I eventually slept well but probably not for long enough. In a very relaxed mode Kit and I strolled down for breakfast with five minutes to spare. It was a nice meal and while it was the usual continental breakfast in style all the meats and other ingredients were slightly different in style and flavour. Serbian coffee was like Turkish coffee in style which was interesting but not really surprising when you think about Serbian history and there was even Earl Grey tea for Kit. Back in the room we sat around, reading, writing and talking about last night. Sonja sent me a text to say that she and Nebojša had slept in and were behind schedule. I wanted to write about last night while it was fresh in my mind so I told her to relax and we eventually met a couple of hours later. Kit and I needed the relaxation time to be honest. It was the right thing to do to stop an extra day in Novi Sad. We were able to take stock and talk about what we have achieved so far.
We were met by Sonja, Nebojša, Tijana and Miloš and walked around Novi Sad looking at the town. Mopi was came along for the walk. He also attended last night's gig and enjoyed it as much as any human, joining in with the applause by running around the room and barking between each song. As we walked around Novi Sad a gentle conversation developed between us all. I had my first intimate, face to face conversation with my friend Miloš. Each little moment of the trip being as precious as the one before. It was a Sunday and quiet but the sight of the shops made me think again about gifts for Chris and Holly. The trip was more than half over and we still hadn't got anything. We then sat in a cafe for an hour and talked. We discussed our onward journey and looked at a map that Nebojša had given me. Yes, I finally have a map of Novi Sad! I'm again keen to continue to avoid motorways and toll roads and also to see something of Croatia. We will get the sat nav back tomorrow but the road route to Zagreb is so straight forward it should be easy to get to the border without it. As we sat in the cafe in an endless moment during which time went slowly for us I felt perfectly at peace. What a precious place Novi Sad is and what precious people they have here.
After lunch we were taken back to the Petrovaradin fortress and we looked at Sahat-Kula, the famous clock tower that looks over the town. A shop belonging to Novi Sad's Studio Radošević was opened for us and I was able to buy a t-shirt as a gift for Holly with a tasteful modern art print of Novi Sad on it. Kit couldn't resist one for himself. I was presented with a card by the artist in honour of my visit, the full significance of which only became apparent when I looked at it later. It is a plain black card in a bright red envelope but is nicely cut to house a separate red heart at the centre of which is a tiny envelope. When you open the envelope it folds out to reveal minature photos of the bombed bridges of Novi Sad. An extract from the text on the card reads 'The city is unique by its Danube bridges, no matter if they are built or carried away by the wars. It is exceptional for its bridges of friendship. It is always open to the world and all passers-by. This is Novi Sad.' Like a card written in advance just in case a foreigner comes to visit with a song about the very same subject.
We then drove out of Novi Sad to the home of Bogomir Mijatović, who is a Serbian rock journalist, and his wife Marija. I think we drove out of Novi Sad along the Danube valley but I can't be sure. Bogomir and Marija's house was built into the steep incline of a valley side and inside was open plan and split-level. I think there is a Serbian tradition of brotherhood through profession and this was the reason for my introduction to Bogomir, 'Bogy' to his friends. I don't think of myself as a journalist, more an amateur writer but when he showed me his 'office' I had to laugh out loud. It was the nearest thing I've ever seen to my own music room at home with thousands of albums, CDs amidst a mess of memorabilia. The walls that didn't have shelving attached were covered with autographs he has collected over the years with numerous world famous acts alongside Yugoslavian acts and others. He enthusiastically showed me his favourite items which included original Fleetwood Mac albums signed by Peter Green and a book on Bob Dylan. He also had the street signs from a Novi Sad street once named after John Lennon. After looking round the room we sat and talked about music and football half distracted by the FA Cup semi-final between Portsmouth and Tottenham which was being played live on a massive TV screen. Bogy's second love was Liverpool FC and he shamed me with his detailed knowledge of my home town club and enthusiastically swapped opinions with me like a genuine Scouser would with his mates in some Liverpool pub. Bogy also moved onto the Liverpool music scene and lamented the lack of major acts coming from my city. He wasn't particularly impressed by the most recent wave of acts such as The Zutons and the like. I told him about Liverpool's vibrant, underground acoustic scene, which he was very interested in, and promised to send him a compilation of acts from the scene. I also promised to send him advanced news of any new Liverpool rock act that is likely to break big. He presented me with a book he wrote about the history of the Novi Sad music scene with the words 'I want to give you a very important piece of my life.' I love these people. I really do. We parted reluctantly. I could have talked to Bogy for hours and hours and sincerely hope I get another opportunity to.
The day wasn't over and Vesna had prepared a pancake feast when we got back to the house. Within what seemed like the blink of an eye it was time for Miloš and Tijana to leave. Tomorrow is Monday and a work day. I realised with a sinking heart that the end of our brief time in Novi Sad was nearing. I hugged them both very hard and told them I will miss them and as they left I already was. After they left we sat in Sonja's lounge with Nebojša and Vesna and for the final couple of hours took it in turn to sing songs with acoustic guitars. I played some songs from cobwebbed corners of my songbook that don't appear anywhwere on this blog and I loved doing so. I think we all played as well as we could and listening to Sonja and my son singing beautifully was yet another precious moment of this trip. Sonja's voice is such a thing of beauty and she closed the session by playing her song 'Godine Neke Daleke' which was the first song by Prkos Drumski that blew me away right at the beginning of this story. I don't know what time it was when we finished but back at the hotel I couldn't sleep anyway and I sat up for a while writing and thinking. I will return to Serbia and Novi Sad and I sincerely hope some of the people I met here will one day visit me. My house is an open door, after all. Sometimes when you leave people it feels like goodbye but on this occasion I didn't feel that way at all. My friends, I believe I will see you again. There will be new songs to sing together.
Our journey to the Serbian border was uneventful. We ate Hungarian smoked cheese and ham in the car for breakfast while on the move. Crossing the Serbian border was easy. We were more or less welcomed by the border guards after a short interview. If I'd have had car insurance then that would have been it but because I was unable to obtain any in the UK the border guard kept Kit's passport and told us to buy insurance after which it would be returned. The transaction for a flimsy piece of paper cost 100 Euros for a minimum of 1 month's insurance, which is more or less theft but our only other choice was to turn back and I was determined to get into Serbia.
It wasn't possible to find out what would happen at the Serbian border in advance. I read a lot of contradictory information on the internet. When I contacted my own insurance company they told me my policy would be invalidated if I went to Serbia and Russia because it is against regulations to have 2 policies at the same time. Esure, the biggest UK company to cover Serbia don't sell short term policies which meant I would have to pay for a twelve month policy to get cover. In the end I argued with my insurance company that they were being unreasonable and told them I would be buying insurance locally in Russia and Serbia. They agreed with me and I declared to them the estimated times of my entry and exit for both countries.
I downloaded a route to Novi Sad on Google maps which avoided the motorways and their tolls but after our Russian experience I was fairly sure the method would be inadequate in Novi Sad. As with Russia I was unable to obtain a decent road map of Serbia. I have a European atlas, of course, but it was no better than Google maps for this purpose. I knew we were being met by friends so if I got lost there would be someone I could call. Tolls in Serbia are frequent and expensive and can cost up to 20 Euros for a short stretch. Apparently the normal cost for the stretch between Novi Sad and Belgrade is currently three Euros but I read a warning that foreigners are charged extra, although I also heard that when the Greeks took retribution by charging Serbs extra to use Greek motorways that the Serbian rules changed so maybe things are getting better now. No matter. I hate paying tolls whatever the country. Did I tell you that?
Sonja Šešlija, my Serbian friend (although I am proud to say I now have many Serbian friends) had been in contact by text on the previous night and as we approached the border. She sent me some driving instructions by text and the names of the towns we should pass through which would lead us to a meeting place in a town outside Novi Sad. We left the main road at Subotica and, as we did, the maps on the sat nav went blank. As we arrived in each town we progressed by looking for road signs to the next place on Sonja's list. After a moderately pleasant drive and only one wrong turn we made it to our destination.
We travelled through some small towns and mostly flat, open countryside. We passed a number of police officers along the way and the legend that they are notorious for stopping foreigners was not correct. The legend that Serbian roads are terrible was not correct. They were fine. The legend that Serbian drivers are aggressive was not correct. They were fine. One of my friends told me to be careful in Serbia. Another said that we would be passing through bandit country. With each obstacle put in our way and with each negative comment about Serbia it became more important for me to travel there. I had learned about Serbia's isolation but also that it isn't all of Serbia's making. There is only one thing to do with prejudice and that is to demystify it. There is only one thing to do with unnecessary barriers and that is to break them down. I don't believe what I read in newspapers. I don't believe what I see on TV. I will find out for myself, thank you very much. And I will teach my son to do the same.
We were met by Sonja, her boyfriend Nebojša Petrović, her mother Vesna and Tijana Sekulic (who played piano on Vreme Ispred Nas), not forgetting Tijana's dog, Mopi. We were taken to a country stables that had a restaurant where we drank coffee and talked in some lovely afternoon sunshine. Kit was introduced to Rakija, a Serbian alcoholic beverage made from distilled, fermented fruit, but as I was driving I had to pass. Kit doesn't drink much alcohol at all but managed, even seemed to enjoy, Rakija without problem. My first impression of Serbs was open friendliness, happiness and laughter. This group of people were comfortable in each others company and loved each other. Tijana, in particular, had an individual sense of humour and comedic timing that brought a great deal of laughter to our weekend. She was full of wry, sharp observations on life and people. When we were alone later Kit said to me he wished more English people were like Tijana.
We then drove into Novi Sad to Sonja's house where we met Miloš. It was like the meeting of long lost brothers for me. There is a thread in the journeys I've made to my family. It is a journey for my heritage and roots. I always feel at peace with my German family and I had the same feeling amongst these people. We only knew them for a couple of days but it felt like we'd always known them. As soon as we left them we began to miss them. There is also something magical about Novi Sad. It produces many creative musicians, poets, artists and writers. All the people we met in Novi Sad seemed to have a freedom of expression about them. They were a creative people not afraid to engage in creativity.
We feasted on barbecued meats with salads and a chilli dip. There was also a wonderful raspberry and cherry cake. Vesna is a great cook and we ate well all weekend. We also finally got round to tasting the Russian Easter cake given to me by Yuri in what seems like a lifetime ago.
After such a feast and another Rakija Kit wilted and had to sleep even though the guitars were coming out for a rehearsal before tonight's gig. I was feeling the tension of an unfinished song I'd begun in the hotel room in Rotterdam and was wide awake. I wanted to write something new for the gig. We had been invited to join Prkos Drumski playing in the studio of artist Bojan Kiridžic at the Petrovaradin Fortress which looks across the Danube onto Novi Sad and the famous bridges bombed in 1999 by NATO. So many obstacles were put in the way of our travelling to Novi Sad. Who are the people who don't want my son and me to travel to Serbia? Who started the process of Serbia's isolation and why? Who started the lies? I wanted my song to deal with all these issues, to build bridges across the rivers of ignorance and to offer the hand of friendship to the people who welcomed us so warmly. Bridges are a good metaphor. In Rotterdam I almost finished the song but was troubled by what to say about the bridges of Novi Sad. They were bombed during the conflict with the Milosevic regime and this remains a scar on the collective Serbian memory. I knew I needed to look into the eyes of Miloš and Sonja. We had just had a lunch in a house full of laughter and joy. Serbians are ordinary people after all. If there is one consistent thing I have learned from all my travels it is that all human beings are essentially the same. There are sometimes great big beautiful cultural differences between us but apart from the obvious economic wealth in the west we all eat, drink, laugh, love, live, die and, if we are lucky, we make a bit of art along the way.
I nervously announced I had written a song for tonight but needed to finish it off. I never play unfinished songs to anyone but this occasion was an exception. Prkos Drumski joined me and jammed on the song. By this time we had been joined by Sanja Marković on saxophone and percussion and Miloš Drobnjaković on mandolin and bass. Their presence lifted me and the words and music fell into place. I wanted the song to be a simple one. Lyrically and musically. I wanted a song that was clear in its meaning and message. After it was finished we played it through and then we played it through again. 'My House Is An Open Door' was born and Prkos Drumski would be playing with me tonight. The magic of this visit continued.
After the rehearsal we went to check in to our hotel and Novi Sad provided the best accommodation of the whole trip. The hotel was plush with great facilities including separate bedrooms, a fridge, a PC and wifi that worked. Ironically we were to spend the least time in this hotel than any of the others. After freshening up Kit and I changed into the tour t-shirts I'd made in England. In fact they had only just made it into our cases and Chris had ironed on the transfers while we napped just before setting off.
Sometimes gigs are perfect and this was one of those occasions. Before this trip, I hadn't played my guitar since December last year but I had no nerves. Kit and I had worked out a setlist after he finished his nap and we knew we would rise to the occasion. Nebojša drove us to the Petrovaradin Fortress. I was reasonably relieved to leave the car behind for the evening and it meant I would be able to have a few beers. On arrival at the castle I looked across the Danube at the evening lights of Novi Sad coming on. It was a beautiful sight and I had a wonderful feeling of inner calm. I remembered I was in a place where innocents died and the powerful feelings I had were further enhanced. I remembered something I read in Dutch journalist Geert Mak's book 'In Europe: Travels Through The Twentieth Century' - 'The words of György Konrád in Budapest still echo in my mind: 'The sooner Milošević and his gang are gone, the better. But no Hungarian, no Czech, no Bulgarian, no Rumanian would ever come up with the idea of bombing the Bridges of Novi Sad to accomplish that. To think up something like that you have to be far, very far removed from our reality.'
The studio was a lovely, warm environment with the artist's pictures on display. There was a small bar behind a counter from which Vesna served drinks and an area of chairs where the audience sat. It was an intimate affair and I think I got to talk to everyone in the room at some point. I had a long conversation with a Croatian journalist, who was covering the gig, about the reasons for our trip and about Serbia.
It was like magic to see Prkos Drumski play. This particular line up is sharp and dynamic and the addition of saxophone in particular makes a dramatic difference. Kit had joined them in rehearsals and played along at the gig too. The third artist on the bill was Izmena Vremena, an introspective and sensitive songwriter from Novi Sad with a lovely command of melody and nicely constructed songs. He very generously introduced one of his songs by telling the audience he had been inspired to write it after listening to my song 'Berlin' on Myspace. Kit and I played 'Child Of The Superficial Age' 'Catch Your Train On Time' 'Almost' and 'I Already Love You'. Kit played Vinnie Spencer's 'Schizophrenia Of Love' and Sara Bareilles' 'August Moon' solo. We finished our set with 'My House Is An Open Door' my song for Novi Sad. I think it is for others to criticise and say how we played but Kit and I felt great afterwards.
When I looked back at the video I was struck by confessing my feeling of connection with Novi Sad to a group of strangers and near strangers but that is how I still feel. I don't know why. What is there to understand? We felt at home in that beautiful, magical town. We were made to feel welcome by a family of people and embraced that welcome. The Croatian journalist I spoke to told me that Serbians have a saying for my feelings and they call my reaction 'a big Slavic heart', which is a lovely idea. After the gig I was presented with a Bojan Kiridžic painting signed by all the family. It was a beautiful gift. The party eventually broke up and we headed back to Sonja's for yet more food and drink but I faded rapidly. It had been a long day and my eyes began to swell and itch again. Tijana drove us back to the hotel but I couldn't sleep and sat up for a couple of hours drinking water, writing the blog and posting some of it to the internet. I felt elated and at peace. Everything we set out to achieve on this trip has been successful beyond all our hopes. Today was a very, very special day. Worth the hundred Euro rip-off at the border.
We took our time leaving the the hotel in Vienna as we knew we'd be in Budapest in plenty of time to see the city. The breakfast in our hotel was pretty ordinary affair but hotels in Vienna are expensive and it was chosen simply because it was the cheapest I could get. During breakfast we made further failed attempts at connecting to the internet which was disappointing. We also realised we didn't take many pictures yesterday and Kit took a few through the car window as we left Vienna. It remains a picturesque city right up to its edges but the city traffic made it impossible to get more than a few shots.
The drive to Budapest was an easy one. We stopped just before the border for a drink and had to buy yet another vignette for Hungarian road tax. The relatively small price of 6 Euros confirmed we were ripped off on the previous day. The Hungarian system is different from others. They entered the car's registration number onto a computer database and issued us with a till receipt. The lady who sold us the vignette didn't deal with many English people and asked me about what we were up to. She was particularly interested in my search for my mother's birthplace and insisted on the web address for the blog so she could take a look.
Crossing the border into Hungary involved slowing the car down and driving through. They stopped some cars for checks but the border was more or less open. Hungarian drivers are our favourite of the holiday so far and are very polite. Driving in Hungary was a very relaxing affair and the Hungarians have the best roads since Germany. Initially the Hungarian countryside consisted of wide open flat plains but as we approached Budapest we drove along river valleys and hills with rocky outcrops. We arrived in Budapest to glorious sunshine. Our hotel was the cheapest of the trip at 25 Euros so I wasn't expecting anything luxurious but it was fine for our needs and on reflection not the worst we've stayed in. They again boasted wireless internet that didn't work and we were only yards from the main hub so the blog fell 3 days behind. We knew we would be doing quite a lot of walking round Budapest and it was a very hot day so we didn't fancy carrying the guitar around. We decided to sing 'Child Of the Superficial Age' in the hotel with the receptionist, who clearly thought we were very eccentric, taking the video.
We walked from our hotel to the main railway station where I used a phrase book to order a day pass for the public transport which we got good use out of. Budapest has a great transport system consisting of a metro, trams and buses and we used them all. We first walked down to the river and looked at the Hungarian parliament building, which I've read is modelled on our own houses of parliament. I couldn't see the resemblance myself. We then took a tram across the river and walked around the Pest district. We headed uphill to the Jewish quarter having to scale several hundred steps to get there. I may be getting old, fat and grey but I leave my son standing in the climbing of stairs stakes. Pest is a pretty place with great views across the river but the main areas are a bit touristy with superfluous tourist tack shops and expensive restaurants. We walked round for an hour but saw no reason to hang around or to stay and eat. We took a bus down to river level and bought some little pastries for a snack to keep us going. The pastries are available all over Budapest in a variety of yummy flavours and shapes for very little money. I saw a father buying a bag of them for his children for a treat so they are obviously enjoyed by all generations.
We crossed back over to the Buda side of the city which is dominated by a shopping centre and wandered around for a while. We were disappointed not to discover any authentic restaurant area. The few we did see were again touristy and not to my taste. Our guidebook didn't really help and we ended up eating a Chinese on the walk back to our hotel. I was expecting Budapest to be more exotic than it was. It was more Western European than East, more Germanic than Slavic. We were told German is a second language in Budapest but everyone we communicated with spoke English as a second language and I never used my German once.
I liked, rather than loved Budapest but my anticipation of travelling to Novi Sad in Serbia began to fill my thoughts. As we settled down back in our hotel room I felt like a child on Christmas Eve in anticipation of meeting Miloš and Sonja, internet friends who I have never met in the flesh. Miloš sent me an album, 'Vreme Ispred Nas' by their band, Prkos Drumski, for review and it blew me away. It was my favourite album of last year and will remain a favourite for whatever time I have left on this earth. It is an album of beautiful modern folk music with an aching, yearning melancholy about it. Since receiving the album correspondence began to develop between us and I began to develop an understanding of the context in which they make music and the Serbian and Croatian music scenes but Miloš and Sonja's openly honest, lyrical and humble correspondence made me wonder about them. Who are these people? Those who know me and how important music is to me will understand why I had to meet them and why I had to hear the music live.
Vienna is just over 50 miles from Bratislava and so Kit and I took it easy in the morning and had a little more sleep. We’d paid 3 Euros for breakfast at the hotel, which seems cheap on the face of it but turned out to be a 3 Euros off the price of the hotel’s restaurant breakfast menu rip off. We had scrambled eggs and some bread before hitting the road. This is my third visit to Vienna and I was here last year with my brother Steve where we saw Longital and Vienna-based band Das Trojanische Pferd. We also came here in 2000 to see Rosenstolz, a favourite German pop band. On both of our previous visits we've had a great time and there are stories to tell, like the time I booked my brother and me into a hotel to find it was a brothel, but Vienna isn't my favourite city. I like being there but it is a place I couldn't live in. The centre of the city is like one big museum and people interact in a unnecessarily formal way that I don't understand. Then there are the artists and unconventional like a reaction. What's the point of living in a place that you are constantly reacting against?
It was another glorious sunny day in Vienna and it was time to relax especially after negotiating the car through the narrowest of gaps to enter the hotel's car park. We took an hour to organise charging our various batteries before heading out into the city. Very annoyingly we discovered the hotel's wifi only works in public areas, whatever that means.
Just adjacent to our hotel there was anti-Europe protest, which appeared to be organised by Austria's version of the twin-set and pearls brigade. The forces of conservatism at work was curious for me. I haven't seen any anti-EC politics on my travels before. I watched the two women for ten minutes or so and nobody stopped to talk to them so they didn't appear to have much support.
We caught a tram to the nearest railway station and bought a day ticket for the city's transport system. In Vienna you need to use trams and the underground to get around as they weave in and out of each other's routes. The tickets also cover the buses but I've only ever had need for a bus on one occasion before in Vienna.
Vienna is not a city where it is possible to see everything in a day so Kit and I sacked the culture and headed to the main shopping area, Mariahilfer Strasse, and decided to concentrate on buying some gifts for my wife and daughter. We spent God knows how long wandering around finding nothing amongst the generic shopping crap that is the same all over western Europe. The only shopping worth doing, in my opinion, is that for music so I took Kit to Vienna’s best record shop 'Recordbag' at Kollergerngasse 4. 'Recordbag' is a wonderful independent music shop of the very highest quality. It sells a wide variety of music related paraphernalia as well as well as any decent independent German CD you might want. I was hoping to get a copy of the Enno Bunger album I missed in Rostock but unfortunately they didn’t have it and had never heard of him. The shop assistant was most put out that I knew of a German release they didn't have and looked it up in a catalogue in an 'Oh no, there's no such thing' manner. She appeared even more put out that the release actually existed. I compensated by getting new albums by Die Sterne and Der Elegante Rest. The latter being by one of my current favourite bands and coming as a complete surprise as I didn’t know it was available, which was slightly annoying as I thought I knew everything.
On the opposite side of Mariahilfer Strasse is Vienna's best drinking venue, the 7 Stern brew pub on Sieben Stern Gasse. They brew great beer including two flavoured with chilli and hemp. Actually, the chilli and hemp brews aren't very good but the others are all wonderful. Well, now I come to think of it the smoked beer is a bit poor too. They also have a great menu of traditional Austrian food which is kind of like German cuisine only less so. When I was last here with my brother we ordered a knuckle of pork which is a traditional north German dish. The menu recommended that one knuckle of pork was enough for two people when in Germany you generally get one each. I questioned the waiter and he said one knuckle was definitely too much for one person so we followed his advice and got one between two. When it arrived at our table, yes you've guessed it, it was just the same size as you get per person in Germany, which is slightly disappointing after having had your appetite stimulated by all their beer. Despite the previous disappointment we decided to eat at 7 Stern and sat in the sunshine in the beer garden. Kit had a cream of garlic soup followed by a classic Wiener schnitzel and I had a Serbian bean soup followed by a baked pasta and mixed meat dish with masses of grilled cheese served in a frying pan. The soups were both delicious and the main courses were quite good, which the observant amongst you will notice is a less impressive description than delicious. I also managed a glass of the pub’s lovely seasonal beer. Seriously, 7 Stern is a great venue and I would go there every time I'm in Vienna but like all the best places it is not perfect. It is a fact that the next time I'm there I will not eat either of the main dishes I had previously.
We took a tram past Vienna’s museum quarter, so Kit could at least glance at some of Vienna’s grand buildings, to Stadpark where we strolled in the spring sunshine and sang a few songs by the statue of Franz Schubert my favourite classical composer. As we did so a small audience gathered but there was no time to linger because we had arranged to meet Hans Wagner, cello playing genius of the bands Neuschnee and Das Trojanische Pferd. Hans had suggested a number of possible evening activities and we plumped for seeing a live art play for something different. The play 'Gob Squad's Kitchen' was a German/English bi-lingual production with a live art flavour to it. The context involved a group of 4 actors attempting to recreate Andy Warhol's 'Kitchen'. Cameras were set up behind the large white screens and video of the actors was projected onto the screens. During the course of the play audience members were drawn into the cast and took the place of or joined the actors. It was an impressive and ambitious project that you felt could fall apart at any moment but didn't.
www.gobsquad.com
After the play we talked to Hans in the bar for a while amidst a lot of noise pollution and smoke. Britain's no smoking rules haven't yet caught on to the same extent in most of Europe. I went to the toilet and on my way back to the bar an attempt was made to charge me a further 3 Euros for the privilege of getting back to my son, friend and drink. 'It is a new party now,' I was told 'The after show party has finished and you have to pay extra for the music.' The music was the usual rubbish generic shit music you hear evrywhere so I told them politely but firmly where to get off and it was time to go. Last time we were in Vienna my brother argued with a couple of guys who were talking over a band we were trying to watch and I pondered how different I would be if I lived in Vienna, constantly reacting against silly formality and people who don't know the meaning of live and let live.
Back at the hotel we were disappointed to find that the promised free 'wifi' in public areas did not work and so the blog fell further behind. I began to feel very tired but a bit wired and I found it hard to sleep. My eyes were very dry and itchy and I realised I was dehydrated. Now I look back at the video I realise I look really fatigued and maybe the ambition of the trip was taking its toll on me. If this were a work of drama my condition would get worse but I had a long drink of water and got off to sleep.
On leaving Częstochowa we finally drove past an Auchan hypermarket and I bought some nice quality German shoes at even nicer Polish prices. Just before the border with the Czech Republic we stopped to spend the last of our Zloty but large signs all over the place made it immediately obvious we would need our remaining cash for road tax vignettes for Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria if we were travelling on the main motorways. This system generally means, if you want to drive on motorways and some main roads, you buy a chipped sticker which is put in the window of your car and can be read by various cameras along the way. A rather morose woman sat in a booth selling the vignettes and changing currency in Euros. I asked her if we needed a vignette for the Czech Republic but she initially suggested she didn't know. I was discussing with Kit what to do and said maybe we should carry on to the border and see what was available there when she came on all charitable and helpful. She came out of the booth and showed us a large map of Europe. She showed us the shortest route through the Czech Republic didn't take motorways so we wouldn't need to pay the tax but we did need to pay tax for Slovakia and Austria. I should have suspected a sting but didn't. It was a cash only transaction and I didn't have enough Zloty. I remembered we had some Roubles left and it came to enough for the road taxes and a hot drink each. Anyone using this system should check prices before they buy in each country. Sellers that appear 'official' on the face of it may not be and will add huge 'commission' to the actual prices for the taxes. We were well and truly ripped-off in this fashion and I later discovered we had paid three times the normal price. I had read that buying vignettes in advance speeds your passage through a border but very little is gained. They are available for sale at all the appropriate border crossings. My advice to anyone is to check prices and pay at the border.
Our satellite navigation system is set to take the fastest route and a couple of minutes after buying our vignettes we crossed the border into the Czech Republic and continued on roads that looked like motorways to me for at least a couple of hours. We stopped at a rest station and Kit played ‘Schizophrenia Of Love’ while sitting on a not immediately noticed ants’ nest. We crossed into Slovakia without any delay. Both the Czech and Slovakian borders were more or less open with border controls being applied to random vehicles. There is a fast track for EU citizens with vignettes. That said, Kit swears I drove through the lane meant for Slovakians.
Bratislava is the first capital city of our trip and was the busiest traffic since Kaliningrad but the Slovaks drive carefully and there are no holes in the roads so we arrived at our hotel without problem. In Bratislava I had arranged to meet two friends, Daniel Salontay and Shina Lo who are the band, Longital. I met them once before with my brother Steve when we saw them play live in Vienna. No sooner had we checked into our room than Daniel and Shina were there to collect us and show us around their city. Our first point of interest was a gig poster advertising a Longital concert in Bratislava later in the month. I would love to see them play their hometown. There's generally something special about seeing a band play a live hometown gig. We then went to look at the Danube as the sun set and the light faded to twilight. We will see the Danube again in Austria, Hungary and Serbia. It is a river that has featured in my travels before, most notably in 1987 when my wife Chris and I visited Swabia in South Germany. We stayed in a small town called Oberdischingen which is on the Danube as well as the pilgrimage route to Santiago De Compostella. Two friends we made there, Dieter & Markus took us to one of the sources of the Danube at Bodensee/Lake Constance. The river strangely appears from underground as it flows over porous rock and depending on rainfall and other such factors it appears above ground at a different place along its bed. It is possible to walk on a dry river bed and see the river flowing ahead of you. Very strange.
Daniel and Shina took us to Bratislava’s old town next. It was getting ready for the summer season with some restaurants constructing their outside eating spaces in readiness. Bratislava old town has a nice relaxed feel to it but Daniel told us it is like two different places depending on the tourist season. I particularly liked the handful of irreverent bronze satues around the place. The man looking out of a manhole cover is known as 'Cumil The Watcher or Peeper' but it isn't known if he is meant to represent someone spying or just watching the girls go by. The statue holding the bowler hat aloft is known as 'Schöner Naci' who was a well known character in the first part of the last century. Daniel told us a tale of him having been jilted by a lover after which he went to the town every day of his life and gave flowers to the women of Bratislava. I chose to play a song by a statue of Napoleon in one of the town's squares but a succession of tourist kept having their photos taken while I was playing and put me off. Daniel told me I had chosen the most popular tourist spot in the entire city to play my gentle ballad. Instead I played 'I Already Love You' with Kit and Daniel took the video. His style of doing this was animated and fluid so the results are not like our other efforts but he captured the moment well and I like the video a lot. 'I Already Love You' is a song I wrote for Kit when he was still in the womb and it's a strange and beautiful thing to be able to sing it with him now he's all grown up.
We then ate in a very cool Slovak restaurant. Kit had a cold trout dish followed by a turkey steak baked in cheese. I had snails in garlic butter followed by wild boar served with a vegetable puree and sliced dumplings. We also tried a traditional Slovak dish of a potato hybrid gnocchi/spätzle in a sheep’s cheese sauce with bacon. The meal was top quality and really good value for money. My kind of food. I can't pretend to know Slovak cuisine from this one meal. All the dishes were similar to others I've eaten in Italy, France, Germany and the Czech Republic but Slovakia is a country finding its identity, emerging from years of being governed from Prague. Over dinner we discussed the differences between Slovak and Czech culture. Daniel and Shina said a lot of things the general gist of which was that the Slovaks are more Slavic in nature and the Czechs more German. Over the next few days I hope to be able to understand the meaning of that concept more than I do now. I understand what being German means with a lot more depth than most. I always feel at peace when I'm there. I always feel like I am among my own people but I have such a strong connection and identification with Slavic culture. There is an abstraction that I instinctively understand. It puzzles me that after a lifetime of knowing nothing about Slavic countries that I make statements like this. It is also the case that German culture changes as you move around the country and that the history of the 20th Century changed the linear development of German culture. Prussia disappeared and the Prussians settled in wider Germany. At the same time Eastern Europe heavily influenced one part of the country while Western and American culture heavily influenced the west of Germany. In Slovakia a similar process appears to have occurred. After years of being overshadowed it is beginning to discover, celebrate and understand its roots
We walked off our meal by wandering round some of the less touristy areas of the old town, through the Jewish Quarter and up to the castle where there are great views of the city. There is also a space-age design bridge over the Danube that from certain angles looks like a martian tripod from War Of The Worlds invading the city. Before long it was time to part and head back to our hotel. Daniel and Shina are special people and it was nice to make their acquaintance again. They have a spirituality that is hard to define and is also reflected in the music they make. Kit and I loved Bratislava. The Slovak capital seemed to us to be a relaxed and civilised place; a reflection of the Slovak people we met. I will return.
Back at the hotel we discovered we have no internet so the blog will fall behind by a day but I should be able to catch up tomorrow in Vienna. Vienna is but a short drive from here so we should have plenty of time to get things done. Famous last words and all that.
We then sat in a cafe for an hour and talked. We discussed our onward journey and looked at a map that Nebojša had given me. Yes, I finally have a map of Novi Sad! I'm again keen to continue to avoid motorways and toll roads and also to see something of Croatia. We will get the sat nav back tomorrow but the road route to Zagreb is so straight forward it should be easy to get to the border without it. As we sat in the cafe in an endless moment during which time went slowly for us I felt perfectly at peace. What a precious place Novi Sad is and what precious people they have here.
We then drove out of Novi Sad to the home of Bogomir Mijatović, who is a Serbian rock journalist, and his wife Marija. I think we drove out of Novi Sad along the Danube valley but I can't be sure. Bogomir and Marija's house was built into the steep incline of a valley side and inside was open plan and split-level. I think there is a Serbian tradition of brotherhood through profession and this was the reason for my introduction to Bogomir, 'Bogy' to his friends. I don't think of myself as a journalist, more an amateur writer but when he showed me his 'office' I had to laugh out loud. It was the nearest thing I've ever seen to my own music room at home with thousands of albums, CDs amidst a mess of memorabilia. The walls that didn't have shelving attached were covered with autographs he has collected over the years with numerous world famous acts alongside Yugoslavian acts and others. He enthusiastically showed me his favourite items which included original Fleetwood Mac albums signed by Peter Green and a book on Bob Dylan. He also had the street signs from a Novi Sad street once named after John Lennon. 
After looking round the room we sat and talked about music and football half distracted by the FA Cup semi-final between Portsmouth and Tottenham which was being played live on a massive TV screen. Bogy's second love was Liverpool FC and he shamed me with his detailed knowledge of my home town club and enthusiastically swapped opinions with me like a genuine Scouser would with his mates in some Liverpool pub. Bogy also moved onto the Liverpool music scene and lamented the lack of major acts coming from my city. He wasn't particularly impressed by the most recent wave of acts such as The Zutons and the like. I told him about Liverpool's vibrant, underground acoustic scene, which he was very interested in, and promised to send him a compilation of acts from the scene. I also promised to send him advanced news of any new Liverpool rock act that is likely to break big. He presented me with a book he wrote about the history of the Novi Sad music scene with the words 'I want to give you a very important piece of my life.' I love these people. I really do. We parted reluctantly. I could have talked to Bogy for hours and hours and sincerely hope I get another opportunity to.
