Treibgut

Right now we are parking next to a big restaurant ship in braila (we pirated the house number 172 – have a coffee with us if you are around). it’s a a very special romanian city, a little bit like regensburg… a university, lot of old houses (greek-turkish-russian mixture) and international flair with friendly, helping, people (non-stop)… successfully done land trip with culture (really!), shopping, talking, walking, dating flyergirls, drinking braga (try it if u can) eating “wannafuck” and zapzaraping new treasures (still secret might get a pic soon?)!
yesterday late in the evening we helped our friends (we meet them in hrshova(?) the first time) from the http://www.flossbusters.de/ land next to us and had a strong and healthy “friendship tea” together. today started early because of the hot sun… some of us finally had a real SHOWER (paid with our postcards too… the people seem to really like our “pirate-money”!). Who wants a free postcard? leave us an address in the comments below and we send an old rum bottle to yours.

time to get out of this (very secret and the onlx one around 30 km looks like but they have cs, warcraft and unreal tournament installed here) internet-hole. looking forward to new adventures and the delta… watch out for the next episode (with mosquitoes and douglas adams)!

A day full of special operations. While Flo and Rene are going on an intercultural land mission throughout some of the most rural areas of Romania discovering how an Alien would possible feel coming from outer space. To our surprise we didnt take any money with us, but we are able to pay with postcards.

Meanwhile the *Keks* is having an rondevue with the other Danube Raft and their crew exchanging and celebrating the intercultural Danube slow float union.

The officials didnt allow us to land on their ponton but nie enough to organise a #taxi# for us to do the shopping and get petrol. When all the stocking up was done the papers (1 excel sheet with stamp and signature) still were not ready… While the ofice was closed Rene met a german guy with his dog paddling down the river in his 4th attempt to get to the black sea.

Mat is sick, so we feed him some A + B powder and it works. On the sundeck Rene tries to cut his beard without a mirror only to shave it later properly and the first dreadlocks start growing out of his head.

We stay in a beautiful scenery of Clay hills with strange holes and vulcanos for the night. The night is rich with sounds from nature and unknown species. Rene is sick but recovering swiftly.

After a sugarfree coffee we left this beautiful place, and moskito soaked isle. While drifting we heard loud music from a nature river bank… a wedding ? Before finding out we had to loose the rescuejackets and rescue them and finally throwin the achor into water without fixing the line …. {sugar free coffee…} But we were lucky. One of the fishermen caught his hook in there and we could dive it up. Had then a little party with these fishermen and their big soundsystem.

Later we meet the river police: You got papers? Ilie: Yes ! Fine, the right side is nice.

This beautiful sunday morning we tried to check out from Bulgaria as they couldnt do our papers the day before. Appointed at 9am still a bit weak from a very exhausting night, no one is there to give us the stamp. A couple of hours later some border police officers rock up being confused and angry with us shout at us wtf we doing here and that we can leave now. Well we have to leave now. But where is Steffi (the women) they wonder. We end the game by promising not to do any illegal business and leave as soon as possible. Good old border police hospitality. Still that does not stop us from having a little sit it with the local sailing club from next door. Very kind people organising sail and boat education trips for about 200 school kids for the fun of it.

Finally we taking off, rolling slowly downstream having a little trouble with that zick zack around the islands. The currents here are tricky. We almost get sucked into a strong (apple) strudel and just manage to rescue us to an sandy island where nothing seems to flow as in the outside world. Ilie is organising an traditional Romanian Ciorba workshop discussing bout social standards in eastern Europe.

After taking in the new fishing net we leave towards the last Bulgarian town. Winds are facing us and some weird currents but we safely land at the wall (not the ponton) of Hotel Drustar where we are told to pay 15euro for a 3 h stay (water, shower toilet etc. is extra cost) We decide to use their toilet and leave for good. A couple of hundred meters further down we actually find a good old public landing Ponton, turns out to be our home for the night. Flo and Ilie go shopping and stocking, while Radu and Mat watch the Keks. Steffi and Rene go to the Capitania only to find out we have to come back there in the morning with the whole crew. howell papers, stamps and waiting game – business as usual … So sun is shining, flo is cooking, some are slacklineing and we enjoy the little waves and friendly people in this town (eccept the Hotel guys)

Easy morning, slacklining fishing, exploring the surroundings, turning the shopping cart into an art object to be hung in the trees or just sleeping. Everybody finds something to do… We leave after midday rater in the afternoon towards Silistra enjoying the last kilometers of Bulgarian shore. Slow pacing along we end up at the km sign 390 and decide to stay for the night. Chilly-sauce, red sauce and … and … pasta fill the bellies of hungry river people. The rest of the night is a quiete one except from the waves that shake the sleepy sailors all night

Thanks to Ilie we are able to fill up our water tanks in the morning from the ground pump. For some water is not all you need ad we end up having a fishing net {big one}

As we float along Flo gets more and more used to the funny steering of our raft with wind and currents. Painting playing cards, reading, and a nice salad n omelet round up the floating another day on big mama Danube…

At night a big, big fire gets started by mat and Flo while Radu keeps trying to get the non vegetable part of the BBQ (a snake) The shopping trolley turns out to be quite useful for the fire kitchen and serves as a roast even though Ilie is sad to see the wheels burning. But a couple of glasses later we are happily discussing the differences of Romanian and German ways of doing business and the playing silent post with easy words like DonauDampfschifffahrtsgesellschaft or friendship which turns out to soft porn …

We are in the news. FRONTPAGE

We are famous! Mat and Radu will even get some groupies if they are lucky because they are on the picture in the newspaper of Ruse. Unfortunatly we cant read the article but we belive its full of praise for us pirates haha…

Having ^done^ the capitania and added Flo as official crew member while others took care of the stocking up fresh veggies we leave in the early afternoon. With the great materials from Mr. Bricolage Ilie is able to build a fridge

Keks parked at the Yacht Club Ruse

Sleep in after a long night out on the square and elsewhere. Almost everyone enjoys the first proper shower after 2 weeks but one stinker remained. neverthelesswe decide to take him along anyway and rumble torwards the city stock up supplies at the local Mr. Bricolage. Afterwards Kebap for everyone. Juhu.

Boyko, the owner of Ruse Yacht Club tells us about a couple that was shipwracked here about a week earlier. Their raft got towed by an empty cargoship and they couldnt keep up surfing the wave. They went tipside and sank in Mama Dunav. We havent parked up propably we can hear that joyfull scottish accent inviting us for a Otterkringer. Neil and Sue and their self build boat the  Roama are one of the happiest crews we met so far.

In the well organised Yacht Club Log we find a lot of river adventures rolling up and down the Danube from all ends of the world. Especially, a munich based traveler we met last september on a bike tour was joyfully inspired by the treib-gut projekt, caught our attension.