City Hall and a Side Trip

Thursday,  Aug. 18, 2016--Subotica and Palic

We have been so lucky.  Originally, the forecast was for three days of rain.  It rained hard while we were on the bus yesterday, but the rest of the day was fine.  Today, we awoke to some clouds, but the sun eventually came out without there being any more rain.

We had a lazy morning in the apartment and didn't leave until about 10:45.  We wandered some streets and then sat on a bench in front of the City Hall watching young boys (ages 13-17) setting up booths for a festival here next week as we awaited the noon tour of the building.  We observed that the boys set up their first framework for a booth on one side of the fountain so that they would have to pass it to set up the others.  They brought in two more booths squeezing their way between the first one and the fountain before they realized they should move it back a bit to make more room.  Then, after we came out of our tour, we saw that, as they placed the booth frames on the other side of the fountain, they had figured out that it was best to put the furtherest one in place first so they wouldn't have to pass any with each new one.  They were a bit slow learning, but they solved their problem eventually!

There were 6 English speakers (a Russian couple, a Chinese couple, and Wes and me) and 4 Serbian speakers on the tour of the City Hall.  The guide was very thorough and encouraged us to take photos.  The interior of the building is very detailed with much handcrafted work (tiles, wall paintings, stained glass windows, wood carvings, etc.).  It was as ornate as the exterior of the building is.

In the afternoon, we took the bus to Palic, a small community that exists where there was a huge spa in the late 1800s/early 1900s.  The spa was developed within a wooded area around a large shallow lake.  It is fronted at the highway entrance by a water tower construction that creates a dramatic arched entryway.  From there, a Great Walkway takes visitors to the facilities near the lake.  There is a building called the Grand Terrace that has huge ballrooms and even larger open porches facing the lake.  To each side of the Grand Terrace are two hotels that still operate today.  In the woods, there is an amphitheater with features constructed of uncut stone (that has a quaint atmosphere somewhat like the Arnesen River Theater in San Antonio).  On the waterfront were separate wooden bathing facilities for women and for men to protect their modesty from the opposite sex (with only the women's facility still standing).  Scattered around the park are various mansions and sculptures.  Much of the construction is characterized by art nouveau features like those found here in Subotica.

I mentioned yesterday that we had bought Jelen Beer.  It is pronounced with the "J" having a "Y" sound.  We've been joking today that we spent the night Jellin' (American pronunciation) with Jelen (Serbian pronunciation).  It was a two-liter bottle of beer and we only drank half of it, so tonight, we were still "Jellin' with Jelen" as we ate our dinner--pljeskavica (pronounced roughly as plyeskaveetsa) which is a Serbian style of hamburger.  We bought the burgers at a stall that has people waiting in lines all day and ate them at a counter attached to the side of the stall.  Wes swears we ate horse meat again!