The people: Friendly, welcoming, warm hosts, handsome, mostly dark, but some are fair. There is a certain Roman distrust towards the gypsies, whom they see as lazy, dishonest, beggars, and sometimes thieves. Often speak French or Russian. Starting to speak English in the larger towns.

What you see: Like stepping back 100 years in time. Horses and wagons are more common in the villages than cars. Horses and cows are chained to the side of the road or in a field to graze. On the village roads, .. Read More »

After our ferry ride back to Tulcea from the Delta, we left the port town and headed south towards Constanta. Our ride to the coast was characterized by two things: fields of flowers and a very strong wind. There were mainly three types of fields that we passed: those that were cultivated and that were chartreuse in color; those with bright yellow wild flowers; and those with clumps of tiny white flowers. It was a pretty area. But the strong wind made it difficult; it was just as strong as it ha.. Read More »

Ferry Ride:
The ferry ride to Crisan was more interesting than that to Sfintu Gheorghe. Prettier. It was mainly swampland, as in the Sfintu Gheorghe arm, but the principal difference being that there were some more signs of habitation, however small. There were wild horses and cows grazing on strips of land no more than six feet wide. Tiny villages sprang up in what seemed to be impossible places, the houses sandwiched between the river and the canal, looking as if they would flood if the river.. Read More »

Ferry to Sfintu Gheorghe…

There are no roads connecting any of the towns or villages in the Delta area; everything travels by boat or by ferry. But we had wanted to see where the Danube actually empties into the Black Sea. We had followed it from its source in the Black Forest in Germany through 8 countries, and we weren’t about to let a little thing like a vast wetlands stop us from seeing its completion. So we took a ferry from Tulcea to Sfintu Gheorghe, a small village of about 200 inhab.. Read More »

Arrival in Tulcea…

When we awoke on Thursday morning, the clearing sky gave us a renewed sense of purpose and renewed hope. The remaining 22 km. to Tulcea were difficult, but not impossible. The wind still blew, though not as strongly, and we advanced slowly. It was all uphill towards Tulcea, then the city streets descended steeply to the port. The city was different from others we had seen: all the streets were paved, there were no horses and wagons, the people were wearing city clothing. .. Read More »

We left our perfect spot in the woods on the Monday morning after Easter, not without a shade of misgiving on my part because it looked like it might rain, and we could have stayed in our current spot for a week to wait out a storm, if need be, and not have caused a problem. But I had thought it looked like it might rain for the past five days, and nothing had materilized, so it seemed foolish to wait for a storm that might or might not come. Plus, it was Spring, and we had to expect to get a li.. Read More »

Easter: Red Eggs, Mitei, and Cake:

We said our good-byes to Alex and to Valentina and her family and found ourselves once again on our bikes. It felt good to be biking again. We camped that evening in a secluded woods, far from the surrounding villages. I was happy – here, we could sleep in without any problem.

We awoke the next morning to the sound of cowbells. There were two men heading our direction with their roaming herd of grazing cows. Several of the cows approached us and gazed at .. Read More »

Back to Romania with gypsy music and flowers…

After visiting Ivanovo in Bulgaria, which was so beautiful, so awesome, we crossed the Friendship Bridge back across the Danube into Romania. We wanted to camp that night, but could find nowhere to put our tent. There were open, rolling fields in every direction. We ended up asking people to put our tent in their backyard. A man answered our knock and let us in without hesitating. A man who lived among women – with his mother, wife, and five gir.. Read More »

We have had a fabulous time in Romania so far. The people are wonderful hosts. We’ve stayed with many families. Usually it starts like this…we stop along a bench in a small village to eat our lunch, then someone comes out of the house or down the street, and talks to us and ends up by asking us to stay with them for the night. Maybe a neighbor comes by with a bag of food for us. Or, maybe we’ll stop to ask someone to refill our water bottles from the well behind their house, and more often tha.. Read More »