7th stop - Constanta, Romania

Constanta is the 2nd largest city in Romania and is situated on the Black Sea. Romania used to be a communist country, and if you look, you can still see the influence.

The first view of Constanta from a cruise ship is not a good one - the port is very industrial and very yucky to look at. However, Constanta has only recently become a stop on the cruise circuit, and is still rarely visited, perhaps with more cruise visits, the city would do something to make that initial look a better one.


Our tour at Constanta took us first to the Museum of Folk Art, the former City Hall. In front of that museum stands a statue of the Roman poet Ovid (43-17 BC) created in 1887. The Museum had thousands of things created by the people of Romania, not necessarily the "artists." These items included clothing, wooden items, painted eggs, and absolutely amazing pictures that were like mosaics. To me, this was the best part of the day, seeing what the locals created.

We also stopped at an overview of the lovely beach and a local church.

We then headed to Histria, a Greek colony founded in the 7th century BC. It is the oldest urban settlement in Romania. I really hate to say this, but it was here that I finally agreed with Greg...

You see... throughout the trip, even though Greg was really a good sport about touring old ruins and old buildings, a couple times he did make comments about "old rocks" and "more old rocks." It was at Histria that I finally thought to myself "yeah, more old rocks." I think it was because nothing has been reconstructed, just the grass and weeds cleared away.

The site is HUGE; pictures absolutely do NOT do the place justice because you can't get it all in a single picture. But it isn't awe-inspiring, as many other places we visited. The picture here shows maybe 1/10th of it.

My other main point here - this was the only "real" ship tour we took - the kind where you ride with other folks on a bus and wait around for everyone. And it totally proved why we don't usually do that. The tour was SLOW. OMG it was slow. And then you were supposed to pay for the privilege of taking photos of the ruins. What?! I can understand paying extra to take pictures INSIDE a museum or palace, because of flash damage, but for OUTSIDE photos?? No. Big resounding NO. I would rather pay a higher admission price than get nickled and dimed like that. I think it's totally misleading and inappropriate.

One thing I thought was very cool was the display of items they found during excavations: amphorae, inscriptions, pottery, glassware, bas-reliefs, etc.

The bus ride itself was interesting because we rode through quite a bit of countryside. And in doing so, we were able to see the houses that country folk live in, and see them going about their daily lives. Here again we saw people with horse carts for transporting goods, as well as themselves!

After we got back from our booked excursion we walked around town on our own. It became obvious that not only is Constanta not prepared for cruiseships, it isn't prepared for tourists at all. There are some really lovely buildings and interesting statues and sculptures in town, but you really have to search them out. Roads were in terrible condition. Ok, some sidewalks were too. But of course we didn't have to worry all that much about the bad sidewalks, because we frequently couldn't walk on them anyway... Constanta was like many other European towns where people park on the sidewalks. Weird! Oh, and it is virtually impossible to find souvenirs. As in the kind that say "Constanta" or "Romania" on them. As usual, we (meaning Greg) were on the search for a shotglass - there were none to be found.

Anyway, the loveliest building in Constanta used to house the Casino, but it is now a restaurant. It is right on the shoreline, and is one building that is easy to find.

In our walk through town, we encountered an unusual park. My guess is it's the "Archaeological Park" altho we never saw signs to that effect. However, it was very cool. Throughout the park there were pieces of ancient buildings and other archaeological pieces, just a-hangin' out. The park itself was pretty much overrun with weeds and long grass, but still... it was way cool! I sure don't know any parks around here (or anywhere in the U.S.) where items that are thousands of years old are just sitting out on display.