(Here's a map of the area around Constanta.)Photos in and around Constanta
Hi Ellen,
Sometimes travel just doesn't produce any interesting stories worth writing about.
Between Tulcea and Constanta I stopped at Babadag and Histria for a night each. In Babadag I stayed at a large fine hotel for about $4, and I think I may have been the only guest in the hotel. In the afternoon I took a bike ride out to Enisala, about 5 miles East of town to see the ruined Heracleia Citadel, which overlooks Lake Razim. This was a Getic-Thracian settlement, then later a Roman military camp, a Byzantine Fortress and then a Turkish fortification. The view was worth the ride. Coming back the grape pickers were resting while they waited on their transportation back to town. They all wanted to give me bunches of grapes, so I ended up with a plastic bag full.
It is watermelon harvest time, and all the big and small villages I have been in have large piles of watermelons for sale. I tried a small one and found it very mushy and too sweet. However, at the dinner at the guide's house in the Delta the watermelon we had was wonderful, and I thought better than ours back home. When I commented on this fact, Daniel said he knew the guy who grew the plants, and he got a big can of "American" seed in Istanbul, so the watermelon I was eating was really "American".
The ruins of Isteria are along the coast, in a marsh area. Perhaps the land has settled over time. At the point that the trees along the road stopped I noticed that the fields also changed from being plowed to being covered in a type of tall grass like reeds. At the point of change there were large flocks of birds all over the road that parted as I arrived on my bike. It was like going through a tunnel of birds.
I arrived at the ruins about dusk, at the height of the mosquitoes' feasting time to rent a small concrete box with a door for about $3. Waiting for them to sweep the room and the outside walls, make the bed and deliver me a 5 gallon plastic bucket of water, I lathered the mosquito repellent on my exposed legs, arms and face, (drowning many mosquitoes in the process), hoping they would hurry with getting the room ready. When I got inside and closed the door I discovered it wasn't much different. I lost count after killing about 30. However dinner was a real treat: a whole fish cooked well. Long enough so they had to cut it in half to put the two pieces on the plate.
Isteria (or Histria), my pre-trip research told me, was a Hellenic colony first mentioned by the Greek historian Strabo in the 5th Century BC. First settled by Greeks then taken over by the Romans, the history of this area goes back so far it makes our history seem like just current news. There was a large museum with pieces of pottery, statues and parts of buildings from the different times. It seemed to me the Roman pieces were far superior to those before and after. I thought it would be neat to experience the place under a full moon, and when the moon rose is was quite red and beautiful, but the surroundings were not much to see by moonlight. So I stayed in my box and killed mosquitoes until I fell asleep. In the morning I toured the museum and the ruins. My theory is that all the civilizations left the area for the same reason I was leaving as quickly as I could: mosquitoes.
Sunday I arrived in Constanta, tired, taking Imodium again, in dire need of a toilet, and glad to be in a city and out of the flat continuous agricultural landscape. There has been no rain on my trip and it has been much hotter than I thought it would be. Too hot for me to enjoy bicycling. I just wanted a room with a shower, comfortable bed, and where I could always be near a toilet for a few days. My hotel is in town but my room overlooks the beach and the Black Sea. It is the Sport Hotel and when I inquired they said that they were primary for sports groups who come to town. (Actually today, Tuesday, they tried to get my room back because a handball team was arriving, but they relented and I can stay).
While people have been friendly I am feeling alone, cut off, and needing a friend (my mood and stomach problems could have contributed). Besides, I was getting bored with the terrain and the heat was getting to me. I have not met other travelers or tourists to help break the aloneness. So all in all my mood was not very up-beat.
Monday night I met two ladies who answered my logistics questions politely, and I followed with other questions until we had an actual conversation going on. Gabi Gherasim works in shipping, with some type of a position between management and clerical, and uses the Internet for a lot of her work. She is 27, an optimist, with a constant smile and a twinkle in her eyes, and wants to have her own shipping company one day, perhaps in Italy or America. She has an Italian boyfriend who has invited her to Italy for Christmas, but she is undecided about going. Daniela Baba is a lawyer at 23 working for some commercial company and only slightly pessimistic. She reminds me of Brenda when I met her in Guatemala. She and her boyfriend tour Romania on a motorcycle on weekends. She speaks good English, walks like a model and is quite a nice person.
I have suggested that they should be partners, that a lawyer would be useful in a shipping company and she could perhaps arrange the capital. I have also suggested that Gabi, who is from Braila, should look up my friend from Isaccea who has the hotel, restaurant, bakery, mill, and farm, because his dream was to export pork. He had complained about how the Romanians don't have the American work ethic or vision, and I think she would be the type of person he would like to help. And if he exports he will need a shipper. Here I am trying to encourage networking in Romania!
Anyway, we had a wonderful conversation over ice cream and discussed all the things I could do in Constanta, which included two theatrical places. They agreed to accept my invitation to take them to the theater Tuesday night. What a lucky old guy, I thought, to have two intelligent lovely young ladies to accompany me to the theater. Between them, they could come up with most of the English words needed for a meaningful conversation.
Tuesday night we discovered that the theaters were open only on the weekends now that the summer tourism season is over. So we went to a wonderful French restaurant and had a excellent meal for a total bill of $7, which was quite a bit cheaper and better than the meal I had in Northern Laos when I tried taking two Chinese ladies to lunch.
After dinner we went to another place to have ice cream, and they wouldn't let me pay, which I found quite touching, as people here do not make much money. Gabi is very unusual, as she makes around $300 per month. Most people I have met make around $100 per month, as Daniela does. Now how could we adopt this salary structure for the lawyers in the states?
Over ice cream I had mentioned how the Romanian bicyclist (I had exchanged email with before coming on this trip) had said that I was touring the most uninteresting and boring part of the country. And Daniela asked me why I didn't go to one of the more beautiful parts instead of going south along the coast? ... and I had no answer. So tonight we are going to meet with a map and discuss where I should go. We talked about leaving my bike or taking it. At this point the bike is going with me...but I don't know where.
Today I bought a map of Romania (also a medium size dictionary) and tonight Babi and Daniela will help me pick perhaps three places to go (by train). Then I will return to Constanta where there are good bus connections back to Istanbul. So as so many times before, plans change.
Yesterday I went shopping for a new water bottle holder for my bike. I found a couple of stores that sold bicycles with water bottle holders attached, but they didn't sell the holders separately. Finally there was this one athletic type store, with me the only customer, and one female clerk who didn't speak English. We went thought the non-verbal conversation to the point where she understood I wanted a holder and not the bottle and I could understand that she didn't have any, other than the ones on the bikes. It was the next part of the discussion about "where" that got more complicated. Finally she led me out of the store (I thought she was going to point) and then she locked the store behind her and took me around the corner to another store where she explained to the people behind the counter what I wanted. They kept saying no, and I keep asking where, until finally one of them walked out of a back room with a water bottle in a rack. I bought the rack. And of course gave the lady who brought me from her other store a shiny new penny. So Ellen, you do not need to bring me a new water bottle rack.
The Sky Game Room and Internet Cafe I am using to type this message needs to be described. The first floor is rather dark, with one wall having typical video games and the other wall having large monitors built into the wall with benches facing the wall. Different kinds of games were being played with joysticks or other type of controls. The center of the room has no ceiling and is open to the second floor which has a sort of aisle and rails around the entire floor with the center open. (Sort of like the Naval Observatory Library.) Around three walls there must be close to 30 computers and the back wall has a counter where you pay for the time on the computers. As I walked around I could see that Tony and Rick's Age of Empires icon was on all of the computers and some of the people were playing the game. I also noticed this in Tulcea. I asked the people at the counter if it were popular here and they said it was very popular, especially the new version, but is was hard to find all the new modules.
So the kids here, and many seem older, go to places like this to play computer games. I have noticed several around town. And they are all very busy.
While my stomach is not completely back to normal, I am doing better and will leave in a couple more days. Where I am going, I do not know, but will decide tonight. I will send a short note from here before I leave to let you know my destination. After doing all the research on the Black Sea coast route, I am setting off somewhere else without even a guide book.
Ron
Second report from Constanta, distributed by email 30 September 1999 Here's a map of the area in northeast Romania where Ron is going next.
Hi Ellen,
Last night over dinner at the French restaurant Marco Polo (an appropriate name for the occasion) we came up with a new set of travel plans before my return to Istanbul to meet you. And this morning we went to the Train Agency to confirm that the plans would work, and made appropriate changes.
Train (hoped to leave today, but no train tonight) leaves tomorrow night at 10:55 from Constanta to Suceava (NE Romania), arriving 7:30 in the morning. Then biking west to Gura Humorului where I will stay at a monastery. Then after exploring the area take a train to Pascani and transfer to a train for Targu-Neamt. From Targu-Neamt I will bike to Poianiteiului than take a bus to Bicaz.
From Bicaz there are two possible plans. Bike on to Cheorghene and then take a train to Brasov, where I will bike south to explore some beautiful parts before catching a train back to Constanta.
The other plan is to is to go to Piatra-Neant to take a train to Bacau where I transfer to a train to Constanta. This is the plan if I am running out of time.
Now I wouldn't place bets on following either plan, but at least I have a general area to explore which is supposed to be quite beautiful. It may involve the logistics of putting my bike inside buses (which I have not done) and more logistics of traveling on the train with a bike. I am stepping down to second class with the advice that they are less fussy about such things in second class.
This morning Dana brought a friend along. Eliana Rosioru is an English teacher in a public primary school. She makes $25 a month. So it turns out lawyers are paid 4 times what teachers are paid, and Eliana works about a 10 hour day. Eliana and Dana are going to help me at the train station tomorrow night. I asked her how she could live off of $25 per month, and she said she couldn't. Her father, a retired sailor, helps her, and she lives with her family.
We passed the courthouse on the way back from the Train Agency. A new courthouse was under construction in front of the old one, and they pointed out the site. However, when digging the foundation they discoved an old Roman fountain, so now they are going to build a park there instead to preserve the ruins. In a city this old, I guess this is a common problem. Last night Dana brought an old Turkish pipe she dug up in her grandmother's garden.
Around the courthouse we had a discussion of the legal system that Dana works in. It doesn't sound very easy since the courts do not accept precedents, and the judges want to be paid.
So, with a new set of plans, and a much improved stomach, I am setting off to the beach for the afternoon. And in a couple of days I will be in the mountains. Guess Bulgaria will have to wait for a future trip.
Love you, and will look for a way to communicate again.
Ron
Photos in and around Constanta
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Modified: 2002-05-23
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