EV6: Day 18: Novi Sad 🇷🇸

I spent the day in Novi sad doing my laundry, some sides seeing, and getting a Serbian SIM card as they are not in the European Union.

I ended up not having to pay for the SIM card at all, nor having to provide any kind of payment method or providing any ID. However I got 10 gigabytes of data valid for one week. Pretty good deal, if you ask me - and a pretty contrasting experience to what I had to go through in Hungary to get a SIM.

In the evening I made plans to meet up with Nick, the Dutch guy I met on the day cycling into Budapest. He had lived and studied in Novi Sad for a while, and is now back here to prepare for his own wedding. So he knew his way around here pretty well. Marike and Guus also messaged me that they would be arriving in Novi Sad that evening, so we all met up together and had a couple of beers.

We met a couple of locals later that evening. And I had some pretty profound insights: Mostly about how ignorant I am about the war which went on here, only a little more than 25 years ago. Basically, I know nothing about it, even though it happened so close to the heart of Europe - and with major involvement of EU member states. For the Serbs, the wounds are still open wide, and even among their friends they avoid taking about these issues. “I love you, but I hate you for your opinions.” was something we heard several times, when the group of friends were talking to each other, after Marieke had asked them about the war.

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