Hi all :)
Reporting in again, this time from the Danube delta where, much to our bafflement, there are campsites, warm water, and - which is the most surprising - Internet access, in multiple spots. When we visited this place around eleven years ago with my old man and his folks, not only was there no Internet access, but for lack of other options, we were holed up in the courtyard of a local school, got a nice fish dinner courtesy of the locals, and seen no one but fishermen here.
Here's the Danube delta for you, with us at the bottom right, surrounded by pelicans and the swamp:
The ferry from Tulcea now visits here only three times a week, carrying a handful of people through the 4 and a half hour travel, but lots of visitors arrive in the summer, so a whole tourist quarter sprung up beside the 1000-strong village, complete with a swimming pool, jacuzzi and the like. There are also two cinemas (an outdoor and an indoor one), where there's a movie festival held every year, which attracted a whopping seven thousand people last year. With the ships' capacity being a measly few hundred people, and also due to the fact that their timetable does not change at all, it takes quite a bit of time to get everyone on solid ground again.
The popularity of this place compared to eleven years ago should not discourage anyone from coming here, though: the village is still mostly untouched. There are geese, ducks, swans, pelicans, cows and broncos, which, reportedly, are being secretly collected and turned into sausages by the locals. Not funny.
What is funny, however, are the cows. While stumbling back home from our Romanian friends after a few bottles of wine, I found the only street completely blocked by cattle. Crawling my way through them was a little scary.
We also saw a bull up close, we were afraid of that too. It didn't hurt us though, it was just super huge.
Many of you have complained about the lack of photos of Judit, so here's a few of the better ones :)
This is her, applying her freshly acquired fishing skills:
This is her thanking the Lord God that we could eat warm food that night. We had a really tasty fish dinner, Judit is an expert in thankfulness.
And a gift to you guys, a framed tractor (keretes traktor):
We'll be back with more goodies soon, please be patient, we have a lot to do :)
(translated by edward of himmel)
