Since yesterday’s breakfast our anticipation for the morning increased and today we awoke at 7.30. Yesterday a group of 4 Germans joined us at the guesthouse and unlike the Germans we met in Scotland they were very friendly and outgoing.

Ladies first commands the introduction of Cecilia, a theology student studying in Sibiu (Romania) with the long term desire to become a priestess. George her brother, is a doctor or something of the type and he is definitely the biggest tomato lover I’ve ever met. David is a software developer (J2EE) with the German railway company with a Ph.D. in Chemistry, while another David works in a drug rehabilitation centre.

Our trip today took us to Mila 23 a village north of Crisan. The highlight of the trip was a White Tailed Eagle soaring above a lake. Through the canals leading to Mila 23 we encountered a couple of kingfisher nesting places as well as the kingfishers themselves. With one of the largest reed beds in the world I finally got to see my first Little Bittern (Bird of the Day). We were just to 2 meters away and I confirmed that all my fuss about the bird was well justified. Another good bird was the golden oriole.

Perched cormorants

Danube's Sex Pistols - Spoonbill

We arrived at Mila 23 at 12:50 and we brought some sausages, drinks, tomatoes and cucumbers for a picnic. Mila 23 looks much more like a village than a caterpillar like Crisan. While visiting Mila 23 one of the Davids noticed something very interesting – a bush of cannabis plants growing in the wild. It was very strange and obviously amazed the whole group. Throughout the rest of the day, we found several other wild cannabis plants which apparently are not smoked because it’s not effective.

After the Mila tour we took the boat once again and found a wild place to make a bar-b-que. David made a camp fire and we improvised kebab sticks with long twigs and made some delicious kebabs. By this time the sun was scorching and my beauty was drained from all energy. After filling our stomachs we returned back to Crisan and arrived at 17:00.

Lunch has become a time to look forward to, more for discussion and wine than for the food. Today Petre told us how Ceausescu’s secret police (Securitate) did their recruitment process. Once they approached him at a ‘special party’ after presenting a complete file about his whole life they urged him to become an informer. As an informer he had to spy on his friends and village people to report any misbehaviour or crimes against Communism. He had to lie and bullshit the police for 6 months until they gave up and let him quit.