THE DELTA ISLAND (part )

An island: the most spectacular and unusual part of Romania, neither water nor land.

            Isolated, lacustrine, villages, depending very much on nature and fishing, a labyrinth of lakes, canals, realms overflowing with wildlife. An extraordinarily beautiful and generous world during summer, but hostile and almost inaccessible during winter. The fishermen's world, with unique adornments, primitive and complicated at the same time, which may seem strange to us, continentals.

            During the two or three years I spent there, living in the reed houses of the Ukrainians (both peasants and fishermen) and those of the Lipovans (almost exclusively fishermen),  used to the tourists and tired of them, I ate almost nothing but fish. Only seldom did I have some cheese or eggs, a pot of bald coot or a hunk of wild boar. Everything served with such a large and unexpectedly juicy quantity of vegetable, both sour and sweet, as only here can be found.

            I also found in the "pond" two (probably) ancient wines, relics of very old vineyards: Somoveanca and Negru (Black) de Sarichioi.