Experience in Subotica, Serbia by Zsolt

What is it like to live in Subotica? Would you recommend it? What is the city like?

Subotica have about 100,000 inhabitants, so it's a quiet small town where people know each other. But Subotica is a multicultural place. There live a lot of different nations and religions, mostly hungarians and serbs, but there's also croatians, bosnians and other. They all live in peace, it is a real example of tolerance.

What is the student lifestyle like in Subotica?

Subotica have just a few faculties. There is faculty of Economics (one of the best in the region). In common people are communicative so the students too, everybody can easily make friends there. Everything is near and the transport is pretty good so students can easily get where they want.

How much does it cost to live in Subotica?

Life in Subotica is very cheap if you compares it to the other European cities and also to bigger serbian cities. For example food is very cheap. Subotica has a big market place called "Buvljak" where you can buy everything you need, literally everything. It is looks like turkish bazars.

Is it difficult to find accommodation in Subotica? Is there any advice you can give?

Finding accomodation isn't difficult at all. If you stay a couple days there's a few nice hotels. Students usually lives in private flats. Rental these flats costs beetween 80 and 200 euros/month with housing expenses. Costs depends on number of rooms and roomates, and of course depends on how near is city center.

What is the food like? What are your favourite dishes?

People in Subotica rarely go to restaurants so there isn't a lot of them. Before or after late night drinkings the best is "burek". It isn't Serbians national food, it is from Bosnia, but everybody eats and love burek. You can eat burek whith cheese, meat and also with apple, but it is a little bit fatty.

What places would you recommend visiting in Subotica?

The most famous places in Subotica is the city hall, theatre, the blue fountain, the korzo and the Raihl palace (Rajhlova palata). Palić is also beautiful. It is another town but it's very close to Subotica, and often mentioned as part of Subotica.

Is it good to eat out in Subotica? Can you tell us your favourite spots?

You can eat dishes of every nation's cuisine who live there (hungarian, serbian...). Burek is the best at "Lipa"'s bakeries. At "Picolo pizza" makes very delicious pizzas.

Is the nightlife good in Subotica? Where is good to go?

Nightlife is good/bad if you like/hate turbofolk music. Turbofolk is a fusion of old national (domestic) music and modern techno rhythm. It is everywhere, often whith live singers.

What advice would you give future students heading to Subotica?

Subotica is a nice and cheap place to live and study, but not for long time. You can have great experiences there, but not a lot.
And at the end I have to mention that in Serbia isn't war for almost twenty years, and it doesn't looks like in John Travolta's movie!