Greeting to all travel lovers 👋
With this and next posts, I want to present to you the part of Serbia in which I live - the autonomous province of Vojvodina, and you may want to visit it after this post. I want to mention that this was my five-day trip around Vojvodina with professors and colleagues from the faculty. This is our obligatory subject at the faculty in the first year. It is a kind of practical teaching. It cost us about $ 180.
I think this was a great opportunity for me to get to know the part of Serbia where I live. There was a lot I had never seen before this trip.
For a start, I want to introduce you to Vojvodina and its characteristics.
Vojvodina is located in the north of Serbia and covers an area of about 21 500 square kilometers. The northern part borders with Hungary, the eastern part with Romania and the western and southwestern part with Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. About 22% of the total population of Serbia lives here (just over 2 million inhabitants). The capital of the province is Novi Sad, the city where my faculty is located.
It spreads in Pannonian Basin and belongs to Central Europe. It consists of three geographical regions: Bačka (where I live), Banat and Srem. The Danube River flows through Vojvodina, which is its main hydrological facility, but also its southern border. Vojvodina is mostly plain, with two mountains: Fruška Gora in Srem, in the south of Vojvodina (near Novi Sad) and Vršačka mountain in the southeast of Banat.
People of various nationalities and religions live on the territory of Vojvodina, and I think that gives it a special charm. Of course, most of them are Serbs, followed by Hungarians, Slovaks, Croats, Roma, Montenegrins and others. The most common religions are Christianity, Orthodoxy and Catholicism.
Well, now that I have briefly introduced you to Vojvodina, let me show you how my first day went and what I saw 😊
1st destination
We set off at around 8 am from Novi Sad and traveled through Bačka Palanka and Čelarevo and our first destination was the Military Institution "Karađorđevo" ([//]:# (!pinmapple 45.292490 lat 19.302850 long d3scr). We toured museums of horse breeding, stables, hippodromes and hunting grounds. One part of Karađorđevo is protected as a Special Nature Reserve. Due to the rich fund of game, hunters from all over the world come here to catch their trophy. I visited this place once before with my family, when I was 5 years old. There are also accommodation facilities here.
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Numerous trophies can be seen in the museum. All of this was won over by the various horse breeds which bred here. Also, you can see photos of the former president of Yugoslavia - Josip Broz Tito with guests from different parts of the world. Also, the Karađorđević dynasty used to use this property.
2nd destination
Our next destination was Bač ([//]:# (!pinmapple 45.292490 lat 19.302850 long d3scr)). Bač is a municipality that borders with municipality of Odžaci, where I live. Odžaci means chimneys in Serbian 😂. It took us about 20 minutes by bus from Karađorđevo to Bač. There we had a tour of the Franciscan monastery, Bačka fortress, the remains of the Turkish bath (Hamam) and a visit to the monastery Bođani.
Bačka Fortress is the best preserved medieval fortress in Vojvodina. It was built in the 14th century and used to be surrounded by water on all sides. It is a cultural monument of exceptional importance.
These are pictures of the Serbian Orthodox monastery in Bođani. Bođani is a village in the municipality of Bač. It was founded in 1478.The monastery is surrounded by a French garden. By visiting this monastery you can hear an interesting legend about its founding and the merchant Bogdan from Dalmatia.
3rd destination
We continued our journey through Odžaci, Srpski Miletić, Bogojevo, Sonta and Svilojevo to Junaković Spa [//]:# (!pinmapple 45.292490 lat 19.302850 long d3scr).
Junaković Spa is located in Bačka in the municipality of Apatin at 4.5 kilometers from Apatin. I was also in Junaković Spa 6 years ago with my ex-boyfriend and friends. We went swimming in the pools. Although I'm not a fan of the pool because I don't know how to swim, this was the ideal depth of the pool for me so I wouldn't drown hahaha. This time we stopped only for a short time and didn't swim. We heard the story of the founding of the spa. There is a special hospital for rehabilitation here. The spa offers spa and wellness programs of various types, massages, saunas, various treatments and therapies. They also have accommodation and various recreational facilities, sports fields, outdoor and indoor swimming pools. This spa has existed for almost 40 years.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos, so I will share a couple of photos from the internet.
4th destination
After visiting Junaković Spa, we continued our journey to Sombor, which was our 4th destination that day.
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Sombor is considered the greenest city in Serbia. The city is rich in cultural and historical heritage, and we have visited some of them, such as Cathedral and building of the former of Bač-Bodroška County.
It represents a city settlement and the seat of the municipality of the same name. It is also the seat of the West Bačka District. The city has about 50,000 inhabitants. It is 220 km away from Budapest and 175 km from Belgrade. Most of the inhabitants are Serbs, Hungarians and Croats. Have you heard of basketball player Nikola Jokić, who plays in the NBA league for the Denver Nuggets team and who was named the MVP in the NBA league and the best basketball player in the world? He is from Sombor. The pride of our country!
Since we arrived in Sombor at lunch time, we first had 2-3 hours of free time to sit somewhere to eat something and rest.
After the rest we went to the building of Bačko Bodroška County which you can see in this photo, in the distance, behind the fountain, located on the square of Emperor Uroš. This is now the town hall building. I remember that about 10 years ago I was here with my volleyball club at a mini tournament - 3vs3. Mini-volleyball courts were everywhere in front of this building, and we spent the break between games in the shade of the surrounding bushes. 😂 Even then, I liked Sombor.
This time I came with another intention, and that is to learn something about Sombor. We all entered the building together, where we were greeted by a man who talked for at least half an hour about the history of the city. This was once the administrative unit of the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary. It was built a little over 2 centuries ago and is a cultural monument in the category of immovable cultural property of great importance. In the large, ceremonial hall of the county assembly, in February 1898, an imposing painting by Ferenc Eisenhut "Battle of Senta" was placed, painted in oil on a one-piece canvas measuring 7 X 4 meters, in a rich gilded frame.
(The Church of St Stephen the King) also located on the square of Emperor Uroš. This church was built in the Neo-Renaissance style and is dedicated to King Saint Stephen (Stephen I of Hungary). It was constructed in 1904. Inside it there is an organ made in 1926 that was among the biggest in former Yugoslavia.
5th Destionation
After we visited everything for that day, which is foreseen by the travel plan and program, the only thing left for us is the road to Bačka Topola, where our accommodation was for that night.
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It took us about 45 minutes from Sombor to Bačka Topola and we arrived at about 8pm in the hotel, just for dinner. We were accommodated in the 2-star Hotel "Biser (Pearl)" which is located in Panonija, near Bačka Topola. The hotel has a total capacity of 61 beds, which are arranged in 19 rooms. Rooms are equipped with Cable TV, wireless internet, bathroom with a tub. In addition to the accommodation, the hotel has a restaurant with a capacity of 200 seats, a stone hall with 30 seats for business meetings, more intimate lunches and smaller seminars, a TV room, a congress hall / cinema, and is surrounded by two gardens, red and green.
I hope you won't mind me using some pictures from the internet to show you what the hotel looks like.
We were all tired, since we were on tour from 8am to 8pm (that's what the next 4 days looked like). We just wanted to eat well and go to bed, so I forgot to photograph the accommodation facility. I made only one video of our room, where my friend and I were accommodated, but as far as I understood, I can't hang it in the post or I don't know how 😌
Although I can say that we were not thrilled with the accommodation, the food was satisfactory. We were so exhausted that all that mattered to us was to have a bed and where to sleep. The next accommodations were much better, and you will see photos in the next posts.
Well ... That was our first day of travel. A lot more was waiting for us in the coming days, and I will show you all that in the next posts. This is only a part of Serbia, its northernmost part - Vojvodina. I have a lot left to visit in my Serbia and I am looking forward to it.
I hope that with this post I will add another point to your wish list of destinations you want to visit. Until the part II, greetings to everyone in the travel lovers community 😇