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07/09/2017. Imagine a large island in the middle of the Danube. It's one of the most extensive across the whole course. There aren't any people on the many islands. Finally a place that is only for animals and plants. It is an area that is constantly flooded. And as a result heaths and white poplars can thrive in their natural territory. Cormorants, red-necked grebes, black-headed gulls and many other rare water birds find a home here, are able to nest undisturbed, and look after their young. One of these islands is called Persin, after the daughter of the former pasha […]

06/09/2017. She grows up in a small German village in the Banat, in the middle of remote hill country in Romania. In her loneliness she begins to speak to the plants, and they become her best friends. Later on she moves to the city, wanting to learn Romanian, speak it, and understand it. After school she begins studies in German and Romance Studies, and later earns her crust as a translator in a machine works. At some point she is asked if she could write reports about one or another of her colleagues. She simply can't. She refuses. And from […]

05/09/2017. Right from the earliest stages of their evolution people have been drawn to water. They settled at rivers, lakes, and seas. The water provided them with something to drink, and to eat; it watered their livestock, enabled farming, and ground grain. It is the ultimate lifeline, and it's not for nothing that humans themselves are made up from 70% water. And so it's even more surprising that the northern, Romanian bank of the Danube, that Pascal is currently passing, is so sparsely settled – not to say that it hasn't been settled at all. This southern region of the […]

04/09/2017. If we think about Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and the rest of the Balkans, regions that Pascal has been paddling through for weeks, then you can't avoid one particular topic, the treatment of the Sinti and Roma. Headlines on the topic are generally thought-provoking or sad. And somehow we can sense that we probably carry one cliche or another of this people group within ourselves. But if we ask the question of what we actually know about the Sinti and Roma, regarding their history, their traditions, where they come from, what they do, the answers soon dry up. Migration to […]

03/09/2017. 500 years. No other European country was ruled for so long by the Ottomans as Bulgaria. Until 1878 the half-moon flag flew on the countries roofs. For a long time Bulgaria was considered unexplored by the Western Europeans, foreign, even, oriental, the very edge of the civilised world – "the least known area in Europe". Today Turks still constitute a significant minority in Bulgaria. They make up close to 10% of the Bulgarian population, and their party often holds the balance of power when it comes to forming a government. In addition, there are Pomaks, Tatars, and Circassians, who […]

02/09/2017. Pascal heard of him through an ARTE documentary that Pascal watched a few months ago. He is a famous Romanian poet and writer who apparently built a cultural centre and guesthouse on the Danube in Cetate, and lives there today. He was one of Romanian literature's great hopes, but because of his poems and writings criticising society he fell into disrepute, and ended up on the radar of the Securitate, the Romanian secret service. A provocateur, an enfant terrible for those in power. The inevitable happened. Ban on publication in 1987. He had to give up his job as […]

01/09/2017. The ideal destinations? You might think of France, Italy, or Spain. But Romania? Hardly. And yet this country has so many features to offer. Cultural treasures like the old cities of the seven castles, the Maramures' wooden churches, the orthodox Bucovina monastery, the powerful Ceaușescu Palace in Bucharest, the Dracula myth, or the brilliant vocabulary of the Nobel Laureate in Literature, Herta Müller. In addition, there is the untouched nature of the Carpathian mountains, the domain of the pelicans in the Danube delta, and the endless steppes of Walachia. Simple, farming village life with all its traditions and customs […]

31/08/2017. We are writing at the end of August. Pascal has now been underway for six whole weeks. The time is flying by. Now that he has also completed the middle phase of the Danube's course, it's on into the last third: the lower Danube. It is characterised above all by extreme weather conditions. In summer the temperature usually blisters at around 35 degrees, and in winter falls at times to -25 degrees, so that the Danube freezes and shipping is halted. For Pascal there is a high chance of a heat wave. The infrastructure (roads, railway, harbours, etc.) has […]

30/08/2017. It was 1964, Romania and the former Yugoslavia were panting for energy. The task was to transform poor farming countries into exemplary planned economy industrial nations. Nature conservation, the protection of creation? Of secondary importance. In 1972 the Iron Gate 1 Power Plant was finally completed. To do so the Danube had been intensively modified. Villages, streets, and cultural heritage were submerged beneath the waters. The water level was raised by 30 metres. The backlog of the water is tangible as far as Belgrade, 200 kilometres upstream. It is one of the most massive instances of interference with the […]

29/08/2017. In antiquity it was known as the "country of wild olives". There are colourful houses, cypress trees, fig trees, chestnut trees. There is the smell of Turkish coffee. And Turkish delight along with it. We are in the Far East. Well, it feels like it at least. More precisely: we are in Ada Kaleh, a small island just before the exit of the Iron Gate. The Ottomans once built a fortress there. For the holy Baba Miskin, a dervish. "The island brings sweet peace to the soul", according to Baba Miskin. Sultan Kaleh, the island's namesake, settled here with […]