The No Longer Bitter End of the Danube
Place: Danube Crossing to Bulgaria, Romania
In Robert Kaplan's "Balkan Ghosts", which I had read more than once before heading to Eastern Europe, the chapter about Romania is the most fascinating one (better than the one about former Yugoslavia, I have to say). Reading through, it seemed that Romania was a country completely traumatized and full of miserable and fucked up people, after so many years of poverty and dictatorships. The time of his visit was 1990, only half a year after Romanian people rose up in a very bloody revolution to overthrow the communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu. The wounds and scars after his 24 year tyranny (1965-1989) were still very fresh. Poverty was everywhere and people were pessimistic, resentful, and suspicious. It felt like a piece of Africa in Europe.
In another book I read, Bruce Benderson's "The Romanian," (Published in 2004) The author fell in love with a Romanian prostitute from Sibiu and moved to live with him in Bucharest in the summer of 2000. Due to the visa restriction to Romanians at that time, the author could not bring his lover to either U.S. or western European countries. He then intercut the modern history of Romania and how prolonged national poverty and incapable governments had made Romanian such a miserable and irresponsible people. In the book, Romania merely 6 years ago, though with enormous beauty and history, was still a quite dangerous and menacing place. It was a land full of despair, extortion, and suspicion. And yes, he did mention those ubiquitous stray dogs, including a bitch just could not stop barking at him near Piata Unirii.
Now it is 2006. Romania is less than five months away from their scheduled entrance to the most envied "clubs" in the world (if things do not go wrong). They no longer require entry visas to most European countries. The economic growth is healthy and average incomes have increased a lot. And a recent NYT editorial described that Romania is the only Eastern Europe country currently led by a reformed government while many other E.U. Eastern European countries have gone back to conservatism. In many ways, I was visiting a Romania that was becoming a different place from Kaplan’s, or even Benderson’s Romania.
After we were stamped at the border control in Giurgiu, we were technically "out of" Romania. However, only when the train passes the Danube River, we were officially out of Romanian territory. Danube is the natural border between Romania and its neighboring countries.
Finally we reached Danube (多瑙河). Not only I, but everyone in my cabin, stood up from our seats and look at this great river as we were passing it. The mighty Danube! I had crossed this river several times over the years. Just a few months ago, I crossed Chain Bridge and Elizabeth Bridge in Budapest; later in the same week, I walked across the rebuilt bridges (destroyed by NATO in 1999) in Novi Sad and Belgrade, Serbia; in a cold winter afternoon, I walked across the UFO-like New Bridge in Bratislava, Slovakia. Tracing back many years ago, I even stayed in a hotel overlooking the Danube in Vienna; and in that same trip, I vaguely remember crossing a small stream in southern Germany and later found it is the upper stream of the Danube.
Yes, by summer of 2006, I had been to all four capitals the Danube flows through and even its upper stream. However, I had never been to its downstream. And definitely I have not yet visited where this great river empties into the sea. Being the natural border of Romania and Bulgaria, Danube flows further east and turns north in eastern Romania, forms a large delta, and empties into Black Sea. This is how the most important and influential river of Europe meets its end. Danube Delta is famous for bird-watching and fishing activities. Due to that my whole travel plan was messed up by my fiasco in Ukraine, and depression later resulted from my stolen cameras, I did not have chance traveling to the Danube Delta, to see where Danube ends.
Kaplan did travel where Danube ends in 1990. He took a barge to Sfantu Gheorghe, the small town on Black Sea shore where Danube’s south arm ends. He met a lot of weird and unpleasant people, most were alcoholic and grimly looking. Aptly, He named that section "The Danube’s bitter end," (『多瑙河的淒苦盡頭』) Coincidentally, the Chinese translation of Danube is the same pronunciation with "River of a lot of worries" (多瑙河 = 多惱河?)
Now, in this summer of 2006, as I was crossing Danube once again, I kept thinking: is the country where Danube ends still so bitter? Or the sense of misery and bitterness has finally subsided and is replaced by hopes and optimism? Looking at the ubiquitous E.U. flags alongside Romanian flags, maybe that symbolizes their hope for a better tomorrow. E.U. has already helped several members, such as Ireland, to become much wealthy countries. From this trip, I learned that Romania is still not an easy country to travel around. No matter how guidebooks or newspaper articles make it sounds like a chic and trendy new destination, there still are so many rough edges to be softened. But I think with the help from E.U., life will only improve in a long run.
So I think I will come back, after all. Maybe next year, maybe in a few years. And when next time I drop by, I will travel to the Delta, to see the Danube’s no longer bitter end.
We finished the 4 kilometers' Danube crossing and we were over land again. It is another country now. The train stopped at the platform of a quite large city. I was about to pass the custom of my last destination country of this Eastern Europe trip.
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