Tag 182 - Novi Sad, Serbia (July 11, 2020)

Half a year on the road!

Crazy, we can hardly believe how quickly the last few months have passed. For us, it feels like just yesterday when we packed our bags and started our adventure from Frankfurt.

In the past 6 months, we have experienced and seen a lot, met wonderful people, and overcome challenges and difficult situations together.

If there's one thing we've learned, it's that things never go as planned.

We could never have dreamed that our journey would take us from Sweden to Serbia.

However, we are extremely happy that we decided to continue traveling instead of giving up and returning to Germany like so many others.

We have learned to be flexible, accept things as they come, look ahead, and make the best out of every situation.

That also applies to our situation here in Serbia.

During our time in Sweden, the Balkan region seemed to have weathered the COVID-19 crisis relatively well, and travel between countries seemed almost effortless at that time.

However, a week before our departure from Sweden, parliamentary elections were held in Serbia. The government had lifted most of the COVID-19 measures and even allowed football matches with up to 25,000 spectators to score points with voters.

The result was a landslide victory for the ruling party and a sharp increase in infections, especially in the capital city of Belgrade.

All neighboring countries reacted by closing their borders again.

For us, this means that there are hardly any countries we can travel to without having to undergo a 14-day quarantine. Our plan to travel the Balkans is currently on hold.

Our new goal is to return to the EU and see what opportunities await us there. Currently, the only option is to enter through Hungary, which still has its border with Serbia open.

Unfortunately, bus and train services within Serbia and to neighboring countries have also been severely disrupted, so in the next few days, we will try to enter Budapest by carpooling across the EU external border.

Despite everything, we are enjoying our time here in Novi Sad, in northern Serbia, the city, and the great weather.

So far, we like the city center and the scenery along the Danube much better than Belgrade.

Luckily, we don't experience much of the nationwide unrest and protests against the government here.

So, keep your fingers crossed that the entry into Hungary goes smoothly!

We will keep you updated.

Bianca & Michael