June


Driving through and past embassies on the tree lined avenues constructed at the same time as Andrassy Street; some buildings perfectly preserved, some needing work. Some new buildings.... odd..

Driving south out of Budapest was straightforward.. I was hoping to drive past a supermarket to buy a few toiletries, maybe an Aldi or a Lidl but surprised to see a sign for  a....

It was enormous.. really a huge warehouse and pretty sold everything.. and more....

Not something provided in Tetbury....


Moving on.. southern Hungary is pretty, relentlessly flat. pretty much 400ft elevation all the way.. huge, expansive fields, mostly corn readying for harvest. The traffic thinned out the closer to the Serbian boarder with less trucks, but many more German cars heading south. One thing about the road, the surface was so much better than the Hungarian road driving towards Budapest. So I take it all back.

Finally I arrived at the boarder..driving past hundreds of parked lorries, and I realised that this would not be a quick pass through. The delay was on the Hungarian side.. But after 45 minutes it was my turn.. and they let me through... the first successful boarder crossing..:). Driving across no-mans land to the Serbian checkpoint, there was no queue and with a quick check I was driving on.. past a burnt out car left by the side of the checkpoint.. hopefully not a symbol of the future.. 

Well, northern Serbia is flatter. The road was slightly elevated so the view was greater than Hungary, Here, there were large expanses of blackened rapeseed being harvested by small groups of combines, swirling dust clouds marking the combines in the distance. It reminded me of the burning fields in Interstellar, (the film).

A friend suggested stopping at Subotica, close to the boarder but i needed to press on after the delay at the boarder; I will on the return.

After passing Novi Sad (the second largest Serbian city) the road improves markedly so no longer worried about my suspension. 
Driving past the airport, memories of the manic taxi journeys to and from the centre of the centre flickered back into consciousness. The bridge across the Danube and the approach roads are under-reconstruction but the amount of jostling, moving from lane to lane, driving on the hard shoulder and pushing in at the last moment... The sound of horns have been generally absent on this journey; it was made up for here. But as ever, you ultimately reach your destination. 

The apartment is in a creeking 50's building but the modern interior is exactly as it shown on the website. My car is parked at the rear of the building next to an old Peugeot 504, which is gently settling down to rust away.

A short rest and a shower, I ventured out into the centre..Tomorrow I will post about the city in detail, but I discovered a small street, Skadarska.. with a string of small restaurants. but decided to move on when competing accordion bands started to compete with each other.  

I was advised to go to another restaurant in the Dorcol area. and sat in their courtyard terrace... So, 30 degrees when I sat down...

Within an hour, the heavens opened with lightning...

Lightning strike.....

Waiting for the rain to stop.. I must have left my camera on, on my phone. As I was leaving the restaurant after the ran had stopped my phone died; no map...

I knew what direction to take generally but I ended up taking the wrong boulevard road and walking way past my street, only to have to double back.

I finally arrived back to the apartment, with a little help, at 1.30am....
  Well, I did see more of Beograd than expected...

Budapest...26th June

Just another post about an hotel... This time the one I'm staying at in Budapest..

It proudly mentions in the room booklet that it was 'uniquely designed in the Bauhaus style .. boasting contemporary interior design'....

Well, while the building was constructed in 1937 and has curved bays at each end.. it has as much in common with Bauhaus as the the band 'Bauhaus' did.. (actually their song, 'Bella Lugosi's Dead is one of my all time favourites...).

The interiors are tired and remind me of a sanatorium that is in the autumn of its life. quiet, no noise.. I may be the only person here...

What has annoyed me the most is, looking to make a cup of tea there is none.. or coffee, only a sachet of sugar on each saucer. I assumed this was a mistake but the receptionist said no.. it is part of the mini bar service, they will be extra.. 
A sachet of basic Nescafe coffee must cost all of 10p.. no bathroom soap.. (this was a mistake) and no iron or board..

I have cancelled my booking for the return visit and re-booked elsewhere..

One of the benefits of taking a car on holiday is that you can pack miscellaneous items in the boot that wouldn't make it in a suitcase where space is precious. I remembered I have packed my own coffee.. 
I hope I won't be charged for boiling the water.....

Budapest...26th June

The drive in to Budapest, from the six lanes reducing to two, brings you into directly into the heart of Buda.. 

I'm always hopeful that traffic moves slowly in cities so that I can acquaint myself with the way each country and city deals with traffic flow management and changes in lane protocols. When 'Julie' says turn left.. its not always clear if you can.. I concentrate on making sure everyone around me knows what I think I may be doing.. The GB sticker on the back of the car helps but there is nothing like indicating as if your life depends on this....

But the traffic was fine.. calm compared with Krakow or Bratislava... happy.... just keep away from the trams coming towards you along the centre of the road..

As I reach the Danube, the whole visa of Pest appears, it is just magical.. one of the best vistas of any city.. as well as the bridges crossing the river..

Crossing the Danube and driving through Pest is an amazing experience. Being a joint capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire with Vienna, the city has a mix of the last vestiges of the Hapsburg Empire knitted with smatterings of post second world war communism and the new Hungary.

Driving up along the Andrassy Utca, designed and planned to mimic the Champs Elysee to my hotel, I realised that I was going to be along way from the centre.. slightly put out by this (my stay this time is only a night although for the first time on my journey, I intend to re-visit a city after Beograd). I was told by the receptionist that there is a metro station close to take me into the centre..

The hotel is in the embassy quarter (more about the hotel later..), the Korean embassy is opposite. Quiet, tree lined streets are all beautiful in the 35 degree heat but I wanted to be in the centre... time is short...

Images of undergrounds are of crowded, hot and sweaty systems like the London underground or Rome.. but this one.. it is a perfectly preserved miniature railway that happens to run underground. It is only a short line, perhaps 10 or 11 stops, with stations all close together. There is no connection between north and south lines other than crossing the road above. A simple stair down to platforms that can only be 25 metres long. A cut and cover construction, it is a simple design and wonderful to take a ride on..

The entrance/exit to the metro for the up line on Andrassy Street

The full length of the platform

The end of the line in the centre.. The train crosses the track and starts back up the line...

The route map...

It is like someones' personal tube line...

Reached the centre in 6 minutes..  and walked to the river edge...

 I walked on, along the river to the Parliament building...

But at 5.30pm with the sun still shining and the temperature at 35, I decided to sit under the awnings of a cafe and watch the trams go past until the heat cooled enough to travel back to the hotel...

Hopefully in a couple of days time, after visiting Beograd, I will spend a lot more time in Budapest...




    

On the Road to Budapest...26th June

I left Bratislava just after 11, I thought I would wait until the traffic calmed down, and reached the Hungarian boarder within 40 minutes and stopped at the first service station for petrol. An odd observation while in the car park; cars from Norway, Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Estonia and Austria all collected (oh, and GB..). I hadn't seen any other nationalities while travelling from Poland.  

Sorry Hungary, the motorway surface is the worst on my journey to date.. even worse than the UK motorways.. At one point I had to stop to check that a front wheel hadn't been damaged driving over a tank trap.. 
People don't drive as fast as on the Polish motorways.. unless it is a Polish car, so one good thing. 

The number of trucks moving in convoy sometimes took 5 to ten minutes to overtake. I thought the percentage of cars to trucks on the road was 40:60; driving south into Hungary and beyond. A two lane motorway can't really cope with this level of truck traffic, hence the reason for the poor surface. When driving through the Baltic States, signs extolled the virtue of joint funding of their roads. I wonder if Hungary has the same access to funds to repair their motorways?

Closing in on Budapest, the road expands to 6 lanes and the anticipation grows accordingly....

Bratislava Slovakia...25th June

Once checked in, I decided to walk into the city before it got too dark.. Today was the first hot day on my journey.. 33 degrees. No doubt it will get hotter...

A very different city to Krakow.. different histories. I have a copy of 'A Time of Gifts' written by Patrick Leigh Fermor, his journey made on foot, from The Hook of Holland (where I started) to Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1932/33 when he was 18. He reached Bratislava.. then known either as Pressburg (German) or Pozony (Hungarian).. This city is the second link to the book but most of the descriptions of the city have changed; but good to be here..  The different names encapsulates the changes in control and ownership over the last couple of centuries..

I walked from the hotel into the centre finding a underpass to cross the motorway sized road that splits the historic town with the part of the city where I'm staying.. 

The old town is mix of refurbished buildings and those waiting for the funds to be re-furbished. I like the fact that there is this mix; seeing buildings in disrepair would be the same as all periods through the centuries. No city was ever perfect in the past, but we tend to expect this now, when as tourists we visit these cities. 

What I did like was sitting in a cafe in the square as the sun set, surrounded by locals; not just tourists...

Evening photos.....

Waiting to be refurbished

A dilapidated building just off the centre square...

I love trams in cities...  

The refurbished and the one waiting.....

On the way out of the city the next morning (26th)....

I always seem to miss the important cultural events....