The Black Sea Coast

I just returned from 3 nights in Constanţa  Romania's primary port on the Black Sea. According to what I have read, Constanţa is the oldest attested human settlement in Romania, dating back about 2600 years. During the Roman period, Constanţa is known as Tomis, perhaps best known for being the place to which the poet Ovid was banished. The primary square of Constanţa is named for Ovid and features a statue of him.

Like in Galaţi, there is also a replica of the Capitoline Wolf.

The archaeology museum, features a good collection of Roman, Greek, and other artifacts. Though, like most of the other museums I have been to in Romania, I did not find it particularly well curated. 

More exciting was the Roman Edifice and Mosaic adjacent to the museum. Its always wonderful to see well preserved artifacts presented in sedes. 

I stayed in Mamaia, which is a resort town situated on an isthmus wedged between the Sea and Siutghiol Lake and connecting Constanţa to Năvodari  My room had a view of the lake, and it was just a short walk across the street to the Black Sea.

I enjoyed the beach quite a lot. It was especially refreshing since the lat few days have been incredible warm in Romania. You can walk about 30 feet out to sea with the water only rising waist height. The water was warm and felt great. The beach is crowded from sunrise to sunset, which is not until around 9 pm this time of year at this longitude. 

Everything in Constanţa is far more expensive than it is in Galaţi,  especially food. I did discover one of my new favorite items of street food, though, fried anchovies (hamsie in Romanian). They are served with salt and crushed garlic and made a great snack at 2 lei a serving from numerous vendors.

Among the other dishes I tried in Constanţa as something described as "Romanian lamb dish," which was marinated lamb served with mămăliga (polenta) and about the most potent garlic sauce I Have encountered, and a dish of friend squid and mussels.

Mamaia has a airborne gondola covering about half of the isthmus. It goes a couple hundred feet int he air and presents great views of the surrounding area.

Other pictures:

It was very noticeable how much better infrastructure is in Constanţa than in Galaţi and much the rest of Romania I have seen. Roads are far better maintained and the city was very easy to navigate. 

Today I am in the office, and then tonight its off to the airport for a few days in Munich, Germany.

Various Thoughts

It has been an eventful week here in Galaţi  Work has really picked up. Now that the severe administrative hurdles have been surmounted and the Black Sea Project, also called SolveNet, is fully underway, there is much work to do. Mostly I have been working on communications strategy for the early stages of project implementation. I've been press releases, flyers, and descriptive booklets explaining various aspects of the project.

To go a little deeper into what SolveNet is, SMART, in conjunction with partners in Moldova, Armenia, and Ukraine, is  pushing the development of local policy making infrastructure, civic engagement platforms, and cross-border cooperation.

It has been fascinating learning about the dynamics of the region through the project, and about the perceptions of civic engagement. The basic theory behind civic engagement is that through the development of a platform whereby laypersons can become an active part of the policy making process, government enactments will ultimately become more representative of the needs and desires of the people. 

Outside of work, my Romanian lessons have been proceeding well. I am understanding far more of what I hear around said around me. I am over halfway through the instructional book I brought with me. Alex continues to be the perfect tutor. We have finally reached a point where the language has ceased being Romanian words with mostly English grammar, and onto being something, according to Alex, which actually sounds like Romanian. I have discovered that Romanian often communicates ideas using very different structures than found in English. For example, a lot of verbs which are very straightforward in English, are either impersonal, requiring a dative case object, or reflexive, requiring a reflexive and often enclitic pronoun in Romanian, 

Another challenge has been Romanian word order. I am having great difficulty fully grasping the rules. Like English, Romanian often uses a subject-verb-object syntax. However, there are situation, such as when an accusative case pronoun replaces the object, where the syntax becomes subject-object-verb. There are also other times, such as in certain subordinate clauses, when the subject follows the verb.

Learning Romanian has also helped me to understand how Romanians use English. I can see at times when they say something in English that, while comprehensible, is improper, it is often because they apply Romanian grammatical structures to English. 

As a general note, I've discovered how much people open up if you can just speak a few words in their language. Almost everyone I have met here speaks English. A lot of people are hesitant to speak in English at first because they think they their abilities are lacking. However, I have very rarely had trouble with comprehension. I have discovered that people warm up quite a bit and are much more willing to speak after just saying simple likes like bună ziuă (good day/hello) or multțumesc (thank you) in Romanian. 

I've had the opportunity to eat at a few more restaurants here in Galati. First a Turkish restaurant.

The interior was made up to look like a cave. The food was quite good, and. I was happy to have lamb and spicy peppers, two items not found much in Romanian cooking. The check came in the above decorative box.

Next was a Lebanese seafood restaurant on the Danube.

The setting was really nice. Perfect for a slightly cool evening. I had octopus, which was as good as any preparation of of it I have had before. 

For desert one night I was taken to the restaurant on top of the tv tower, from which you can get a great view of the city. Galaţi looked a lot bigger from up there than it feels from the ground.

This weekend its off to the Black Sea Coast. I am staying Mamaia, a resort town adjacent to Constanţa. Then its back to Galaţi for a day, at which point I will be leaving for a few days in Munich, Germany. Among all of this I need to make it a point to get work done, so it'll be an exciting week. 

Romanian Wines

Coming to Romania, I was looking forward to exploring what appeared to be a vibrant wine industry. I have tried a decent number of wines since arriving, including varietals I had never heard of. A few weeks ago I met someone who works in the industry. She organized a trip to Crama Dobrogeana winery in the nearby city of Măcin on which I went.

Măcin is about a 45 ride from Galaţi. The first step on the journey is a trip across the Danube on the ferry.

Upon arriving we were first given a tour of the winery. I would describe Crama Dobrogeana s a medium sized winery. It was larger than a lot of the boutique wineries I have visited in Califronia, but smaller than the immense commercial wineries. We viewed the fermentation room, the laboratory, the bottling room, and a few of the tasting and conference rooms.

Crama Dobrogeana has even been granted a patent by the former Romanian royal family.

Following the tour we settled into a very nice dining room for tasting and lunch.

I was surprised to see that we were going to tasting 12 wines - 6 whites, 2 roses, and 4 reds. It was nice to try both Romanian varietals I had never tried before and to see the differences in the wines using varietals with which I am familiar. To go with the wine we were provided cheese (which I think was made from sheep's milk), apple slices, and 2 kinds of incredibly good bread.

For the most part, the wines were good and there were a few clear standouts. First was the dry Muscat Ottonel. It reminded me of a chardonnay, but without the parts of chardonnay i typically do not like. I can not think of an instance were I have seen Muscat presented in a dry style in the United States, and after tasting this wine I think it is a shame. 

Surprisingly, I also liked the Merlot. We so often think of Merlot in the United States as a sort of entry level wine undeserving of accolades. This Merlot had the typically fruity character expected in the varietal, but amplified to an incredible degree compared to Merlots I have had before. I think this is one varietal that Romania does better than California. 

My favorite wine of the day was number ten on the above chart, a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvingnon, and Petit Verdot. It was a viscous and earthy wine, with qualities approaching a Spanish Tempranillo. Unfortunately, this was a preview of an upcoming release and not yet for sale. 

Also notable is the Pinot Noir. In general, Romanian Pinot Noirs, this one included, are prepared as sweet wines. I can not say that I am a fan of this, but it seems popular and is worth trying. 

After tasting, we were served a lunch consisting of mici, pork, salad, and potatoes. Dessert was really good house-made coffee ice cream.

This was a great day. The experience actually beat many of the tastings I have had in California. I was very happy to find a few great wines. I am missing California wines, though, and look forward to a good Napa Valley Cabernet, Paso Robles Zinfandel, Carneros Pinot Noir, or Santa Ynez Syrah.