Day 31- Rest day again!!

28 Jun

Today was supposed to be the day I collected my temporary passport from the Embassy in Belgrade so we awoke early had breakfast at the local bakery and readied ourselves for the bus trip. But alas .... I received a phone call from the Australian Embassy to say that they had not received the official permission from Australia to issue the passport so our plans went out the window

Instead we spent an hour or so reorganising the rest of the trip recognising that I will have to “peel off” at Bucharest and not go all the way to the Black Sea. That of course assumes that I can get a passport and not be stateless as I am now!

I must admit that when I saw the Embassy staff member cut off the magnetic strip off my passport it gave me a sinking feeling of being out of control of my life.... I am in the hands of the beauracrats to move out of Serbian soil!

To get a feeling of moving ahead I said to Chris that I would return to Belgrade to get a new rear tyre, having only purchased the front tyre yesterday.

So I caught the 11.40 bus and after catching a taxi, I managed to find the ProBike shop in Belgrade. The weather was quite hot at about 35 degrees so having plenty of water was important.

After successfully getting my new rear tyre I managed to find a nice bakery for a sandwich lunch. I must admit the cost of living here in Serbia is very cheap with sandwich rolls only costing about a dollar or so....

After the lunch it was time to find a taxi back to the bus depot for the bus ride back to Kovin where we are staying

I arrived back at the hotel where we are staying at about 5.15pm

I am hoping that the passport situation gets sorted tomorrow as it is Friday and being stuck here over the weekend would be very frustrating....

I must say that both Chris and I are getting to know Kovin quite well

The town is about 50 kms from Belgrade and it seems to have a real family friendly feeling about it. The families are out at night for dinner in the town square and everyone seems happy

Anyway that’s enough for today.... hoping for better news tomorrow

Now for some photos .... not many today

Local bike culture