Friday, September 26. We were up at 5:15, had breakfast at 5:45, and were on our bus at 7:00. This
was a day on which we would have to pay the price for the low water in the Danube. Originally we were
to have cruised through the Danube Canal to the Black Sea during the night and awakened in Constanta.
Instead, we now had to take the bus back to Bucharest (two hours) where we would take a private train
(three hours) to Constanta.
We got to Constanta at noon, and the buses took us directly to Mamaia, the Black Sea's largest and
most popular resort, for lunch at a very nice restaurant on the beach. Afterwards we had about 40
minutes to walk on the beach. Some in the group took off their shoes and went wading in the Black Sea,
but we settled for just swishing our hands in the water.
The bus then took us back to Constanta for the city tour. Constanta, Romania's second largest city (pop. 350,000), is a thriving industrial, commercial, and tourist center. It was founded by the Greeks (as Tomis) 2,500 years ago, coming under Roman, Byzantine, then Ottoman rule before Romania expelled the Turks in 1878. The bus took us into the old quarter to start our tour. There are Roman ruins scattered through this section, including some right next to the SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral (1885), the first stop on our city tour. Leaving the church, the group walked past the Roman ruins and followed the promenade overlooking the Black Sea. There was an attractive art-noveau casino (1909, but no longer in use) near the water.
At that point, I spotted what appeared to be an elaborate boat landing behind the casino, lined with life-size black statues. I ran down the steps toward the water to photograph it but, as I got closer, I realized that it was only a flock of large, black birds sitting on the black rocks that made up the breakwater. Oh well! We got back on the bus for the short ride to Ovidu Square, still in the old quarter. This Square is named after the Roman poet, Ovid, who was exiled here in 8 A.D. A short walk from the Square was Constanta's pride and joy, a large 4th century Roman mosaic now protected from the elements by a special edifice. The mosaic is estimated once to have covered about 20,000 square feet, and approximately a third of that remains today. The size certainly was impressive, but the design was not remarkable.
Next we were guided through the small but interesting Archeological Museum, directly on the Square. It had a unique statue of a mythical creature called a Glykon, a serpent with an antelope's head, human hair and ears, and a lion's tail. We had a few minutes of free time after the museum, and I used it to run over to the King Carol I Mosque (1910) just off the Square and then to the Genoese Lighthouse (built by the British in 1860) a half a mile away. I also found a nice view of Constanta's shoreline on the Black Sea.
At 3:20 the buses took us back to the train station, and the train got us back to Bucharest about 6:00, considerably faster than the trip out. Then the buses had to drive all the way through Bucharest again and back to Oltentia. It turned dark, and we must have passed 100 horse or mule drawn wagons, none of which had any lights or reflectors. There were a lot of bikes, too. Our bus drove very fast. This was the only time we were not the last bus.
We got to the boat at 7:45 and had dinner at 8:30. This was Jane's birthday and our table was served a special cake in her honor. We lingered for a long time and finally left the dining room at 10:30. (There were three birthdays celebrated that night while most nights there weren't any.)
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