Down by the river

One of the best things about my site is that it’s right on the river bordering Romania.

There are miles and miles of hiking/running paths to get lost in. Because it used to be the literal frontier between the Soviet countries and Eastern Europe there was a huge no-man’s land in between the town and the river filled with barbed wire and watchtowers.

Today, all that is gone and now this area has basically become open space (open space that rivals what I’m used to in my old home town). It’s lightly forested, but mostly it consists of large open fields that are occasionally flooded when the river gets too high.

Because it’s still an important border, the Moldovan border guards walk up and down the length of the river constantly making really nice trails that are perfect for running or single-track bikes.

During the summer you can always see sun bathers, volleyball players and picnickers sharing the space with goat and sheep herders and occupational fisherman.




Picture captions:
Top - A photo of the Prut river looking south. Moldova is on the left and Romania is on the right. Apparently this river valley floods two or three times a year.

2nd- A sunset over Romania. The sunsets here are amazing because everyone burns their trash. It's kind of a win/lose situation.

3rdA photo from the abandoned soviet-era brick factory. (story to come) This is looking west. The house in the foreground are in Moldova, but if you look closely (click on the photo) you can see a village on the far hillside in Romania (or as the locals joke "over there in Europe")



Bottom: One of the occupational fisherman. These guys fish all day long and catch small fish that aren't even big enough to de-bone. they just take 20 or so of these at the end of the day and eat them whole.