Laki Biciklom

Tour de Syrmia (65km)

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Those were some really crazy days. The day before I did this, I cycled from Belgrade to Novi Sad. When I left Novi Sad that day, I decided to visit Sremski Karlovci I wanted to visit for quite a while, and it really was a beautiful experience. Emotionally moved by the place, I didn’t want to escape the wonders of Syrmia yet, so I decided to call and ask my friend in Sremska Mitrovica if he’s at home, so I could have a sleepover. And he was! This is how it all went.

To give you a perfect sense of place, there’s this row of awesome small houses to welcome you when you enter Sremski Karlovci from Novi Sad.

Patrijarha Rajačića street

Down this way, the next wonder you will get to is a city centre and, first of all, a magnificent baroque orthodox church.

The church of St. Nicholas // Crkva Svetog Nikolaja

The next thing that will catch your eye is really a pleasant, flowery square with a café full of people. The place is lively, but still very peaceful and quiet.

Branko Radićević square // Trg Branka Radičevića

Continuing down the square, I’ve discovered many nice buildings. One of them had that amazingly neat park, but that way is also where the interesting ends, so I got back to this square and up a street to get to a famous school of this place.

Karlovci Grammar school // Karlovačka gimnazija

Continuing up the street seeing some more pretty little houses and all, I decided to continue my way to Belgrade when I got all emotional about leaving the beauty so much behind and made a call to a friend who agreed that I should come to Sremska Mitrovica. This sign didn’t mean anything to me now, because Sremska Mitrovica is on Sava river and thus and unfortunately can’t be a part of Donauradweg.

Mitropolita Stratimirovića street window

I continued my way towards Sremska Mitrovica not really knowing the road or having a map. If I had a map, I would certainly go over Grgeteg, but like this I went through Fruška Gora Mountain. And honestly, I thought it would be harder to climb up there. On the contrary, it was a great, natural experience.

Through all the wild nature and some hiking clubs along the asphalted way, the first interesting thing I ran into was the TV tower on one of the tops of Fruška Gora. I didn’t have in mind that I will ever get there, but I did and it was an incredible feeling. I was always looking at that tower from really far away, and now it was in front of me with all its monumentality.

Iriški venac TV tower, built 1975. NATO bombing 1999. made the damage est. $11,5 million

I continued up this road where I realized there’s even a hotel. There were some people actually sitting in the restaurant of it. I wouldn’t think that the hotel is even still working. Up there a little, there was a heart painted on the road marking that I’m on one of the tops of Fruška Gora.

My dear, lovely bicycle Serj

From that point, a view on the Pannonian plain was amazing, it did look a bit like a sea. Did you know that there was actually a sea here awhile ago?

The drawing on the door shows the heights

After wandering around the tower for a while, I continued biking. I met there a pretty, blonde guy, probably from Novi Sad (he had an accent) asking me for directions. I was coming from where he was going. He looked like he really liked what he was doing, but didn’t seem like he really knows where he wants to get. Like me. I should’ve asked for a number or something. Maybe I’d have a touring company now.

I thought maybe that I should’ve asked him which direction Sremska Mitrovica is, but I felt so good and fulfilled I didn’t really care where the road will take me next, because I knew it will be beautiful anyway.

The next thing I ran into along the way was some huge communist antifascist (oh, wonder!) monument.

The Freedom monument

The monument had very interesting relief all around it.

This is where I realized that my friends from Novi Sad had drowned my battery while playing with it, using flash and all and that it’s really low now, so I decided to keep it a little if I run into something really interesting.

Continuing down the way, I was expecting some great slides now, because I have been climbing up the mountain for a while. But, the most of the slide down on this side goes through a cute, little town of Irig, so the great speeds are not really achievable. But the town centre and later people standing in front of their houses by the road, selling fruits… It had such a nice atmosphere.

When I finally left Fruška Gora, I was on a long and boring road to Ruma with really nothing interesting but corn fields and some industrial buildings. Passing through, or actually by Ruma wasn’t much of a fun either, because I wasn’t really interested at the moment to visit the city centre. So the only thing that caught my eye was this awkward orange building.

For me, this really was a funny sight.

It took a while to leave Ruma and it’s big industry zone. Afterwards, when I passed the nearby town of Voganj, I was again on the plain road surrounded with corn fields. This is how it was all the way to Sremska Mitrovica.

Approaching Mitrovica, there was so many welcome signs. I think I did read three welcomes, hoping then to see the city already, but it took a little more from those signs to the city centre then I expected.

When I finally got there, I met with my surprised friend Miroslav. He didn’t expect me that soon, but hey, I was there! I left my bike at his place, then we rode around the city for a while.

The impressions of Mitrovica are great! When you get into the city and go through it some time, you will notice that there are almost no intersections. They are all transformed into small roundabouts, so the city has no traffic lights.

Central park is newly rebuilt and locals feel like the old park was more to a city than this one is. I didn’t see the old one, so I like the new one very much too. The only a bit awkward thing about this park is a fountain in the centre of it.

Oh dear, it looks like Kraken!

The most of central Mitrovica is architecturally very harmonious, with European secessionist architecture prevailing with Hungarian influence.

Sremska Mitrovica City Hall

This is also a city of many churches. A sense of a place is generally more traditional then modern, but then, approaching Sava river, a shot of modernism goes directly through your brain.

Pedestrian bridge of St. Irinej // Pešački most Svetog Irineja

It might be modern, but it has a traditional name! The looks of this bridge really give you a feeling of advancing and prosperous city.

As I said, this being the city of many churches, it would be too much if I posted all of the photographs I made of this pretty city, so I will choose just one church to show you. My favourite, but not the most beautiful. Other photos will be uploaded in the meantime to my Laki u Vojvodini blog.

Church of Ascension of Jesus // Crkva vaznesenja Gospodnjeg, known by locals as Rusyn church // Rusinska crkva

I really brought a lot of memories from the city of Sremska Mitrovica, but Fruška gora too is worth another mention in the end. The entire area I cycled those days made me feel really good about my country. I can’t wait to do some of this route again!

Donauradweg Beograd - Novi Sad (97 km)

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I had a heavy week of exams and I was looking forward to some freedom. The day I finished my last exam was the day when I wanted some action. It was beautiful summer day, perfect 35°C great for a beach at Ada Ciganlija.

But, ongoing CInemaCity Festival in Novi Sad prevailed and I decided not to swim, but to cycle. I started this ride ad 14pm when it was really hot. Friends warned me about that, but I didn’t listen, although I was a bit freaked out too. But everything went well, as I expected.

Taking the regional road 22.1 all the way to Novi Sad would take 72 km of cycling, but being it a very heavy road as everyone who doesn’t want to pay the autobahn toll goes here, I decided to go Donauradweg Beograd - Novi Sad which is oficially 96 km long, but it got a bit longer for me, because I couldn’t always find my way. I need to start printing maps somehow.

My trip, as it usually does, started from Nehruova street, when I went through New Belgrade streets of Vojvođanska and Tošin bunar arriving to beautiful Zemun. I should’ve went straight to Zemun Quay and then go up the Sinđelićeva and Sibinjanin Janka streets to get to Pregrevica street, which would be harder, but faster and certainly more interesting than narrow street of Cara Dušana full of traffic, bordered with houses and no pedestrian sidewalks. I somehow got to Nade Dimić, where I arrived in Pregrevica which is almost always empty and peaceful street of some pretty houses.

Where that street ended, I had to join Cara Dušana again, which is allready wide enough at this point. I continued down the Batajnica road, riding by the trucks and busses, passing through industry zone, it was nothing anyone would probably like to see.

When I got in Batajnica, good God how that place is poorly organized. Messy houses, really ugly arhitecture, plain streets with lots of traffic and no street signs. Not even people knew to tell me where Carice Jelene street is - they don’t know the new names! I guess they’re used to the old communist names - the street was probably named Radnička or Bratsva i jedinsta, for fu*k sake. This is actually where I’d continue my route to Novi Banovci away from the loud regional road, but instead, as I couldn’t find the street, I went down the regional road 22.1 to Nova Pazova and then made a sharp-turn to Stari Banovci when I saw a big sign there. This section could’ve last few km’s shorter, but lousy Batajnica hapenned.

Continuing through uninteresting village of Stari Banovci, I was entering the village of Belegiš where I got very surprised by the pedestrian sidewalks they have. They are divided form the street with an alley of trees and is wide enough and very flat. A bicycle track even Belgrade dreams of. This is where I took my first pause. I ate one cucumber and green pepper I brought, as I had no any fruit to bring from home. It turned out a great substitute.

Belegiš is basically a village with one main street with aligned houses, one caffé, grocery store and a church, very peacefull, but not dead. There were people on the streets, which is always a pleasant sight.

An orthodox church Svetog Oca Nikolaja in Belegiš

Leaving Belegiš is where a first Trans-Corn&WheatField-Express ride initiated. Leaving the village, the road became bumpy, but acceptable. This road is obviously used mostly for tractors as there were no cars along this way almost at all, but when there were, they were riding really fast for that kind of road. Fearless bastards, their cars will fall appart one day like that. Honestly though, I was scared for my back wheel axle, but everything went better then expected.

I was passing through Surduk and this is where my ride became especially interesting. A lot of things became happening around me, although Surduk is a village smaller and more basic then Belegiš was, there were lots of young people in front of their houses, teenagers riding together in tractors everywhere… Later I saw where they were going when I ran into a place with loads of parked cars and lots of people in slippers with towels around their necks. It was a pool. In the middle of the plain between Surduk and Novi Slankamen, it was a Swimming Pool and Spa. It would be a great idea to visit this place, especially on a day like this one was (35°C, just to remind you), but I would feel stupid because I was alone. Although I would probably meet someone interesting, as, in this area, people are always waving at you. I felt really welcome.

When I escaped all that pleasant mess, I decided to take another break between corn fields and some apple plantation. Took few moments to dry a little and eat some tomatoes and more cucumber.

That’s Serj, as I call my bike and my stuff drying

Everyone kept greeting me on that road up to Krčedin. I even passed by some senior Austrian bikers. This was probably the best and the most pleasant part of my trip.

Sights in the fields between villages where as pretty as:

… and as peaceful as it looks

I was running out of water and in Krčedin I visited some family that had their courtyard gates open and asked to reffil my bottles. They were pleased to help and very kind.

Krčedin is a village of a bunch of very similar houses. They look like one architect was building them all. Every house has the builders name and surname and a year when the building started and when it ended. That’s very beautiful.

Down the road and very soon in Beška, it’s a similar experience with houses, only there are not only family houses like that, but also a local community building, a church and some more pretty buildings, a bit bigger then you would see in a village and very nice looking. Interesting thing about Beška was a very big sign with directions, probably for tourists. One said a church is to the right and that Danube is to the left. Two tourist attractions - a church and a river. Awesome.

I know a Donauradweg route planned me to go to a riverside at some point and I thought this was it, but after a km or so, when I saw a big, steep hill in front of me, I decided to go back. In the end, it turned out that I should’ve go to Danube in Čortanovci, but there I couldn’t find my way to Danube.

The road through and around Čortanovci was quite hilly, I honestly didn’t expect that from Vojvodina. Although, it turned out great, because in the end I always had an amazing slides. And on a very few of peaks on this part of the road, I had amazing views on the sun almost setting over Fruška gora mountain. It was breathtaking.

Continuing my way to Sremski Karlovci, beautiful Sremski Karlovci I’ve heard of so many beautiful stories, I was too tired to visit at this point. But don’t worry, I did that on my way back instead. I have amazing photos!

Back on this loud 22.1 regional road, I continued cycling, hoping I will see welcome signs to Novi Sad soon, and I did. One of the first imposing greetings you get entering Novi Sad is the catholic church of Snežne Gospe na Tekijama, being oficially the entrance to Petrovaradin.

Catholic church of Snežne Gospe na Tekijama

Continuing down the Preradovićeva street, now allready surrounded by very loud and lively feeling of a city, passing by a lot of traffic and people, I entered the most famous part of Petrovaradin, Beogradska ulica, after passing through Beogradska kapija (Belgrade gate). It was an awesome feeling. I finally arrived and now I’m looking at all those pretty and dirty little houses like I see them for the first time.

Over the Varadin bridge (coloquially called Duga (Rainbow) because of the colorful night light and the shape), I went down to the Belgrade Quay where my journey oficially ended after only 5,5 hours. That did sound a lot to me, but people were surprised to allready see me there.

Next posts: Novi Sad - Karlovci - Fruška gora - Mitrovica and Mitrovica - Beograd

Kovin to Smederevo route (12 km)

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This is the last piece of Pančevo to Kovin route (30 km), Pančevo route (17 km) and Centrescape north-east route (16 km) stories.

The last piece, but not least, bringing something like this to an end always feels great, especially when you have breathtaking views as I had on Smederevo.

After I ended my break at gas pump in Kovin, I continued cycling down the road. For a moment, I felt sorry for not passing through the city but rather going around it, because the view from this road was quite interesting. But I guess I was allready too tired to think.

From that point, it was just a plain road and pure nature. I saw some storks. I didn’t see these birds in a while and was very surprised by the sight.

This road led me to a very big bridge over the Danube. I heard it was bombed by NATO in 1991. and the bombs made just one hole in the road, but didn’t demolish the bridge, so it was an easy fix. Very well constructed bridge. It also had an amazing views on the Danube and surrounding forests.

Getting off the bridge and turning left got me welcomed to Smederevo, when I thought, as I always think, that I’m almost there, but it took time while I passed all that industry and uninteresting housing. But it got me straight to the fortress where I spent few hours fo quality photography time! Fortress indeed is marvelous!

The only thing that felt really bad about this place is that there are a lot of easily solvable problems that no one seems to care for in this city. For example, garbage in the fortress riverside, cables everywhere, badly positioned ugly lamps and big grass… This great historical potential of the city feels forgotten, which is really sad.

I didn’t leave the industry behind when I was entering Smederevo, but it continued appearing all around the fortress. Ugly ships everywhere, some railway service facilities by the fort, old gas station on the fort… It felt really messy, unforutnate for that great fortress.

After an hour or two on the fortress, I went to see the city centre. I passed the bus station and oh how I wished to be in one of those buses to Belgrade.

In the very centre, there is a square with lots of people, one uninteresting church, a fountain and a few cute buildings. It felt nice, but is that all this city has to offer? Seems like…

I don’t even want to tell about my way back to Belgrade. For some very stupid reason, I decided to take the old Smederevo road to Belgrade. It wasn’t a good idea and I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone, because it’s very hilly, sometimes steep to the extremes. The road is very bad and bumpy with a lot of cars. For me, it was very hard as I was allready tired at the start. I should’ve take the same road that I took to Smederevo, it would be easier. Like this I was walking most of the way. And I don’t usually do that!

All the way equally freaky sights:

I’m glad I’m still alive! Smederevo again - yes, but this road is blacklisted. For cycling: Vojvodina and nowhere else!

Beograd - Novi Sad - Sremska Mitrovica - Beograd

The most exciting thing I did in a while!

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In the next post, I will finally close the Smederevo story, and after that also this long and really interesting route will be reviewed!

Update: And finally, here it is.

http://lakibiciklom.tumblr.com/post/9134421056/tour-de-syrmia-65km