Subotica
Суботица
Subotica Town Hall
March 11, 2005
I took the train from Budapest to Subotica and shared my car with a German guy with
a slightly bushy, poorly manicured mullet. He spoke a little English and kept saying
“sh*t, we are going slow, is this f*cking train being pulled by horses or something?”
He was headed to Novi Sad in order to buy things at the illegal market. I didn’t
understand very well, but I believe he had four days off of work and spent two and
a half of them getting to and from Novi Sad and the other two at some illegal goods
market.
I made it to Subotica, Serbia and quickly found my way into town and found the city
hall, which was quite impressive and a part of a paper I'm writing for my art
history class. I then had the hardest time trying to find the Synagogue, so asked
a couple of young girls who spoke some English. They were very nice and showed me
the Synagogue, however it’s falling apart and the gates are locked up.
I also realized I understand a small amount of Serbo-Croatia. At the train station
I asked a man if he spoke Polish and he said no, but he understood me. I soon caught
a train to Belgrade in the afternoon.
I found a train car with a young student studying Polish and a middle-aged man,
also with a mullet, who gave the police a hard time as they walked around the train.
As soon as we took off, the police came around and checked everyone’s ID and asked
for our addresses if it was present on the ID to test us I believe. This guy refused
to give his address and the police decided they had time to wait so they did, but
only for about 15 minutes at which point he somehow checked out and they left. The
rest of the trip consisted of the mullet-wearer chain smoking in the non-smoking
cabin... but it’s Serbia and I was warned that there’s no such thing as a non-smoking
section in this country.
Synagogue in Subotica