Good Bye, Serbia; Rome, Here We Come!

August 12 -Family Barbeque

Family Barbeque at Zoran's Parents' Cottage, Serbia

The day after Sasa and Laki's wedding, we were invited to the family barbecue hosted by Sasa's grandparents at their cottage. Their cottage was only about 40 minute ride.

Though the grandparents are in their 70's, it was apparent that they worked hard to prepare for this event.

Meeting my best friend's family in Serbia

When we got to their cottage, they had a row of long tables set up with white tablecloth on the well shaded lawn. When the food was ready and we sat down at the table to eat, it reminded me of those family commercials we saw on T.V.  depicting a big Italian family with grannies gathering and eating together.

 That was exactly what it looked like at the family BBQ and everyone had a great time celebrating together!

Flowers for the doctor - Before we left Novi Sad, Serbia, we made sure that we ordered flowers and sent a thank you card to Dr. Bojana at the Nova Sad Hospital to thank her and her team for treating Stan’s ear infection.

Serbians Showed Kindness and Offered Assistance to Tourists

When we got to the market, we tried to order a nice flower arrangement and have it delivered to the hospital or Dr Bojana. However, the florist could not understand us and we were trying hard to explain what we wanted with body language. It did not work.  Walking by and seeing the predicament we were in,  a lady stopped  and offered to translate for us. 

When asked where I could buy a card to go with the flowers,  this kind lady offered to take me to a nearby card shop. She went out of her way and spent at least half and hour translating and taking me to a card shop.

We were blown away by the kindness of strangers and their willingness and offers to help us whenever  we encountered  the language barrier in Serbia. We have been welcome and treated warmly with consideration and generosity by friends and strangers in Serbia. During our 4 day visit we found that Serbians  are very hospitable people. They made us feel welcome and at ease in a land where we absolutely know nothing about their language. 

Our suite at Hotel Panorama in Novi Sad

For our last night we stayed at Hotel Panorama which is an excellent hotel in Novi Sad.  It is modern, clean, spacious, steps to the squares, outdoor cafes and markets etc.

Great helpful staff and very reasonable priced, thumbs up for this hotel!

I wished we had more time in this city so that we could have explored the town on our own easily from Hotel Panorama.

After making the arrangement for the flowers, hotel  Panorama staff called us a cab to the Novi Sad Bus Station.

Novi Sad Bus Station - Passenger Boarding Platform

Departing from the Novi Sad Bus Station,  we took a bus ride for about an hour to the Belgrade airport and flew to Rome. 

The Termini Station, Rome - Rome makes it easy for travellers to get to downtown. Luggage in tow, we boarded the Terravision express bus from the Rome airport to the Termini Station, which is in downtown Rome city centre where both the train and subway stations are located.  ( 6 Euro one way per person from the airport, very cheap and convenient indeed.)

Our bed and breakfast place  was only 150 meter from the Termini Station and we got there within an hour of our arrival to Rome. The Termini  Station is an extremely busy place with travellers from all over Europe and around the world.  It is modern, clean and a beehive of activities and has 25 platforms where trains are ready to take you anywhere in  Italy. Tourists, backpackers, travellers fill the station and you could see the faces of the world right here.  The Termini is a great place to shop with numerous stores  offering all kinds of merchandizes to  shoppers . MacDonald’s advertising billboards dominate the building and there are two MacDonald’s here, one within the train station and another one just right outside.

We would be here for the next 4 days and we looked forward to our visit in Rome.

R.T., Rome, Italy

Aug. 13, 2012