It was Thursday four or five PM when i crossed into Serbia from Croatia, my flight home from Sofia was Sunday afternoon, regardless how hard i cycled from here down the Danube i was never going to reach my objective of getting to Bulgaria, If I even tried I would be left with no time for a catch up with my brother whom I had only seen briefly for one day in two years, that meeting was at my nephews wedding so I never got much chance for a catch up that night, I wanted an opportunity to get a good catch up with him so I asked him to meet ,me in the city of Novi sad Serbia, Serbia and Bulgaria share a border this would save him crossing more than one border, I would cycle over from Croatia to meet him, we would have a night out then the next day head to his village so I could spend the Friday and Saturday with him before flying home.
the Que for drivers on the Serb border was small i joined behind a couple of cars and got my passport stamped first and only time for that on the whole journey, it was a different story for the truck drivers trying to get into the EU from Serbia which is not a member state, there was at least a three mile Que of trucks with drivers standing about outside their trucks bored, various nationalities of truck drivers shouted things at me as i cycle past I smiled and waved at them they were just bored and wanting a bit of banter,
I stopped at a petrol station were a group of truckers were sitting around the forecourt table smoking and drinking coffee, one of them could speak reasonable English and was wanting a chat< he had no idea how long it would take him to get through the border but he was parked up for the night and would join the Que in the morning.
I text my bro and then we had a quick chat on the phone He was nearly at Novi sad I had thirty km to go so a minimum of an hour and half cycling or he could come to me he had sat Nav I told him to head for Backa Palanka I would be waiting somewhere he could see me, I cycled out of town to another garage and waited there, I also reminded him we were out of the EU and its no longer free roaming on the phones. It was two pound a min to call one pound twenty five per min to receive a call, thirty five pence a text there would also be data roaming charges, I had only been in the country a couple of hours and was approaching my pre set ten pound extra limit.
I was glad we had decided to meet in-between towns as he spotted me easy, I took the front wheel of the auld dear and loaded her into my bro`s Belingo the cycling was over now! then we went to find somewhere to stay together switch the phones and devices of and get a beer up, we got a taxi into town there is a good bar and restaurant area in Novi sad we even found a craft ale bar, our Thursday night out was good
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