Here are some shots of the fishermen village I have spent a few days in. It is a remote place in the Danube Delta, one famous among tourists who are looking for a non-mainstream and peaceful seaside vacation, amateur fishers and photographers. An electronic music festival and an independent film festival take place there each year during summer and have made it more popular for tourists.
There is no other place I can think of, that can get me to living so presently every moment than Sf. Gheorghe in the Danube Delta. It has been three years since I have last been here. It's incredibly peaceful and I manage to forget about anything else when I am there. I actually feel separated from the rest of the world, which is why the nickname of the village, "the end of the world" seems more than appropriate to me. There may be phones and TVs now, but to buy a magazine, one would have to head over to the post office and the boats coming from the big town (There is no other way of getting there) would not even ship bread daily, let alone newspapers. I noticed more cars this year (maybe less than 10 in the whole village, though), which is a bit annoying, but I could still see people riding their horses.
We usually live with a local family, and enjoy local home cooked meals. It initially took me some time to get used to not having a proper bathroom inside the house and showering with sun heaten water from a tank. The schedule was pretty much identical every day: During breakfast I would watch 'Meercat Manor' on Animal Planet or Discovery Channel's 'How It's Made', then we would spend some hours in the morning at the beach, I would have a couple of hours of sleep in the afternoon, a late afternoon walk or boat trip on some river channels (I'm done with fishing :) and finally, after dinner, we would all watch a movie at the open air theater that was established for the film festival. By 22:30 I would be in bed. I actually had the luxury of being able to turn off my cell phone (I would not be able to do that if there would be the possibility of any relevant emergency).
I would honestly have no objection to doing this throughout the year. I would not miss work, loud music, busy streets, people I have to interact with that are not my friends, my cell phone, I could even get used to not having internet. I was an incerdibly free person for 9 days and I hope I can hold on to that feeling to fuel me for the next months. Knowing I've got my place there and I can always choose to go back there, sure is a comforting thought.
