Why am I awake at 6:15am?
In my bed, still drunk from yesterday, I pondered this momentarily. I recall there was a festival, with villagers pouring us liters of Serbian rakija. Later, there was some illegal club on the top floor of an abandoned warehouse. I notice my roommate, a US Marine, is fully awake and staring at his phone. Wisely, I ignore him and go back to sleep.
Two hours later, about 8:30am, I woke up again. This time with a full-blown hangover. An entire day of drinking at the Mlada Rakija Festival, followed by a night out in Subotica, was brutally coming back to punish me. My roommate had vanished, leaving nothing but a single dirty sock under his bed. The room was quiet.
Then I hear Paul scream, “For the love of God. Do you have a spray?”
Broken Palaces And Lakeside Orgies: Local In Subotica
All morning, the four of us who stayed at the Airbnb have been getting rid of all the rakija, beer, svarci, pork and other trash from the festival yesterday. There is only one toilet in the house. Paul was the last to use it. It’s not pleasant.
Despite his grumpy mood, Paul kept his promise of giving us a tour of his city of Subotica. From our Airbnb in nearby Palic, we caught a taxi to Subotica. Paul is eager to show us the colorful Art Deco Hungarian buildings which mark his hometown.
Undoubtedly, Rajhl Palata Ferenc is the symbol of Subotica. It is instantly recognizable for the wavy blue and orange flourishes on its arches and windows. Originally, it served as a library and gymnasium for the city. But its architect, Ferenc Rajhl, went broke trying to maintain it. After being vacant for years, it was reopened as an art gallery.
Unfortunately, the beautiful palace is closed on Sunday. So Paul took us next door to a small café named Bife Majo. Opened in the early 1960s, Bife Majo is the oldest continuously functioning café in Subotica. Inside, we can see the place is soaked in nostalgia. Photos, sports jerseys, and newspaper clippings from decades past cover the walls. The menu is cheap. Everyone orders a domace coffee with a shot of rakija to help themselves recover from the previous day.
A Synagogue Like No Other
After picking ourselves up with coffee at Bife Majo, we walked up the street for a late breakfast at Pekara Lipa. It is a small bakery, and offers Serbia’s best hangover cure, the burek. This greasy pastry, typically filled with meat or cheese, is best for breakfast with yogurt, but is available at any time of day. Paul calls this burek the Necromancer since it raises us up from our deadly hangovers.
Paul calls this burek the Necromancer since it wakes us up from our dying hangovers.
The following stop was the Jewish Synagogue. It has a similar Art Deco style as the Rahjl Palata. The same florid arches and brightly designed colors garnish it. Unlike the palace, here, for a small fee, we can enter.
Inside, it is even more stunning. An open chapel climbs up to a second level balcony. Above this, it soars onward to a large orange, yellow and blue cupola with a chandelier hanging down. Rainbow stained-glass windows flood the hall with light. Out of all the religious buildings I have seen in Europe, this synagogue is the most unique.
Paul had the idea to cure our hangovers in Morahalon, a town just across the border in Hungary. Morahalon has a large spa, which would be a good detox for us. Unfortunately, the small country road at the border is busy. We wait for the cars to advance, but the border police are inspecting every vehicle.
Paprika At Lake Palic
We decided to return to Palic and visit their lake. Palic Lake is not big, but it is Serbia’s largest lake and it has a pleasant park with walkway along its entire shore. This park has several resorts and old bathhouses. In the past, the shorelines and bathhouses were divided into men’s and women’s sections. However, Paul tells that the wealthy residents of that time could easily flaunt these restrictions and, “spend nights in the houses taking opium and hosting orgies.”
We hear all of this over coffee on a terrace at Bioskop Abazija. Bioskop Abazij sits just off the northern shore of Lake Palic. It is an old-fashioned theater which hosts not only classic film showings, but other cultural events like jazz concerts and art viewings. Our coffee, strong and bitter, comes from a small café bar inside the theater.
Finally, we finish our tour of Subotica and Palic with an excellent late lunch on the shore of Lake Palic. Paprika Cardos is about a kilometer south on the eastern shore. The walk and the view at the restaurant is beautiful. Our meal, perch and fish soup, takes nearly an hour to be served. But this is expected since it is fished fresh from the lake. As with most food in this Hungarian region of Serbia, it is spicy, with loads paprika in the soup. We wash the fish down with glasses of local white wine.
Just as we finish our meals, the sun begins to set over the lake. Like the paprika, it glows red. We toast our last glass of wine and pay. After a wild night, and a long day, we survived the weekend in Subotica.
