Constanta

Glycon Serpent, 2nd Century

We spent most of yesterday on the bus traveling from Transylvania to the Black Sea port of Constanta. We met up with the rest of our party at lunch in Bucharest. Lunch was soup, chicken schnitzel and a sugar coated plum dessert at a restaurant, called Carù cu bere, the beer cart. We had to try the restaurant's beer, it was a light tasting lager.

 This morning we did a tour of the city. The city was originally founded as the Greek city of Tomis. The area was conquered by the Romans in 102 AD, until they withdrew their troops in 276. Our first stop was the Archeological Museum which had various glass vases and statues from the 1st to 4th century. Particularly striking were the Glycon snake and a statue of Fortuna, which are often associated with the city. Outside the museum was an original Roman mosaic. Then we walked the nearby street to the Black Sea, passing the largest mosque in Romania, a Roman Catholic Church and finally an Orthodox church where we got to listen to the rich baritone of the choir during the church service. On the seashore was an old Casino which has been in disrepair for the last 20 years. Hunor remembered his childhood days, when they would vacation on the seashore. During Communist rule, they would get a voucher for a hotel and meals. After an overnight train ride, you would wait in line to see which hotel you would be assigned for your vacation. Distributing cigarettes or coffee to those in charge, would give you a better room and better meals. After the fall of communism, the family would instead go camping with their used car and tent, bringing all their food with them, since you couldn't guarantee that you could buy food in the city. We ended our tour by going to the beach and touching the relatively warm water (it gets into the 70's during the summer). Across the street was a Harvest festival, so we explored to find a farmer's market dominated by assortments of cheeses and meats.



Food Festival

   In the afternoon, we left the harbor and headed a little north to the entrance of the Danube-Black Sea Canal. This canal circumvents the Danube delta which is not only difficult to navigate but 200 miles longer than the canal. Looking at a map an old mountain range changes the direction of the Danube from going east to going north, even though it's within 40 miles of the sea. The canal had been conceived in 1830, but never started until 1949. The alternate name for the canal is the 'death canal' since it was used as a forced labor camp from 1949 till 1953. Over 20,000 people, mostly priests, intellectuals and political prisoners died working 12 hour days with little food, After Stalin's death, the labor camp was closed, and all work had stopped by 1955. A second canal was begun and completed using Romanian workers, equipment, and engineering in 1986. The canal became part of the European canal-river system from the North Sea to the Black Sea. The earth from the canal was used to expand the harbor in Constanta, it is now the fourth largest size harbor in Europe, but it's volume of shipments is much smaller.

Danube - Black Sea Canal