We stocked up on fruit and nuts once again before taking the ferry back across the river. We followed the dike to only a mile from the border, but since Serbia is not a member of the EU yet, we had to detour a few miles to the east to get on the main road and go through our first border checkpoint of the trip. We used the remaining data on my Hungarian SIM to look up some key phrases in Serbian: Hello, good day, yes, no, please, thank you, goodbye. One of my acquaintances had warned us about Serbian attitudes towards Americans, so we decided we should only wear our MMRF jerseys while there. Our experiences so far, though, have been outstanding! The guard gave us a huge smile and laugh when we attempted to say “Hvala” (“thanks”) when she handed us our passports back. We stopped in Bezdan to get some dinars, and a mile or two outside of town we heard a siren behind us: the police were pulling us over. After saying a few things in Serb, he asked, “Nationality?” When we replied, “American” he and his partner immediately starting laughing, then he said, “Boom boom” pointing his fingers like six-shooters before smilingly waving us on. When we got to Sombor, another guy on a bike saw us, and asked us where we were from. Vladimir then took us to his favorite restaurant, helped us order, but then left without even letting us buy him lunch or a beer. And we had ordered a feast of a lunch!…but John and I managed to do it justice. We then found a stall that sold SIM cards, but the ensuing conversation between the lady and us, trying to gesticulate for understanding, was very comical. I got a card, but I have yet to get it activated correctly. We got into Apatin just as it started to sprinkle without having any idea about hotels. We saw a sign pointing toward the river, and after finding some WiFi and confirming that that was pretty much the only game in town, we went to the Zlata Coruna; and what it lacked in bed comfort it more than made up for in hospitality. Our bellboy, Dolibar, who spoke excellent English and was getting ready to go to trade school in the hospitality industry, was extremely helpful, and even took our clothes to be laundered compliments of the house. We had an excellent fish meal in the hotel restaurant that overlooked the curve of the Danube, with Dolibar serving as our waiter.