Around Orsova, Toplet and Herculane
Once arrived at Ilie´s house in Toplet we get taken over by the outstanding hospitality of Ilie and his family. As they want us to stay and show us around and we quite like the place and the people we end up exploring Toplet and its roundabouts for a couple of days, enjoying Mama Popescu´s cuisine and having a party with Ilie and his friends.

We had a really great time going horse riding, rumbling around the forest crawling into caves, visiting old health resort Baile Herculane with a nice bath in the sulfuric hot springs and strolling around the village marveling at watermills and alambicos to produce Rakija (local spirit)  that seemed to be from a different century.

Ilie with the wood for his new living room

The four remaining pirates experienced the sensation of sleeping in a proper bed again, having a warm (boiler heated with wood) shower almost everyday and having great food made in a proper Romanian kitchen in more than one pot… We washed our clothes, shaved and felt a bit more like humans in the 21st century – except the surroundings felt like time travel.

There goes a big Thank You! from all the crew to the family Popescu, who made everything possible and didnt avoid cost or effort to love and entertain us as guests and friends.

After about a week in this beautiful Romanian village we started thinking about our lifes after this legendary boat trip. Some had to go back to uni, others had to find a job and everybody had to get back somehow.

So we sold the motor and left the *Keks* parked on the property of the friend who bought the motor. There it is waiting for us to come back next summer and go tothe Delta and the black sea.

Then the boys left direction home and the girls started off direction Bucharest to enjoy the Romanian capital for a couple of days.

Now everybody is back to their landlubber life, the little pirates inside are sleeping until next year…