Hey everybody! I spent the last two days since I last checked in hanging around in Novi Sad, Serbia.

When I got up on Monday morning, it was pouring rain – so naturally I went back to bed for a couple more hours haha. But by about noon the rain had let up, so I set out to do a little exploring in the old town.

After strolling around a bit, I went to check out this “Serbian Fusion” restaurant I had read about as a change of pace from the cheap stuff I’m normally eating. This place was pretty swanky, definitely like a gourmet restaurant. Still, I had the duck breast and some sort of a beetroot appetizer that they brought me, and the whole meal was about $15.

After lunch, I decided to set out towards the fortress, which is on the other side of the Danube river. Enroute, I stopped by the memorial to the Novi Sad raid. The raid happened in January 1942 when the Hungarian Nazi’s rounded up about 3000 Jews and Serbs and shot/drowned them in the icy Danube river. While I was at the memorial, I encountered some boats of the Serbian riverine navy docked on the bank.

After viewing the memorial, I set off across the bridge and up a giant hill to get to the fortress. I was sweating like a pig by the time I got up there!

When I finally got to the fortress, I walked all around it and was rewarded with some nice views out over the city. Here are some scenes from the fortress:

After viewing the fortress, I took a taxi back across the river to my car and got all of my music equipment, and then went back to the apartment to get a shower and get ready for my show at 9pm. My plan was to do some busking on the street first, and then walk directly to the bar. However, there were musicians everywhere on Monday evening! There was no good place to set up that wasn’t already occupied, so I just made my way to the bar to have a few drinks and hang out there before the show.

At 9pm, I kicked off and played for almost 2 straight hours – minus the two strings that I broke and had to stop and change! It is so annoying as a musician to break a string when you are in the groove, but there is just not much you can do about it. On the second broken string, I actually broke one of the pegs that hold the strings into the guitar when I was trying to change it, but luckily the bar had another guitar there that I was able to use to finish out the show. There were about 40-50 people at the show, and I got a lot of positive feedback, made about 35 euros in pay, and sold 2 CDs. So all in all, it was a great time!

This morning I was feeling a little rough from the late night, so I made my way over to the McDonald’s on the other side of the square and pigged out a little. It’s such shitty food, but it sure does help with a hangover! After that, I went over to the music store nearby to get a new peg for the guitar, and the guy in there offered to have a look at my speaker in the morning before I leave town, so I’m hoping to finally get the issue with it cutting out intermittently resolved tomorrow.

In the afternoon, I took advantage of the washing machine in my apartment to get some laundry done, had some dinner at a local restaurant serving food from this region, and then I was joined this evening by the owner of my Airbnb, Robert, for some busking on the street. We took turns on my rig, and it was his first time playing on the street – but I have a feeling he caught the bug and may get a speaker of his own now haha. We made about 10 euro in tips, but I sold a CD to a couple from Lichtenstein and they insisted on giving me 20 Swiss Francs (about 18 euro) for it! They also own a bar in Lichtenstein and connected with me and told me I’m welcome there anytime to do a gig. So maybe someday…

Tonight I’m taking it easy and getting caught up on planning for the next few days. The plan is to go to Vukovar, Croatia tomorrow to see the extensive war damage from 1991 that is still there. Then I will head to Slavonski Brod, Croatia to see my pal Tin, who I met back in Pula, and help him celebrate his birthday for a couple days.

Talk to you guys soon!