Tuesday 10th August Tulcea to Sulina

Beautiful Sulina!

We woke up early today as we had to purchase (cant pre purchase) the ferry tickets to Sulina and also find somewhere suitable to leave Tortoise, we planned to spend a few days in Sulina as it sounded a nice town and we thought we would now do a boat tour from there into the tributaries rather from Tulcea as we had originally planned.
The ferry ride from Tuclea to Sulina took us 2.5 hours along 64km of the Sulina channel which is its shortest Channel in the delta .We passed various bird species as well as pigs, cows and sheep etc at the remote villages. The boat was quite new by Romanian standards although we had to fight for a seat as the local villagers onboard had huge box loads of shopping which were strewn all over the place.
When we stepped off the ferry in Sulina we looked at each other and said “what a dump”, the roads were dug up with huge piles of cement and rubble lying around. There was dust flying everywhere and the promenade was lined with ram shackled buildings (not quite what we were anticipating) the mosquitos were also savages and the stray dogs even looked like even they hated it there!
Luckily we had a few guesthouse addresses written on a piece of paper although none of the streets were marked with names. Bek entered one guesthouse and opened what looked like a reception door but instead she was greeted by an elderly lady lying on a sofa with her skirt up around her waist reading a book. The lady gestured to Bek to enter the room next door which Bek did but instead of a reception she found two German tourists in bed-needless to say she made a quick exit. After some time we eventually found a guesthouse, the room smelt of moth balls, the bathroom smelt of river water and renovations were being carried out at this stage we didn’t care and just wanted a roof over our head.
That evening we had a foul tasting dinner and decided to get the hell out of Sulina and board the ferry back to Tulcea the following morning.
To top things off when we got back to the guesthouse we both had a dodgy stomach.

7th -10th August Tulcea

Singing and dancing folk festival (can anyone guess whose idea this was???)

We woke after a fitful nights sleep as we were concerned about Tortoise however after a rest he started fine and we were on our way to Tulcea. We arrived in Tulcea had some breakfast and went walking in search of the campsite as we felt like our legs needed a good old stretch. According to our map (and tourist information’s) the campsite was supposed to be situated around a lake however after two hours of walking in 40+c with sweat dripping off us we realised our map had once again failed us and the campsite was actually a football stadium. After a few unpleasant words we checked into a guesthouse complete with a swimming pool, cable TV and more importantly air con which we planned to crank on to the lowest temperature! Then it was time to find the tourist information centre, get some information regarding tours in the Danube Delta and hopefully book up a tour. After walking for over an hour we finally arrived at the tourist information centre, the centre was shut despite a sign saying it was open until 2pm; it was now 11am and a Saturday so this meant we would have to wait until Monday morning for it to reopen.
Tulcea isn’t the most enthralling city and is primarily used as a gateway for tours into the Danube Delta, the highlight of the year for the locals seems to be when Tulcea hosts The International Folk Festival of Danubian Countries in which various Danubian countries perform traditional dancing and singing. The festival was on while we were in Tulcea so one night we headed to watch the entertainment. Bek thought it would be a good idea to get there early so we could get a seat in prime position down the front, however when the music started we weren’t so sure if being in ‘prime position’ was a good idea as the music was so loud we compared it to being next to a speaker at a huge rave. Cass had to put tissue paper in her ears (thanks Grandma for the idea)… this only slightly dulled the sound although the locals weren’t perturbed as very loud music/noise seems to be the norm here. The dancing and singing was good to watch, we felt like we had stepped into a Tardis and gone back in time as things seemed very old fashioned compared to the west (as if the horse and carts hadn’t proved that enough lol )

6th August Iasi to roadside 30km from Tulcea

The drive from Iasi to Tulcea took us the whole day which also included a ferry crossing, we hadn’t planned on driving so far that day but our map turned out to be rather inaccurate, surprisingly this time our lengthened journey couldn’t be blamed on poor navigational skills and poor map reading skills. The finger of blame laid on our map which had various campsites marked on it although when we arrived at several they no longer existed and were simply derelict buildings so we kept on driving to the next marked on the map and hence ended up making it all the way to Tulcea. Well we didn’t actually make it to Tulcea as Tortoise conked out next to a small village about 30 km away so we slept here for the night surrounded by countryside.

5th August Iasi

We spent the day chilling out, watching the fishermen and the locals having a bbq the smoke from the coal bbq’s seemed to travel the length of the river and we thought they must like burnt food. We went for a dip in the river, later in the day there appeared to be oil on the surface of the water as well as several dead fish and a dead chicken who had fallen in from the campsite. We figured the Ukraine ( not far from the border) was probably using it as a dumping ground so we soon hopped out the water and opted for a baby wipe wash instead.

4th August Gura Humorului to Iasi

Frescoes on the monastery - "the best in the world" lol

Close up of the frescoes

Maramures

Local lady

Today we went to two more monasteries which are again on the Unesco world heritage list, there are so many in the area we reckon you could spend at least two months visiting them all. The first monastery we visited was in Gura Humorului so we walked there from our campsite and then headed to Voronet Monastery which The Lonely Planet described as having the best fresco in the world-we think they once again lied as it was by no means the best and we thought frescos in the previous monasteries were more impressive.
All the monasteries we went to were full of Italian tourists who need lessons in the art of whispering.
We expected to spend most of the day driving to Iasi but the roads were in much better condition than previously so we arrived earlier than we anticipated.
Iasi is a concrete jungle so we headed to find a more rural campsite and found a place by the river. The place couldn’t be described as a campsite, there was only one other campervan, no shower and there were old wooden huts which locals were staying in.
That night we had a bbq and were surrounded by chickens, turkeys and stray cats, the cats are so used to the chickens and turkeys that they don’t see them as food and don’t try and attack them . During the night we had the stray dogs barking non stop and the hotel next door had a party- Cass slept through the whole commotion though!

3rd August Borsa to Gura Humorului

Prislop pass

prislop pass

lovely roads

just out for a walk

hay bales in a field

gypsy camp

monastery

We drove for several km’s before we saw huge signs for Borsa Tourist Complex , we had been at Borsa Tourist and not Borsa Tourist complex which were looking for, that explained the tiny campsite and lack of ski lift.
The drive to Gura Humorului in the Bucovina region took us through the Prislop pass with forested hills, valleys and lakes the drive was once again very scenic and we stooped off at various points to admire the view or have a cuppa. We had seen the Prislop Pass described on the internet while in Australia as one of the top drives in the world.
After the Prislop pass the drive continued through small villages, many of which were brightly coloured or had large wooden engraved gates: both are traditional to the area .
The Bucovina region is listed in the Unesco world heritage list as there are a huge amount of monasteries in the area with very old frescos. We went to two monasteries today the first being Moldovita Monastery which dates back to 1537 and the second Sucevita Monastery which dates back to 1582. Both were completely covered in frescos apart from the western wall at Sucevita , legend has it that the painter fell off his scaffolding and died, leaving artists of his time too scared to follow in his footsteps.

2nd August Sapanta to Borsa

Beks design

A colourful cemetry

lovely wet roads

Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to his friend on the otherside!

We woke up to the sound of large bells tinkling, when we looked out of the camper there were approx 15 cows walking down the street, all of which had cow bells hanging from their necks. They were leaving home (back garden of their owners) to go grazing for the day.
Our first port of call for the day was Sapanta’s merry cemetery. Here the graves each a have colourful wooden cross with an epitaph. Unfortunately we haven’t yet mastered Romanian so we couldn’t read the epitaph ( all are supposed to be humorous) although the engravings gave an idea of what their life entailed and some what they even died from, there was an engraving on one of a man drowning and on another of a man caught under a train.
After Sapanta we stooped off in Sighetu Marmatiei for several hours where we had a wander around the town and visited Sighet prison which had been turned into both a memorial and a museum. Due to the communist regime between 1948 and 1952 Sighet prison housed 180 members of Romania’s academic and government elite , 51 of the prisoners died here.
We then drove through more small villages, one was called Barsana and dates back to 1326 this is the place of pilgrimage for The Maramures people and home to several monasteries. From here we went to a huge open air museum which depicted rural life in Romania over the centuries. We had a half hearted walk around as we figured we had seen first hand what was on display and the sheep were also kept in poor conditions.
Later that evening we arrived in Borsa, the Lonely Planet described the campsite which we reached by a dirt track as a tourist complex complete with ski lifts. When we arrived there was one other van parked at the campsite but the site was so small (no sign of ski lifts either) there was no room for us so we parked on the owners front lawn. We arrived at the campsite with the numberplate dangling, earlier in the week we arrived at one and the headlight glass was hanging off. That evening we got chatting to the other vans owners, a German couple travelling with a 9 month old baby who had just driven the route we were heading the next day. They said the road was so bumpy and full of potholes that they ended up cracking some eggs. We were used to bad roads by now, the whole days drive (plus days prior) was spent dodging potholes. At one point the car behind us was beeping. The beeping of a horn is normal in Romania for no obvious reason so we didn’t pay much attention and commented that they were annoying us, after a while we realised the bike rack strap had broken and they had been trying to alert us that the bikes were swinging widely back and forth lol. The roads are in bad condition but we also have to be wary of cows, dogs, pigs and chickens which roam freely, people also walk in the middle of the road.