Letter from Subotica: Standing at the bus stop in Subotica the pensioner in the fur coat insisted on telling me she was Hungarian. Considering she was going home to the city of Szeged in Hungary the information seemed a little redundant.
"I am Hungarian," she repeated and I could only agree. "You know this is also Hungaria?" she added, pointing to the bus stop.
This detail came as a bit of a surprise seeing as Subotica lies firmly in northern Serbia. She began to explain her story and as she did so it all became much clearer. What else could a bus stop be but a marker on the Balkans' amorphous geography?
The woman was born and raised in Subotica in the former Yugoslav province of Vojvodina. About 300,000 ethnic Hungarians live in Vojvodina, making them the largest of 26 ethnic minorities in the region.
The numbers are hardly surprising seeing as Vojvodina was part of Hungary until the end of the first World War. Severely punished by the Treaty of Versailles, Hungary lost two-thirds of its territory - Vojvodina was returned to the Kingdom of Serbia (to which it belonged before 1848). But the woman in the fur coat, like many others, refuses to accept how the map was redrawn almost 100 years ago. "This is the land of my father and mother," she continued. "They are buried here and so are my grandfathers and grandmothers. This is Hungaria."
There's no doubt that Vojvodina retains a distinctive Hungarian flavour. The language is widely spoken in its northern reaches, Hungarian food is on the menu and the border town of Kanjiza flies the national flags of both Serbia and Hungary on municipal buildings.
The magnificent city hall in Subotica is a throwback to the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Vojvodina escaped the ravages of Yugoslavia's civil war but the province was indirectly affected by its aftermath. Fearful of being swamped by Serb refugees from Croatia and Bosnia, many ethnic Hungarians packed up and fled across the border to Hungary. Suspicious of a longer-term plan, they blame Slobodan Milosevic for enticing Serbs to the fertile lands of Vojvodina. The province remains home to 27 different ethnic groups but the Serb majority has increased, especially around the provincial capital Novi Sad.
Yet the pensioner in the fur coat says she is afraid to return to Subotica. She will never move back to the place she calls home. While Vojvodina might well claim to be the best - if only - surviving model of Tito's multi-ethnic Yugoslavia, recent developments suggest a rising tension between Serbs and Hungarians.
A number of incidents have been reported at border towns and although the scale of disturbance may be exaggerated, the situation prompted Budapest to request EU observers visit the area in January. This has not gone down well in Belgrade who feel the EU is meddling in its affairs and Serbs are once again being portrayed as the bad guys.
For the most part life in Vojvodina has not changed. Serbs, Hungarians and other ethnic minorities mix freely and there's a relaxed atmosphere about the place. Minor incidents can raise the tension however, whether it's just a heated argument or inflammatory posters calling for a return to Greater Hungary. Many locals feel it's a storm in a teacup but they are mindful of how quickly divisions made rent so fatefully in former Yugoslavia. "My sister in Novi Sad had graffiti sprayed on her apartment," whispered the pensioner. "It said, Hungarians! Go back to Hungary!"
Such events do concern Budapest but it's not as if the Hungarians of Vojvodina are Hungary's most cherished children. After all, they have been outsiders since 1918.
But last week Hungary had a chance to show what their ethnic kin meant to them. A referendum was held on whether to allow dual citizenship to the estimated five million ethnic Hungarians living abroad.
Significantly, the Budapest government opposed the motion to offer citizenship. It based its argument on economic grounds, predicting a tidal wave of poor immigrants. To pass the referendum campaigners needed at least a 50 per cent turnout. Only 37 per cent showed up. The Yes vote scraped through with 51 per cent of votes but such a low turnout rendered the outcome null and void.
The woman in the fur coat will contemplate this sadly when she returns to Subotica for her pension in three months' time. Hungary has decided that its family lives only inside state limits. Those beyond its borders are outsiders. For ethnic Hungarians, including those in Vojvodina, the message to fend for yourselves has never been so loud and so clear.