Romanian Black Sea

Ever since I was a little girl it has been a dream of mine to stand on the shores of the Black Sea.

In the moments between "bedtime!" and actually falling to sleep I would sit up with the atlas and trace with my finger the outlines of distant countries, oceans and seas. And it was the Black Sea (along with the Yellow and the Red) that intrigued me the most - was it really Black??

So it was the fufillment of a childhood dream you could say to be standing knee deep in the Black Sea, south of Constanta on the Romanian coast.

Oh the thrill of an English language newspaper!

Our drive to get here had taken us through the grimy industrial suburbs of Bucharest and along the newly constructed motorway to Constanta, where the driving seemed to be as relaxed as any we had encountered in this country so far. We were originally aiming for the beach town of Mamaia, but on arrival, the absolute hordes of holidaymakers, coupled with a primitive camping and being charged a fee to drive in and out of town, together with the not so appealing hulk of an industrial plant perched right on northern end of the beach (not so romantic huh?) didn't inspire us so much. So instead we headed south towards the intriguingly named resorts of Neptune, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn.

A truly inspiring beach town

At first we thought that given the names of these towns someone was having a bit of fun, but on closer inspection I'm not quite sure who's sense of fun they consulted. Strips of sand cluttered up to the eyeballs with low rise concrete blocks, pumping techno and shops overflowing with gaudy inflatable beach toys and semi-pornographic beach towels galore. Up until the revolution of '89 Neptune was the exclusive resort of the Communist party, and still today incredibly popular with local Romanians and holidaying Russians alike, I'm not sure if anything has changed. Given the size of the traffic jams and sun worshipping crowds, this coast is still a real draw for many, if not for us.

Being typical Kiwis, we opted for the furtherest, quietest stretch of sand...

The locals on the other hand prefer to press the flesh

The relief of being back home!

And as to the big question, is the Black Sea really black?
Well, not really black, but not exactly blue either.


SJ