Exit News
Travelling to Exit
Thursday 10th September 2009
Bearing in mind the mission it takes to get to Novi Sad from the UK, it’s a pretty long way to go to stay for less than a week. Furthermore, if you’re in Serbia, you’re in possibly THE most central place for cheap European exploration. Chat to anyone at EXIT and you’ll discover that Novi Sad is just one of their stops on a grand travel itinerary. We weren’t going miss out on an opportunity to discover some of the most tourist-free places on this continent either, and it went a little like this…
We were pretty open minded about our travels, and only booked two things: our flight to Budapest, Hungary, and our flight out of Prague. By doing that, we had set ourselves a destination to aim for, but were fairly flexible with it.
We took advantage of the fact that Belgrade was only an hour and a half away by bus, and headed for the most Cyrillic city in the world immediately after EXIT. If Novi Sad is the Athens of Serbia, then Belgrade is its grittier, crazy cousin. Huge, bustling and, well, mental, Belgrade swept us up in a whirlwind of free tram transport – it’s literally impossible to pay for a ticket – disorientation and a whole mishmash of architecture in a city still celebrating it’s release from conflict.
Despite early-night intentions, our hostel (booked online the previous day) had a fresh delivery of charming new roommates, and we got involved in drinking games until the wee hours after exploring the city’s traditional cuisine. The next night an impromptu hostel-outing took us to the city’s riverside clubs, complete with Belgrade’s most glamorous clientele. Needless to say, they weren’t hugely impressed by our scruffy appearance. However, we found the club, a backlash to the early noughties, complete with strippers oiled up on the bar, hugely amusing.
The time came for us to take the night train up to Budapest – a mode of transport in which you get as much comfort as you pay for. Considering we only dished out £20, it wasn’t a lot. However, awakening to sunrise over Budapest’s grand Austro-Hungarian streets and the cutest hostel of the holiday eased the pain a little.
Budapest was the place for sightseeing, yet more naps in parks (obligatory in every city we stopped in) and a taste of Hungary’s stodge-fest cuisine in a traditional diner. Evening activities included wandering along the river and late-night ice creams.
The heat wave in Budapest was getting a little stifling in town, so we jumped on a train and headed three miles out to Lake Balaton – the summer resort of choice for Hungarians – and amongst sunbathing and lakeside cafes stumbled across a folk festival, opening up a whole new array of cultural delights, including Hungarian Bangra.
After three days of relaxation, we took another night train (or, rather 5am train) to Prague following a sleepover in Budapest station which I’m going to gloss over. If we thought Budapest was pretty, Prague was beautiful, and as touristy as expected – something we’d fortunately avoided so far. By staying in the new town, and with friends who had local knowledge, and accommodation, we were able to sample some of Prague’s more interesting sights. We became familiar with the city’s gay scene, vintage shops and rooftop bars – there’s plenty more to the Czech capital than stag do’s and Charles’ Bridge.
Ultimately, the number of possible routes, places and trips after EXIT are endless. Everyone will have different intentions and requirements, but here are some top tips we learnt along the way:
- Don’t sweat too much if you’ve not planned everything to the final detail. The availability of internet these days means that hostels and transport can be sorted easily at the last minute.
- However, don’t think that everything will be plain sailing just because you’ve got a backpack. Being too relaxed, as those who hadn’t booked the Festival buses from Budapest airport, means a lot of wasted time and often a more expensive last resort.
- Be open minded. Things will go wrong – we missed trains and got lost many times. However, you’re in a totally fascinating place, take the opportunity to explore!
- Leggings are THE most practical garment any traveller can own. Lads, don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it.
- Don’t be shy – by meeting fellow travellers you increase your experience tenfold. One of our recently-made buddies put us up in his Prague penthouse!
Alice Vincent