Blogs from Dobrogea, Romania, Europe - page 3

The Danube Delta....the last place where you have the occasion to see the Danube. The mighty Danube River flows 1,788 miles from its springs in Germany’s Black Forest to the Black Sea. Just before reaching the sea it forms the second largest and best preserved of Europe's deltas: 2,200 square miles of rivers, canals, marshes, tree-fringed lakes and reed islands. The Danube Delta is a wildlife enthusiast’s (especially a bird watcher’s) paradise. Some 300 species of birds make Danube’s Delta their home, including cormorants, white tailed eagles and glossy ibises. The bird watching season lasts from early spring to late summer. Birds are not the only inhabitants of the Delta. There is also a rich community of fish and animals, from wildcats, foxes and wolves, to even an occasional boar or deer. Altogether, 3,450 animal ... read more

Just 90 minutes away from Tulcea lies the small town of Sulina. 90 minutes by fast hydrofoil down one of the Danube’s many arms, , double that if you take a slow boat. The scenery isn’t that much to write home about though so we recommend speed! In Sulina we were met from the boat by a guy offering us a room in a pension just 5 minutes walk from the jetty and, apparently 8 minutes walk from the beach. Something was lost in translation though as it took 15-20 minutes to get there and later we discovered it was a good half an hour to the beach! Maybe he meant by car, which seems a bit bizarre as there are few roads and fewer vehicles around!! We decided to take a room because it was ... read more

Hello everybody!! I just came back from a LOVELY holiday in Costinesti. Together with a bunch of friends we headed for the beach on Friday night, taking the motorway to Constanta. Although 3am, it proved to be extremely busy, as lots of people where aiming for the beach at that time. We had a few pit stops along the way, for a wee and a fag and finally made it to Costinesti early morning. Unpacked and went straight to the beach. I'm really proud to say I've accomplished my mission, as I primarily went to the seaside to build up a nice tan which otherwise would have been difficult to accomplish in the city, and in just a few days I looked as brown as I could get!! :)) I LOVED my seaside experience, as we ... read more

Sunday, May 17th...I had to create a seperate entry for this special train ride back to Bucharest because it was so great. We left Vama Veche by way of maxi taxi bus to another sea side town called Mangalia. And from Mangalia we took an hour and a half train ride back to Constanta. In Romania there are 4 different classes of trains. P-Personal, A-Accelerated, I-Intercity and R-Rapid. As you can guess, P is the slowest and cheapest, A is a little faster and the I and R trains are very nice, fast and sometimes have dining cars. Tages and I would always take a P train if we could. I liked the beat up cars and seats (it gave it character), dirty filthy toilets (ok, that was pretty nasty) and the slower pace was fine ... read more

Tuesday, May 12th. Journal entry...."on train to Constanta. so far the country has seemed nice, green, brown and peaceful. I've seen lots of railway workers asleep in the field right next to the train tracks. and goats and dogs atop heaps of trash. and people plowing the fields and traditional looking Romanian women with scarves tied under their chin." We wanted to travel to the black sea after Bucharest for a couple of reasons. One, I love large bodies of water so much and wanted to see another sea. Also, Tages had an uncle that she loved very much named Uncle Connie and he was from Constanta. We knew there were not any hostels or camping in Constanta but figured a nice lady would approach us at the train station and offer us a cheap room ... read more