Today was the big travel day. We had to travel from Sinaia to Crisan, which means travelling from central Romania to Eastern Romania. The only way we could do this in one day was by taking the 03:22 train from Sinaia to Bucharest to be able to catch the 06:40 to Tulcea (not in Turkey).

We arrived at the train station by taxi at 02:50 and reluctantly entered the station building. There were two tourists already waiting for the ticket office to open so we waited alongside. After my eyes got accustomed to the dark I started noticing people sleeping on the various benches in the station, and soon after their snoring followed to reassure me that they were no treat.

The train to Bucharest was full up and we struggled to find an empty wagon. At a stop an old man sought our company to the detriment of our olfactory glands. Romanians did a good job at reminding us of the smelly people at work, at least these poor people are excused for their poor condition they surely haven't got our managers salary.

We arrived at Bucharest at 05:00 and to avoid potential dangers we sought refuge at Mc Donald’s. At least the horrid coffee served for a purpose. It is very important to look purposeful and confident not to be an easy target in such an environment.

According to locals the train to Tuclea is one of most modern trains in the train fleet and it shows. Since the voyage was quite long we had fixed seating locations. The pickpocket from our last train experience was replaced by a much more interesting person, who was a nuclear physicist with a Ph.D. in missile guidance working in the aeronautic industry. To our envy his company provides AI solutions mostly through expert systems and the like. Our topics of conversation varied from football, wine, travel and even gardening. He recommended a book entitled "The Japanese" by an American Ambassador in Japan.

We arrived at Tulcea at 11:10 and waited for the 13:30 ferry to Crisan in a bar near the quay. The Danube Delta is said to have three arms; the northern arm reaching out to Rosetti, the middle arm finishing at Sulina and the southern arm into Sfantu Gheorghe. We lodged in Crisan almost half way between Tulcea and Sulina (2 and ½ hours by ferry and 1 hour away by hydrofoil).

On the ferry I received a message from work because there was a power failure and they didn't have the correct password to reload the server on my PC. The second in command pal at work was on a half day leave so all hell broke loose. Obviously things were blown completely out of proportion with the higher management of the company being notified, as if they could do something. On his arrival from leave the situation was solved immediately.

At Crisan (16:00) we were greeted by Petre Vasiliu and accompanied to his house were we rested for the rest of the day and savoured a good traditional meal.