We started our vacation with a bad news. Tarom Airlines, the Romanian Air Travel Agent, cancelled its flight from July the 3rd and moved its passengers on July the 6th without notifying anyone. Normally, the direct flight from Beirut to Bucharest is 2 hours and 40 minutes and costs around $450.

Since we had to be in Romania before July the 5th we decided to pay that money to another Airline so we opted for the Greek Airlines, Olympic.
On the Beirut–Athens flight, Olympic uses a kind of obsolete Boeing 717 and thanks God the flight only lasts 1 hour and 30 minutes and by the time the flight attendants gather the food you are already there. The food on Olympic airlines, the Economy class, is the lousiest I have ever tasted.
The flight from Beirut to Bucharest is done with a 5 hours stopover in Athens, time in which one cannot do much except visit the airport. Romanians, although not in the E.U. yet, need no visa inside Greece. However, it takes around one hour to reach Athens that would make two hours way and back on the road only. So we decided that instead of running to catch a plane we’d stay on the safe side and explore the Athens Airport.
We had left from Beirut at 3:30 am and got to Bucharest at 2 pm. At the Otopeni International Airport a voice was announcing not to pay the cabs more then 5.000-15.000 lei /km (16-50 cents respectively) and in case of reclamations the tourists should call a specific phone number.

Our accommodation in Bucharest was in a private home in Drumul Taberei District, an area with lots of trees and green. The city looked tidy and coloured flowers were all over the place. The next days we had the chance to go rowing in the ancient park of Cismigiu which was at the beginning of the century the private garden of king Carol. Another park we enormously like in the capital city is Herastrau, where one can enjoy a boat trip on the lake, a walk among the bloomy, flowery alleys or just sitting at a terrace and slowly sipping a cold local made beer.
Our friends also took us to couple of summer terraces where one can have a draft beer for only 30.000 (1 buck). I remember “La Motoare”, “La Ruine” and couple of other places in Cismigiu. In this type of places a pizza can reach 80.000 lei (under 3 bucks) and a bottle of wine 150.000 lei (5 bucks). 
Our first trip outside Bucharest was in the Mountain resort of Sinaia. It was pretty cold even at the beginning of July and since we had expected a warm weather we only took shorts and t-shirts. In Sinaia we ate at "Taverna Sarbului", the Serb’s tavern, where with $20 we filled our bellies. We strongly recommend the Gourmand’s specialty (minced meat, mixed with spices, pressed-cheese, wrapped in some sort of sheep tissue and baked), and the Pork steak with Serb salad, not to forget the specific appetizers zakuski, soft spicy red cheese and pickled bell pepper filled with cottage cheese. We washed everything down with a carafe of white wine.

Being set in a good mood by the copious lunch, we headed towards the Peles Castle. The Castle was built over a period of 40 years by king Carol the 1st from his own money. Nowadays, ex-king Michael of Romania, who was exiled by the communist regime in the 40s, claims back the castle. The guide told us that the Romanian state offered the king some $ 22 million for the castle but his majesty refused. The king intends to take his property back and keep it still as a public museum. Outside the castle we came across lots of small merchants who were selling beautiful folkloric clothes for small prices. We got a gorgeous hand-made wool sweater with only $11. The entrance ticket to Peles cost 90.000 lei (3 dollars) and allows you to also visit the adjacent Pelisor Castle.
From Sinaia we took the train to Brasov where we adventured in a public bus that led us to Bran, where the infamous “Dracula’s Castle” lies in the middle of the mountains. Castelul Bran or Bran castle is in fact, its real name.
Although Dracula is nowhere to be mentioned in the official history or the guide’s explanations, the small merchants outside the castle only rely on this touristic confusion. Most of the items that one can find for sale are based on Dracula’s legend. We got ourselves two mugs with Dracula & Bran Castle and Transylvanian Cocktail: 50 ml Type Blood AB, 30 ml Type Blood A, and 20 ml Type Blood O, all chilled out and served with lemon and ice. It is kind of kitsch but cute in the same time. 

The Castle was initially built around 1400 and afterwards abandoned. At the beginning of the century was given as a gift to Queen Maria by the City of Brasov. The Queen restored it in 9 years. The castle looks pretty severe, very gothic like. Compared to Peles that is a jewel and overcharged with wood sculptures, Bran looks rather like a medieval fortress. The entrance ticket to Bran Castle costs 70.000 lei ($2 and a bit) and unlike in Peles cameras are allowed. In the same price one has access to the Village Museum that is found at the lap of the hill that hosts the castle.
Our next stop was the Black Sea Side. We chose Vama Veche, The Old Duane, a very picturesque and bohemian resort/village. As we heard, Vama Veche was even during the hardships of the communist regime an oasis of liberty and free spirits. Nudism was considered normal and having bonfires on the beach was as regular as ABC. Vama Veche was considered to have become more than a non-conformist village but a social phenomenon. 
The Vama Veche regulars complain that in the last 10 years their refuge become as kitsch as the rest of the Romanian Sea Side, filled with nouveaux-riches, foreign cars and bad taste.
Vama Veche was by excellence a shelter for intellectuals who understood to stand up to the constraints of a rigid society by going full-Monty and playing the guitar on the beach at night.
What we found in Vama Veche was lots of foreign cars, prices that were higher that in other Black Sea resorts and an indefinite and pretentious mixture of neither luxurious resort nor bohemian village. I don’t know how Vama Veche was before, but how it looks today is not nice at all. In fact, the old Vama Veche nostalgic goers reckon to make a plan to save this place from what is about to become. For further information please visit their website: http://www.savevamaveche.home.ro  
The accommodation in Vama Veche was around 800.000/night/double room in a board and lodging. Good food in Vama Veche is at “La Mitocanu”. Next to Vama Veche is the village of 2 Mai, where one can eat excellent food at “Flamingo” with very good prices. Four hundred grams of salata dobrogeana (cheese, ham, eggs, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers) costs around 36.000 lei (like a bit over a dollar). Between Vama Veche and 2 Mai are around 4 kilometres, which we chose to walk on the beach that unites the two places. It was a giant mistake because the beach is in fact a 4 kilometre long public toilet or at least it certainly smelt like one. We were told that in fact, what we see are not human residues, toilet paper and plastic bottles, but remains of algae from a recent storm. That should explain the smell. Apart from this unpleasant and smelly experience we kind of liked Vama Veche.
Since we couldn’t just see one place, we also visited the resort of Neptun, the biggest Black Sea Resort after Mamaia. In fact, we had gone straight to Vama Veche scared by the astronomic prices practiced by the Romanian hotels. 
The prices are huge indeed, I heard California might be cheaper, and the services are lousy. The waiters are cheeky and they rip you off. One is strongly advised to double-check the bill at any place: hotels, restaurants and make sure he pays for what he used/ate. We heard of 900.000 lei ($30) for two portions of fish (not even blow fish or sushi). It is also advisable not let your wallet unattended on the beach.

Apart from this, there are glorious places to visit in Romania and it is a wonderful country. People seem to be friendly but then, of course, depends on the person.
We left directly from Vama Veche towards Constanta, the second largest city in Romania and an important harbour on the Black Sea. From there we were advised to take a fast-bus to the city of Tulcea, in order to get the Danube Delta boat.
Other option from Constanta to Tulcea was a very slow train, a personal, that took like 5 hours while the bus only took two. The driver was a missed formula one racer. He cut all the curves, over-sped and looked like he was transporting potatoes bags instead of humans. It was one of the worst driving experiences we had so far. I actually feared for my life. Not to mention the same audiocassette with lousy music that he kept on playing all over again (this type of music is called manele, and is a bad mix between popular, gypsy and folk). We finally got to Tulcea. We were looking forward to the 5 hours boat trip thinking we’d get to walk around on the deck and take plenty of pictures. The boat Maramures with a 300 persons capacity was more then generous and received over a 1000 we estimated.
It looked like one of those Cuban fishing boats overcharged with immigrants. Hundreds of packages, tents, beers, crude chicken legs, bottles of wine and juice, breads, loads of cheese, isoprene, dogs, obnoxious children, smoking old fat women, noisy men invaded the boat.
Our dream of walking around the boat was shattered. The only pictures were able to take were from our seats which we did not dare to leave. In five hours our bladders were close to an implosion. After an exhausting and annoying trip we finally reached our destination: Sfantu Gheorghe (Saint George). We were genuinely thinking to leave the next day, believing that the accommodation conditions might be even worse than the boat trip itself. However, we changed our mind once we got there. The village counts 1.000 inhabitants, mostly fishermen. The board and lodging that received us is called “Pensiunea Sperante” (also known in the village as Casa Galbena, the yellow house). For details of pricing please check their website: http://www.pensiuneasperante.ro 
In mid July we paid Euros 18 (like 21 bucks)/night/person, lunch and dinner included. We overheard that by next year the house will seriously expand and the owners also thought of buying their own passenger boat to assure the trip from Murighiol to Sfantu Gheorghe.
The house was very neat, clean and cozy and the food was excellent, all kinds of fresh fish from the Sea and the Danube. Mrs. Gabi, our cook and administrator, enchanted us with: wine leaves filled with minced fish, fish soup with vinegar or Borsch, marinated fish, fish balls soup (plachie, saramura, ciorba de peste acra sau cu perisoare, sarmale de peste in foi de vita, peste cu sos marinat). For detailed recipes please check our recipes section http://windowtoromania.org/recipes.asp courtesy of Mrs. Gabi.
Basically, the main attractions in the Delta are: fishing, sun-tanning, swimming, hunting sometimes (when season allows) and of course visiting the Natural Reservation of the Delta where all the exotic fish, birds and flowers hide far from the mad crowd. 
As we planed we got to go to the beach. In Sfantu Gheorghe there is a unique mean of transportation, a tractor that pulls a colourful trailer called Trocarici, that ensures that distance of 1.5 km between the village and the beach. The beach in the Delta is absolutely gorgeous. It is located where the Danube spills in the Black Sea and the water is warm and there is no finer sand than this. In fact, it is too fine. It is almost like a powder. Since the village is so remote and has no 5-star hotels comfort, the surroundings are still pure and virgin except the few plastic bottles thrown away by the same mindless and insensitive tourists we encountered on the boat. 

The Administration of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve has identified 5,200 species and this represents an outstanding diversity. Whereas the Delta is strictly protected from intrusion, the southern 72 km area has been developed into a string of beach resorts and health spas. As far as flora is concerned they are identified over 955 species of spontaneous cormophytes, representing Euro-Asiatic elements (28 %). The Danube Delta is a genuine fauna paradise. Over 98% of the aquatic European fauna lives here. 
The Danube Delta, a UNESCO protected biosphere reservation, is unique in Europe.  The Danube, 2.858 km long and 817.000 km square basin area (8% of Europe’s area), is among world’s rivers, on the 15th position lengthwise. The river springs from the Black Forest Mountains, Germany, and it flows into the Black after it runs across Europe from northwest to south east, making up a natural passage. 

The next day we were supposed to visit this wonderful reservation about which we heard so many things but an unexpected storm ruined our plans. Maybe next year! 
Mrs Gabi, our host, told us it usually happens like this on the Black Sea, out of the blue sky can come up the worst storm ever. 
Fishermen’s life is not easy at all. The past winter was 6 months long and the Danube was frozen. They almost starved. Since they are considered to be a disadvantaged village the government allows them to pay only 50% from the electricity bills. Most men, if not all, are alcoholic. For some reason, drinking is always associated with fishing. Most women are widows under the age of 50 and there is an acrimonious fight for tourists who might provide them the daily bread.
The women in the village would rather prefer to jolt the fruity trees when they are in bloom in order to avoid making alcoholic drinks for their husbands from the fruits later. Some men even drink medical alcohol filtered through slices of bread. 

This year the Danube has dropped to its lowest level, which makes it even harder for the fishermen to get fish. The fish withdrew to the bottom of the river where the waters are cooler and the nets cannot reach. The fishermen do not work for themselves, but for an owner who pays them 80.000 lei/kg of sheat fish (under 3 dollars). In the city a kg of this fish is at least 10 or 15 dollars.

After other 5 hours by boat, 2 by bus and 2 and the half by train we finally got to Bucharest where we rested before we faced the other difficult and long road back to Lebanon, where we reside. The way back had an 8 hours stopover in Athens and we finally got to Beirut from Bucharest via Athens after 16 hours on the road. Wasn’t simpler if Tarom did not cancel its flight in the first place?

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