Day6 Budapest to Belgrade

     The shower wasn't the hottest! and as we were a bit later getting up ( cammy is as bad as me getting out of bed in the morning ) they were starting to clear up breakfast at 09:40 when we got to where breakfast gets served , one of the reasons we booked this hotel was for its free parking when I checked out I showed reception our parking ticket ( I didn't want a repeat of Berlin ) she said it was ok , we had already had a discussion about where To go next and had decided on Belgrade . So we took advantage of the hotel wifi before leaving to book a hotel in Belgrade and left to get the car , our wee silver bullet is starting to show signs of being part of a European road trip inside and out ! We cleaned some stuff out the boot and from the around the  seats then drove to the exit surprise surprise we had to pay for the car park as this was not hotel parking ! Last nights taxi driver got the last of our Hungarian money but fortunately I had a €5 note and funnily enough that was exactly the price the man at the gate required ! 

       So with no cash left we hit the road out of Budapest without properly seeing the sites , next problem of the day was our beloved sat nav ! it just wouldn't accept the address of our next hotel no matter what we tried to put in for the address , so we opted for just Belgrade city centre for now , the sat nav said we should arrive there at 15:30 ,we were off again , we both brought a box of CD's but now after so many hours all our favourites have had a double play some even a triple the proclaimers libertines Johnny cash oasis franz Ferdinand the vaccines feeder the Beatles the view twin Atlantic  ! 

       It was a reasonably pleasant uneventful drive with two toll roads which we could pay for in euros €2 each which was better than using my card ! I specifically got a card that gave no European charges for this trip , At 1505milles we were at the Hungary Serbian border , this was much like what I had imagined it would be after all this was us after all leaving the EU ! We stopped at the hugarian side got our passports inspected and I was asked to open the boot and asked my destination and we were through , a quick drive across no mans land show our passports again get them stamped this time for Serbia open the boot again asked if it was just luggage where were we going and we were through into Serbia , it's great that we can drive such huge distances over so many countries without this kind of border crossing , but there's also something a little exciting about a proper border crossing you feel like you deserve that passport stamp , we weren't in Serbia long and the skies really opened up for a proper downpour the road quality wasn't good and with the occasional Aqua plane I had slow right down , until at 13:30 we required a petrol stop Serbian dinar is around 160 to the pound so watching the numbers go round when you fill up is entertaining ! We got a toasted sandwich and coffe switched driving duties and the sun came out for our pleasant drive into Belgrade with the Beatles playing again , when we entered the city we found somewhere to stop the city centre traffic was bad and our sat nav still did not have our hotel ! It just wouldn't give us a route no matter how we tried to put the hotel in eventually we got it by puting in its GPS co'ordinates , so after a wee bit weaving in and out of trams and auld bangers we were parked up in front of our hotel for 4pm 

            The hotel we picked for £41 was very good our apartment had a for each of us and a big shower room very spacious and clean with secure parking and breakfast , the auld boy at reception scanned our passports and gave directions to an ATM we got some cash and waved a taxi down to go into town , normally I've got some sort of guide book for arriving in a city like this my prefered opption being lonely planet , I had a lonely planet for Romania Bulgaria and Poland but not for Serbia and finding the bar area of town. Was tricky to start with , but we found a bar called the black turtle which is one of a Belgrade chain of bars which sell craft beers , the barma was very pleasant and helpful we tried a few of the ales then cammy wanted a bottle of cider the barman was not impressed and not for the last that night cammy was called a girl for choosing bottles the next two harken also laughed at him for it , we moved onto an Irish bar where we met andrey a Russian born American now living in Belgrade who took us to the main bar street and helped us pick a restaurant , it was a bit bizarre sitting 3blokes together in a posh restaurant being serenaded by a traditional band a singer accompanied by double bass fiddle squeeze box all for us ! After dinner we had a walk up the street chose a bar but by 11pm I was shattered , taxi back to hotel cost 850dinar it was strange peeling of loads of notes to count out a throw back to the days of pound notes ! Reception was locked another guest past by and we got him to open the side window and we climbed in , another good day