Novi Sad - Belgrade - Skopje

You eat a homecooked meal, and walk through a leafy socialist neighbourhood at dusk.

Later, you eat ice cream and drink Coca Cola across the river from the Novi Sad fortress, under a waxing moon. The fort is imposing, yet languid, next to the river; a gliding Danube cruise ship sweeps into town, clipping along in the night breeze and swinging into port beyond the tall bridge.
Young students standing in a circle kick a football between them, playing classic Serbian pop and folk tunes on a stereo.

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The next morning, you continue onwards, on this nonsensical roundabout trip of the north Balkans that you've been taking, first on the nicest train you've ever boarded, just to Belgrade. A thirty minute journey, a rare taste of the transportation high life. Glammed out Novi Sad girls surround you, on the way to the capital for a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Arriving at Belgrade station, you head out on foot, with hours to spare, to make your way towards the bus station for your connection through to Macedonia. The lampposts all display rigid Serbian flags, right alongside the Chinese, for an upcoming visit of Xi Jinping, apparently.

Your transport luck continues - something you can say for sure Serbia does better than its neighbours to the east, west and south - with a comfortable, punctual coach for the six hour journey down to Skopje. Not quite believing that yesterday you woke up in Romania, the Macedonian border finally appears. The bus disembarks for the passport check. You line up behind a scruffy guy smoking a suspicious looking rollup right in the border guard's face. He is sent to another booth for some light questioning, a rummage in his rucksack. No drugs across this border, no sir.

You step forward for your turn and hand your passport over. The guard takes one look at the coffee-stained page, looks you in the eye and proclaims it a 'katastrofa'. Yes, I know, it's pretty bad that I spilled coffee all over my passport within weeks of being issued it. But hey, what else do the Balkans live for, if not coffee and cigarettes?Leer más