Serbia: costs and impressions

And here we have another guest appearance on the costs and maybe some thoughts on Serbia.

So far we have found the short stays quite expensive, but that has mainly been due to the lack of Dora and relying on other means of transportation, accommodation and food. Also we have had a couple of shocking countries that haven’t quite met our expectations on budget, but for good reasons; lets face it, Dora let us down in Romania and needed a bit of TLC. Well the old girl deserves it so we don’t begrudge the expenditure. We did think that east Europe would come in cheap. Will Serbia live up to expectations?

Categorically yes with a headline figure of 35% under budget, this makes it our second cheapest country so far, only Portugal was cheaper!

So how did we get such a good result?

Fuel was cheap averaging €1.25 per litre

We free camped everywhere

No Dora repairs

Food was cheap

Going out was expensive because although we went out only once, the budget is averaged over the three days, but this is good and we should do it more often.

No internet, we made use of free Wi-Fi.

The fuel consumption makes Dora look like a motorhome hybrid. Has she really been sipping her supper so lightly?

Not really, we used up the last Lei in Romania brimming her tank and we only had top top her up once in Serbia, hence the slightly disingenuous figures.

So, our thoughts on Serbia.

The landscape is pretty, but uninspiring; no mountains and across much of it; no hills, just vague, shallow inclines. And what landscape there is it is crammed with a large market garden.

Beograd is vibrate and fun but not one of the most memorable places we have visited. The towns further north, Novi Sad and Subotica have left a stronger impression, but realistically this is up there with Bulgaria on the impact it has made, not much. Is this because we are getting travel fatigue?

I don’t think so, maybe it is because it came after Romania, which made such a strong positive impression on us.

Quite frankly, we found no differentiator, nothing that made it stick out, which is somewhat surprising perhaps, given recent history. Which brings us to the people, where again we had mixed feelings, some genuine, warm good hearted, generous and funny. But we also had slightly impatient, surely and dismissive.

Is there an inevitability that the people  have yet come to terms with the recent war? Is there still animosity amongst neighbours? Some have expressed it. We never got to ask how people feel about Milosevic and has he been misunderstood in the west? Horrific crimes took place on all sides. We got the feeling that Serbia feels judged, and is concerned what people are thinking about it. We were even asked, ‘Why did you come?’, because its there, and we are glad we did.

GDR