Danube Delta

Romania, looking at the map, looks like a fish! It has its head on the left (West) and tail on the right. There are of course 2 parts to a fish's tail. The city of Constantja is in the lower part and the upper part, where we are now is the Danube Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage listed area for it' abundant bird and water life. Its a fascinating region with a multitude of inter-connecting water-ways that can only be explored by boat and some villages, many of which are not accessible by road either.

The starting off point for these explorations is Tulcea, where we have been for 3 days. We made the 4 hour journey from Bucharest by local, cramped 20 seater bus. Tulcea is, quite clearly, in need of improvement. In fact, it's a bit of a dump. but we have found a decent enough room at the Hotel Insula. This photo was taken this morning from the balcony of our room. Cameras don't lie but they can be a bit selective.

Many people come here and do 2 or 3 day tours staying on a boat but we elected to do 2 day tours, exploring the Delta (one on a fast boat and one slow) and are just astounded by the number of birds. We are luddites when it comes to birds, but some of these are just beautiful. The company we chose was Safca Tours, a father-son business with a deep knowledge of and passion for the area. The son speaks good English so we learnt a lot. Each tour includes a fish lunch, consisting of boiled fish (catfish, pike and hake), then a fish soup and finally fried fish (ditto). One meal was in a waterfront home in one of villages, the other on the boat moored by a lagoon, like a floating restaurant.

The only disappointing part to the journeys was seeing the amount of rubbish the locals leave lying around after their fishing or picnic trips!
The final picture is of Tulcea Harbour. In most parts of the world harbourside real estate is highly desirable and expensive. In Tulcea the apartments are ugly and run down, quite a contrast to the surrounding environment. The other curiosity of the place is the way interiors of buildings can be okay, but no maintenance is done on exteriors or surrounds.