A Day Trip to Bujanovac, Serbia

A photo essay

We knew we were in a different country when we saw the Serbian Cyrillic writing. Photo by HF Sylaj, 2023.

For a long time, I have wanted to go to Serbia. As an American, it almost feels like a forbidden land.

I have read about Americans and Albanians sometimes having issues. Then there is the country’s strong ties to Russia. So, I was a little nervous. But also excited to see a new country.

In the end, none of the issues I had read about were true, we didn’t have any problems, and it was a delightful day.

Some games in the city square. They didn’t look like they were operational. Photo by HF Sylaj, 2023.

For a long time, I thought that I couldn’t go to Serbia because of my American passport. I had read online that Serbian border agents will not let someone cross with a Kosovo stamp in their passport. The solution was to either have the residential visa ID or drive to another country’s border to cross. So I thought I had to wait for my Kosovo ID card.

The next hurdle was bringing a car across the border into Serbia. To do so, you need to pay for the car to have a “visa”. I am not sure what the official term is. Most rentals don’t have one. But it is a 40 Euro fee for the car to go across the border. The car “visa” is good for one year.