Picture is taken from the city center with a few more people in the square mid-day. Look at how blue that sky is...not even a cloud in sight. The birds caught my attention.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Brenda and I walked to the bus stop and took a local bus to the base of the Petrovaradin Fortress this morning. There are about 500 steps carved into the mountain side that you have to climb to get to the top but the view is well worth it when you get there. I think I have gotten some good pictures.The Fortress dates to the 18th century and they have taken some of the buildings and turned them into restaurants with tables on a large patio overlooking Novi Sad and the Danube. Unfortunately, 2 very persistent bees were interested in me. Since I didn't have any Benadryl with me and I am very allergic, we found it prudent to eat inside.
We chose the Asian restaurant. They serve foods from about 8 different Asian countries. It was very flavorful and a little spicy. There was also an Italian restaurant for their favorite food here...pizza. Also, a French restaurant...that would have been nice. This was the most I have spent for a meal in Serbia...$16 with tip. Another building up there is being renovated into a hotel. It will have a commanding view of the Danube.
In 1999, all the bridges over the Danube were destroyed by NATO when they were going after Milosevic'. The caretaker's son told us that some of the windows in our dorm were blown out during the bombing raids. He was 7 at the time. I can't imagine how scary that would have eben for him or for his parents who wanted to protect their children. They have done a nice job of rebuilding things here.
After we walked around the fortress, we took the bus back to the city. It stopped very close to the ballet school so we decided to go and watch the end of the modern class and the rehearsal for tomorrow's performance. We stopped and I bought Stevan an ice cream cone on the way back as our appetizer for dinner. He said he hadn't had any ice cream yet. We were shocked since it is a daily thing for us!
Dinner was pork again...they like pork here at the dorm. Very tasty though. They did my laundry one last time before we leave for London on Saturday. I found out the cost today although there wasn't a specific breakdown. As a group, we need to pay for internet service...which has been sporadic, and laundry...are you seated....$30. It was left to me to apportion it...which was difficult. I charged everyone $1 for internet and $5 for each of the other mother/daughter pairs who also did a couple of full loads of laundry and $1 for each of the other girls who did just a little laundry. I'm paying $10 for laundry because we did it 3 times. What a deal though...I still wish I could take them home with me.We also each have to pay a new registration fee/tax that goes to the police of $12.50 each. That wasn't in the original costs because it is new. We can pay Stevan because he is paying the dorm. He prefers US$ and I have some in my record pouch so at least I don't have to go and get any more dinars from the ATM. Eleanor and I each have about $20 of dinars at this point which will take care of lunch tomorrow for each of us and water at the airport after we pass security in Belgrade on Saturday.
I need to go and get Eleanor to get her things together in the girls' room that she was sharing so I can pack up tomorrow while she is in class. They have a performance with the Serbian girls at 5:00 tomorrow and a celebration/party here at the dorm at 8:00 tomorrow night with everyone. We won't want to pack during that and we need to leave for Belgrade and the airport at 8:00 AM on Saturday morning to catch the flight to London.I also want to try and go to the contemporary art museum here tomorrow as it is the only thing that I haven't seen that I wanted to see.
Gotta run...Ciao!
Kellye and Eleanor
PS...the pictures I'm attaching are the best from the phone...the really good ones are on the camera memory card of course.
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