People often travel to imposing and famous cities to discover what they have to offer, while at the opposite pole are plenty of leftovers from what represented a city or a town years ago but which despite its degradation level it still has plenty to share with the curious ones.
After spending quite a while exploring Letea Forest and seeing various hourses running wild and free all around us, it was time to return to the place where the boat was parked and wait a bit longer until everyone was ready to continue our journey.
Still included in the same boat experience there was also the possibility to book a meal on one of the local restaurants from Letea but which we skipped from two reasons.
- most of the available food was based on fish and neither I and my boyfriend are fans of this
- the menu was quite expensive... way too expensive for what included. But considering that we couldn't take too many breaks from our ride and there were very few shops around and most of them had only drinks, they took advantage of this opportunity to make people pay a little fortune for a meal on an island.
Since I had a similar experience in 2019 I knew that the best thing we could do was to grab some food in the backpack and eat them while sitting on the shore under the shadow of a tree, which felt a lot closer to our taste since we are not fans of crowded places and we did feel the need to be just the two of us in this adventure.
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Still while eating, we got to meet a man who was carrying a wheelbarrow full of croissants baked by himself. Every time a new boat was parking with new tourists, he was jumping out from a tent with his little shop on one wheel, trying his best to convince people to buy something, but since most of them were focused on the local dish, very few stopped by.
Sooner or later he noticed us staying away from the others and came by to chat a bit, sharing details about how hard it is to survive off-season as there are no jobs on the islands and the most profitable thing is opening a restaurant for the tourists but which are already quite a few and it needs investments too. Even during the season is hard to make some money because of the restaurants that are catching most of the tourists' eyes.
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As soon as everyone finished eating, we jumped in the boat heading to our next stop which was going to be new for me too, since Sulina was not part of the boat ride I had in 2019 with my family.
As much color is shared both in pictures and real life, for me Sulina represents a place that could easily be drawn only with black & white since it looks like it was part of some sort of war.
Broken windows, abandoned boats, empty buildings, no people, broken doors, demolished constructions... are just some of the things that represent Sulina in 2023. Of course there are the lighthouses that we saw from the boat and there are a few more things interesting for the tourists, but while in the previous places there were still people trying their best to make a living and don't leave everything behind, Sulina is nothing but just ruins these days.
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It's true that we did notice some shipping cargos that created movements in the distance other than the waves, but these come and go and I bet they are not part of Sulina so it doesn't really revive the floating city anymore.
Sulina represents the easternmost point of Romania and it's located on the lowest altitude of the country, just 4 meters above the sea level, so along with all the risks this could be part of, Sulina became the most important port after the Treaty of Adrianoupolis in 1829.
However, nor the history or its placement didn't keep the nearly 3,000 locals in the city as most of them moved to a different part of Romania or even started a new life in a foreign country less corrupted and poor as my beloved country is.
Another thing that created some movement in the distance was caused by the hundreds of ships that appeared since the war between Russia and Ukraine began, which are creating new waves for the country. It was a shocking and scary image to notice all the ships in the distance but unfortunately, we have to accept the new reality and the thing that nothing is safe anymore. Not even the day of today.
The first lighthouse we noticed was placed on the left branch of the Danube and is known as 'the old lighthouse' because it dates since 1887.
This one is entirely composed of iron and the rust that made its way to the surface can be noticed from the distance but that's a good sign to realize how old it is and that it's been part of so much in the past.
The old lighthouse used to broadcast optical signal over 8 marine miles.
Even if it has just 14 meters in height, its placement made it possible to be noticed pretty quick from the distance, the only way to actually reach it happening via a long stone pier that made the connection between the lighthouse and the main Sulina Port that also played an important role in the past.
Even if I did see lighthouses on TV in different shows or movies, it was my first time seeing one in real life and happening in Romania was even more amazing since there are just a few on this part of the globe.
However, I was sad that our boat driver didn't lead us to it because it would be nice to actually touch it and see the names of those who built it up that I heard are still written on its surface.
From what I saw on the internet, people are even allowed to enter the lighthouse and properly visit it as the inside section is home to some sort of museum and a nice collection of high historical interest.
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Either way, there was another lighthouse located right in front of this one but this time on the right side which was a lot closer to us and even bigger than the first one we saw.
While the other lighthouse was ironically named 'the old lighthouse' the one you see in the pictures is known as 'the new lighthouse' even though it's fairly old too, lol.
The explanation behind its name is that after 'the old lighthouse' was taken out of use, the current one took its place and mission to help ships sailing at night to orientate themselves on the entrance to the Sulina branch, this also earning to the lighthouse the generic name of 'the landing lighthouse'. Additionally, this can be noticed from a distance of 19 marine miles, so double the distance offered by 'the old one'.
Along with the lighthouses that made my excitement level reach new limits, there was also this sign noticeable from the distance which was also where the branch of Danube was ending and its water was meeting The Black Sea, so for adrenaline lovers, this was the exact point from where I started to get scared a bit due to the waves that were quite powerful and made our boat slowly get surrounded by waves that got water inside.
From what the boat driver told us, the sea was actually pretty calm, but for common people who don't get so far on the water level, was definitely scary.
The whole fear could actually be avoided if he would drive at a higher speed and don't let the boat dance on the waves, but since he was pretty disinterested and knew that we want to reach the shipwreck that represented the main point of interest for me in this adventure, he decided to act like a jerk man who had a lot of fun seeing some of the tourists get scared and ask to get back on the Danube branch, especially that there was also a lady with her dog onboard that kept having panic attacks.
But as I'm pretty good at keeping only the good parts from everything, I took this as a sign that one day I should return to Sulina and properly explore it as it has plenty to offer to the tourists and do better research on the agencies that offer boat rides around.
Reaching Sulina is possible only on the water level as it's located on some sort of island and there are no proper roads. However, being part of the Danube Delta, is definitely worth a boat ride since there are plenty of things to explore around.
More articles from the same adventure:
- Tales of a 16 hours long train ride
- Tomis Harbor
- Mila 23
- Letea Forest and its wild horses
- Sulina and its leftovers
- Sulina Beach
- Tulcea and Ciuperca Beach
- Hotel Delta 4*
- Danube Delta Museum and Aquarium
- Medigidia - the city of cats
SEE YOU IN THE NEXT TRIP! 🗾
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