Adventures in Europe: Subotica, Serbia

As I continue by train through Serbia, I ended up with an afternoon layover in Subotica, just south of the border with Hungary.

I left Belgrade early this morning on the train north to Novi Sad. About an hour later, I got off in Novi Sad, where track work (by mostly Chinese workers, I could see) is interrupting the historic "Orient express" route. At Novi Sad I had to catch a bus, which took me to a different Novi Sad train station, then catch a local train almost as far as the Croatian border, before it arrived in Sombor, where I changed again to the train which brought me here, to Subotica. I arrived around 13:30 and have until 16:30 when my trip will carry on into Hungary.

A significant portion (maybe a plurality) of the residents of Subotica are Hungarian, not Serbian, and Hungarian is spoken widely. I have made no attempt and therefore cannot tell the difference in terms of what I am hearing, but of course I can tell the difference between the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets and so it clear when I am reading Hungarian versus Serbian, such as in the posters and sign below.

The centre of Subotica is very walkable, and many of the buildings are old and picturesque . . .

. . . especially the city hall. 

The synagogue here is magnificent and interesting to me, because I would have assumed it was a church when I looked at it casually.

I also took the opportunity to take a picture of the iconic Zastava "Yugo," which you do in fact see quite a few of on the streets. Zastava is no longer in business, so I assume eventually the icons will disappear or end up in museums.