Gura Portiţei (România)

For more informations about this place, click on the map

The little harbour

The exit from the harbour

Some small houses on the beach (63 lei/15 euro per night)

Other houses

On the beach...

In the center of the complex

Other photo with the harbour

A photo of the beach and the Black Sea made under umbrella 😛

Lifeguard tower

One of the two mini-bays from the beach

Here you can listen old romanian and russian songs in the night, at a big fire. The atmosphere is wonderful

The second mini-bay

Outside the complex, in the northern part

Just a little swamp with many rowdy frogs and snakes 🙂

Millions of sea shells...

One of the most beautiful walk that you can make near a sea

You can see Crimea ? 🙂

A log astray

Do you wanna play with them? 🙂

Other log...

In the left side you have the Danube Delta with Goloviţa Lake and Black Sea in the right

The Place of Love... (i will remember this place my entire life)

The sunset over the swamps

A cute little frog near to our house 🙂

Jurilovca (România)

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Jurilovca (Russian: Журиловка) is a village and commune in Tulcea county, Dobrudja, Romania. The commune includes the villages of Vişina and Sălcioara along with Jurilovca village.

It was founded by Lipovans at the beginning of the 19th century; the first documentary attestation is from 1826. Although at its beginnings it was a small village ( hamlet ), the settlement has grown and become, at the end of 19-th century, an important fishing center in Danube Delta area.

Nowadays it has the biggest community of fishermen in Romania, and it has the most modern fish processing factory in the country and Eastern Europe.

Jurilovca is also a touristic center. At about 15 km across the Goloviţa Lake is Gura Portiţei, a beach resort at Black Sea. You can reach there by little vessel and by boat. Another touristic attractions are Argamum Citadel and Doloşman Cape.

Entire area is a part of Danube Delta Biosphere Reservation.

The Lipovans are Russians by ethnicity and Old Believers Orthodox by confession. This confession is the result of Nikonian Reform. In 1652, Nikon, the Patriarch of Russian Orthodox Church, initiated a religious reform which had in view adaptation of Russian Church at the rest of the Orthodox Churches, in fact a formal reform.

The result was the division of Russian society in two: Nikonians, those who accepted the Reform, and Starovers (Old Believers), those who did not accept the Reform. The last ones, being chased, emigrated outside Russia, a part of them arriving on Romanian territory, north of Moldavia and Dobruja.

Source: Wikipedia

The little harbour from Jurilovca (from this harbour you can take a boat to Gura Portiţei)

The church for Starovers (Old Believers)

A panel with the map of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reservation

Some boats from the harbour...

Our motor boat (in almost 30 min we were at Gura Portiţei)

Other motor boat...

The exit route from the harbour through a small channel

The gates from the church in Jurilovca

This is the new church where lipovans made their religious ceremonies (The old church is near and it's in reconstruction)

A small well (fountain) near the churches

Other photo with the new church

Communist blocks in Jurilovca

The police station from Jurilovca (the name is also written in Russian)

The small Town Hall

In the center..

Here you can see written "Town Hall" in Russian, after Romanian

An ugly panel with the routes and distances from the centre of Jurilovca

The Russian Community from Romania

The Romanian flag...

The Community of Russian Lipovans from Jurilovca

Constanţa (România)

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Constanţa (historical names: Tomis, Greek: Κωνστάντια or Konstantia, Turkish: Köstence, Bulgarian: Кюстенджа) is the oldest living city in Romania, founded around 600 BC.

The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanţa County and the largest city in the region

The city of Constanța, fifth largest in Romania, is part of a group of seven roughly equal-size cities which rank after Bucharest, Romania’s capital.

The Constanţa metropolitan area was founded in 2007 and comprises 14 localities located at a maximum distance of 30 km (19 mi) from the city and, with 446,595 inhabitants, is the second largest metropolitan area in Romania, after Bucharest.

The Port of Constanţa has an area of 39.26 km² (15.16 sq mi) and a length of about 30 km (19 mi). It is the largest port on the Black Sea, and the fourth largest port in Europe.

Source: Wikipedia

The city bus

The railway station

On a walk to the promenade (you can see the Constanţa Shipyard in the right)

On the promenade, near to the old Casino

Fishes salute you 🙂

Other photo with Casino...

The Aquarium from Constanţa

Inside of aquarium

(Anguilla anguilla) European wounded eel :)))

Clarias gariepinus or African catfish

Goldfish (Carassius auratus)

Stingray (Dasyatidae)

I think that is Beluga or European sturgeon (Huso huso)

A Black Sea relief map

Pangasius hypophthalmus

Carp (Cyprinidae)

Turtles (Testudines) No ninja 🙂

I dont know how to say in english "STABILOPÓD" 🙂

The bus station schedule

Balchik (Bulgaria)

Balchik (Bulgarian: Балчик; Turkish: Balçık; Greek: Κρουνοι, Krounoi, Διονυσοπολις, Dionysopolis; Romanian: Balcic) is a Black Sea coastal town and seaside resort in the Southern Dobruja area of northeastern Bulgaria. It is located in Dobrich Oblast and is 42 km northeast of Varna.

The town sprawls scenically along hilly terraces descending from the Dobruja plateau to the sea. The ancient Greek colony of Krounoi in Moesia (also known as Dionysopolis, after Dionysus), later a Greek-Byzantine fortress, stood on the site of an older Thracian settlement.

Under the Ottoman Empire, the town came to be known with its present name, which perhaps derived from a Gagauz word meaning „small town” (as opposed to the „large town” of Varna). Another opinion is that its actual name derived from Balik’s name.

After the liberation of Bulgaria, Balchik developed as centre of a rich agricultural region, wheat-exporting port, and district (okoliya) town, and later, as a major tourist destination with the beachfront resort of Albena to its south.

The ethnic composition gradually changed from mostly Gagauz and Tatar/Turkish to predominantly Bulgarian. However, the town retains a sizable Turkish minority, and a Ottoman mosque remains to serve the Muslim minority.

Between 1913-1916 and 1919-1940, Balchik was part of Romania.

During Romania’s administration, the Balchik Palace was the favourite summer residence of Queen Marie of Romania and her immediate family.

The town is the site of Marie’s Oriental villa, the place where her heart was kept, in accordance with her last wishes, until 1940 (when the Treaty of Craiova awarded the region back to Bulgaria).

It was then moved to Romania. Today, the Balchik Palace and the adjacent Balchik Botanical Garden are the town’s most popular landmarks. Currently, three 18-hole golf courses are being developed around town, two designed by Gary Player and one by Ian Woosnam.

Source: Wikipedia

The hill near Black Sea

Information centre

The National Union Attack (Bulgarian: Национален съюз Атака, Natsionalen Sǎyuz Ataka). Bulgarian nationalist party

"Swimming forbidden" SHARKS !!! (joke) 😛

Beautiful photo from pontoon over the hills

Vegetation

Bulgarian flag

Sea gull

A small panorama of the beach from the pontoon

Ships near to the pontoon

A view of the pontoon

Another view of the hills...

The beach

Another photo with the beach

Just Black Sea...

Crapy algae

A small tent with food and drinks

A small mosque in the town

A street near to the center

A small street to the Germanos shop

Some communist blocks in the center

A small shop

Nice house on the hill

Orthodox Church "Saint George"

At the complex

Near to the center

On the hill

Some gypsy houses

The same old houses (mostly of them are renovated)

A gypsy party (Čoček music style)

Beautiful panorama over the hill

A small street

Tutrakan (Bulgaria)

Tutrakan (Bulgarian: Тутракан, Romanian: Turtucaia) is a town in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Silistra Province. It is situated on the right bank of the Danube opposite the Romanian town of Olteniţa in the very west of Southern Dobruja, 58 km east of Rousse and 62 km west of Silistra.

The town was founded by the Ancient Romans in the end of the first half of the 1st century under the name Transmarisca. The settlement was part of the Roman military boundary in the 1st and 3rd century and reached its apogee in the 4th century, when, under the personal management of Diocletian, it was made one of the largest strongholds of the Danubian limes.

The ancient town and fortress were destroyed in the beginning of the 7th century and the modern town carrying its present name emerged in the end of the century, remaining a military centre through the Middle Ages as part of the Bulgarian Empire, which was conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th century.

Tutrakan was liberated from Ottoman rule during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 by Russians to become part of the Kingdom of Bulgaria. After the Second Balkan War, it was incorporated, along with all of Southern Dobruja, in Romania until 1940, when the pre-World War II Treaty of Craiova returned the territory to Bulgaria.

During World War I, the town, then part of Romania, was the site of the important Battle of Tutrakan during which Central Powers forces defeated decisively the Romanian Army.

Source: Wikipedia

A shower panel

Derrick (elevator) on the Danube shore

Orthodox Church

Tutrakan TV Tower (Build: 1979, Height: 98 m "322 ft")

The pontoon

The Danube (Dunav in Bulgarian)