At last this morning we found a great breakfast awaiting us. Our hosts, the extended family of Petre surpassed our humble expectations by heaping a table with the following goods; cornflakes and muesli, boiled egg, luncheon meat, salami, tomato platter, croissants, chocolate shreedies, biscuits and best of all a teapot of excellent strong coffee. Now that I’ve wet your appetites don’t rush to the fridge.

We decided to spend the last four days of our holiday at a guesthouse in Crisan. It’s useless denying that my original intent was to save money however I realised that there is much more to be gained when living with a family. Without knowing spending time with a family immerses you in the culture of the place especially when their way of life is different from what we’re used to.

Danube Delta Canals

For the day we planned to visit the southern part of the middle arm of the delta around Crisan with Petre’s guidance and boat. The habitat of the Danube reminded us of Tortuguero (Costa Rica), except for the rain which was non-existent here. When pressed for a habitat description my mates impression was "wet" and "full of little beady birdy eyes".

The Danube wildlife is characterised by birds, which can be found in large quantities. The most common bird on the verge of the irritable is the hooded crow which likes to mimic the position of all the other birds in the Danube just to attract your interest. The second commonest bird is the tern which is nesting here. This was our first real opportunity to observe these beautiful birds and I will honour them with the Bird of the day award. I imagine them to be a cross between a swift and a gull, small, agile and with excellent command of their flight. The largest flock of birds was undoubtedly an enormous flock of White Pelicans. The more solitary Dalmatian Pelican can also be seen occasionally. The Danube is an excellent showcase for the Roller which is probably the brightest coloured of European birds. Their blue colour is unmistakable in flight.

Count the pelicans

Herons and egrets are present in large quantities in the delta. We saw great white egret, night, grey and also squacco herons. This small heron with a sexy name is a heron shaped orange white coloured bird.

The delta is a haven for cormorants, but despite the large quantities there wasn’t one of them drying itself. Present in the delta is also the rare pygmy cormorant which is a mini-cormorant. On the same colour scheme of the cormorant there are the glossy Ibis with a curved beak and cross shaped flight.

The sounds of the delta are dominated by one animal – the frog. The green and brown frog chorus can be heard from miles away and their peeping eyes can be observed either in lily patches and other river vegetation. These frogs along with a snake swimming in the river and a racoon dog were the only non-avian species observed.

Shut up noisy one

The tour finished at around 14:00 and the sun completely redefined the colour of my skin in the last hours of the tour. My mate was quite disconcerted about this but a packet of crisps offset the thoughts away from her face. A brief nap restored our energy and then we toured Crisan.

The best definition I can manage for Crisan is "a Sim City game before losing". The village has the simplest design one can imagine, a 7km single file of houses all with a back garden in between two canals. There are around 500 inhabitants in Crisan so the village is like are one big family everybody knowing the other. Like the rest of Romania there is a huge amount of dogs and it seems that each inhabitant has a dog.

From the 15 minute tour we could spot a small shop, bar, police station, post office, school, a large hotel and a red metal framework for a planned sports centre. The village looks quite old with houses varying from precarious to decent. The village people were what one would expect from a place isolated and difficult to access; poor, most of them old, and still adhering and old lifestyle. On the contrary to articles we read before the holiday, people were not that welcoming. Their suspicious looks do little to help you feel comfortable.

I have mixed feelings about the general atmosphere of the place. As a place in itself it’s marvellous, a definite paradise for nature lovers and bird watchers. A double edge sword is the fact that the place is not commercialised and tourist oriented. From one end this gives an unbiased real view of the actual place and on the other side the place lacks the tourist friendliness and accessibility to attract mass tourism. I think the effect of the revolution is still looming in Crisan as in all other parts of Romania. Unfinished and abandoned projects 10 years due from the time of the revolution spoilt what would otherwise be a perfect place.