Another day of travelling took me over the border from Romania into Hungary and then for a brief peek into Serbia. Palic, just across the border into Serbia from Hungary, seems to be a holiday town but my main reason for visiting was that there seemed to be a convenient campsite open all year.There was a glossy website with pictures of a pool, and a restaurant (the link below has now expired).I had tried ringing, got an answer but the speaker couldn’t speak English.After some difficulty driving up and down near the indicated location on google maps,I found the spot:there were no signs,but there were two Slovenian campervans in a car park behind a tatty building, actually the Mexican restaurant shown on the website.It seems that there was a campsite of sorts,but it is shut, "maybe until June".It looks grotty anyway, and a mile away from the website. Later,another Slovenian family turned up in a caravan and parked-also woefully misled!
After discussion with two people working in the little restaurant whose carpark it was, I was allowed to park on the patch of grass with some shade for the equivalent of about £3 (This time I had made sure that I had changed some money and obtained a few Serbian dinars at the border.I had also used my time briefly in Hungary to get some Hungarian florints from a cashpoint at a rather basic looking Tesco store, and just before crossing into Hungary had stopped at a garage to buy a virtual road tax disc, needed for the Hungarian motorways only, which I did travel a few miles on,and will be going back into the country tomorrow,the payment being valid 10 days.)
Palic itself was not a bad place.It seems to be a holiday village of sorts, with a small lake.There is a grid of residential streets with some pleasant bungalows and houses with well tended gardens ,and people are out mowing their lawns.The smell of mown grass,and the buzz of lawnmowers on a pleasant evening was oddly evocative of home, despite the otherwise distinctly foreign and different areas I had been through in the last few days.
Crossing the border from Romania into Hungary must be a frustrating task if you are a lorry driver. Earlier in the day as I had approached this border,for about 5 miles there was a line of lorries stopped at the side of the road,being called forward occasionally towards the border.There was just room for cars and myself the pass them on the road. The queue for cars was only 5 or six, at just the one open lane of five potential ones. It seems that the hold up for lorries is that they have to go through an X-ray machine, and there is just one. Hungary is policing here the border to the entire Schengen area, and their limited facilities don’t seem up to managing the supposed movement of free trade going in the EU.
Palic itself was not a bad place.It seems to be a holiday village of sorts, with a small lake.There is a grid of residential streets with some pleasant bungalows and houses with well tended gardens ,and people are out mowing their lawns.The smell of mown grass,and the buzz of lawnmowers on a pleasant evening was oddly evocative of home, despite the otherwise distinctly foreign and different areas I had been through in the last few days.
Crossing the border from Romania into Hungary must be a frustrating task if you are a lorry driver. Earlier in the day as I had approached this border,for about 5 miles there was a line of lorries stopped at the side of the road,being called forward occasionally towards the border.There was just room for cars and myself the pass them on the road. The queue for cars was only 5 or six, at just the one open lane of five potential ones. It seems that the hold up for lorries is that they have to go through an X-ray machine, and there is just one. Hungary is policing here the border to the entire Schengen area, and their limited facilities don’t seem up to managing the supposed movement of free trade going in the EU.
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