A very old city with Roman origin
From Brașov I drove to Constanța, a port city on the Black Sea. It is the oldest city in Romania as it exists since 600 B.C and is of Roman origin. Also the name of the country refers to the fact that the nation's origin, because Romania means nothing else than "Roman citizen".
It took me around 6 hours to get there by train. When I arrived in the city, I first took the bus in the wrong direction, yes, even this happens sometimes to an experienced traveller like me. But I quickly noticed the mistake and some Romanian Jehovah's Witnesses helped me to get back on the right track.
My friend - the best local tour guide
After almost 6 years I met my buddy Victor again in Constanța, I had also met him before during my exchange program in Serbia. He expressed total enthusiasm to show me his city. As early as shortly after 8.30 am he picked me up from my hostel, although he had gone to bed late because of a wedding party.
As an architect he could explain me a lot about the manifold architectural styles of the city, because the history of the city is influenced by a lot of different cultures. The Romans, Turks, Greeks were here and left their traces. There are churches, mosques and synagogues of different kinds here. We visited a medieval festival and Roman ruins. He also showed me beautiful corners of the city that I probably would never have discovered without him.
Many unfinished or run-down buildings
A symbol of the city is the Casino of the city. Once a magnificent building, it has now lost much of its glory and is rotting away on the Black Sea. We came to the conclusion that many buildings in Constanța are close to decay because corruption is rampant in Romania and money is being diverted into one's own pocket. The city with its great history actually has a great potential but makes too little of it.
In between we refreshed ourselves in the Black Sea. He knew a good place where hardly people were and where you could swim in peace. For lunch I invited him to eat fish in a nice restaurant at the sea as a way of thanking him for his great tour. We hiked a few kilometres that day.
Meeting a lovely Polish sibling couple
In Constanța I had a great hostel. An old Romanian had converted his house there so that backpackers can sleep there. In the evening I watched football on a small TV, which received the picture totally noisy. On that occasion I met a Polish sibling couple with whom I got into conversation. The open-minded sister immediately invited me to come with her to the hippie-like seaside resort Vama Veche. I had no other plans, so I accompanied them. One of the best decisions of my trip.
