This kayak day happened on Sunday the 9th of June, 2024. We kayaked from Calafat in Romania to Vidin in Bulgaria on the Danube River. Though both countries are in the EU, they weren’t completely part of Schengen at the time. That’s why we needed to deal with bureaucracy and get a new ship manifest for Zucchini.

Leaving Romania by Boat: Lazy Saturday in Calafat

The day after we kayaked more than 70 kilometers down the Danube, we wanted to see if we can leave Romania via the Danube. Calafat also has a road-rail bridge to Vidin, but the border controls aren’t taken down yet in these two fresh Schengen-ish countries. They are set to join in full by the 1st of January, 2025. Also, the road bridge has a toll and we’d probably need a taxi. The train is very convoluted and takes hours. There’s also Flixbus, but then we need to walk quite a distance on both ends. If we kayak, it’s a similar walking distance in both Romania and Bulgaria, but we also get a chance to dry our boat very well for our six-day stay in Vidin. So we first wanted to see stamping out of Romania is possible.

We walked down to the embankment from Calafat center. The Via Donau document marks the address of the border control as Strada Baba Lupa 4. This is where the ferry used to travel between Calafat and Vidin before the New Europe Bridge opened in 2013. You can still see the empty shell of the facilities for trucks and cars. We found a lot of buildings with signs saying what they do for boats: Administrația Porturilor Dunării Fluviale, Direcţia Regională de Drumuri şi Poduri Craiova, Oficiul de Căpitanie Calafat. It’s definitely the right place, but there were no people. We knocked on a bunch of doors.

I went into the Via Donau Manual on Border Controls and screenshotted the details for Calafat. Jonas read me the first phone number and I called it. Someone picked up who gave the phone to someone else when it was clear this conversation was going to be in English. A little while later, a happy policeman showed up. He asked if we have already talked to the harbor master. I said he’s the first human being we’ve seen, to which he replied that’s not possible.

He knocked on the office of the Căpitanie, and of course nothing happened. He then called a colleague and told us that they can’t find the harbor master, who usually does this job, and was apologetic about it. His phone went off again and apologized that he needed to go instantly because his boss needed him somewhere else. His boss will come in five minutes and check us out or Romania. Since he was a happy guy, I squeezed in the question where to check into Bulgaria on the other side of the Danube, which he had no idea of. We thanked him.

Twenty minutes later, his boss or another guy showed up. This guy (looked) even younger than the previous guy. He asked for our passports and the documents of our boat. We handed over our passports and said we didn’t receive a document, because we entered Romania by ferry at Moldova Veche with our inflatable boat in her backpack. Most of this conversation happened with Google Translate, since this guy spoke very little English. He took our passports and walked off somewhere.

We waited at the Căpitanie with this sleepy dog and a tuxedo cat who was up on the attic and very shy. It was very hot and it took a long time before the man returned, this time with papers in his hand that looked like the Romanian version of a ship manifest or crew list.

He asked for the name of the boat, which was easy. Z-U-C-C-H-I-N-I. Then he asked for our registration of the boat, to which we said the inflatable boat doesn’t have that. He pushed us again for the documents of the boat. He and Jonas both used Google Translate on their phones to have this talk. At some point, he got really angry and frustrated that we really don’t have a document of the boat. I thought the papers in his hands looked good. But he then said he can create a document and asked if it’s for entry or exit, which should have been really clear at this point. We are leaving Romania. Calafat to Vidin.

The emotions really flip-flopped between regulation and dysregulation. I found it honestly a bit embarrassing to work at an international port and get angry about translation and communication issues. We kept our cool.

He left again and some twenty minutes later, he returned with just our passports and no paper. His last words were “Go.”

It was unclear to us if we’d been checked-out of Romania or not; there haven’t been passport stamps for our passports for decades. But we were just happy to have our passports back and not have to deal with this personality anymore. We concluded this is good enough to claim to Romanian water police – if we meet them – that we’ve done the proper procedure to depart Romania—for now. We would rather take it up with the Bulgarians than to try to get anymore from this side of the river.

The only issue is that we’ve checked out of Romania on Saturday, and don’t intend to actually leave till Sunday.

Kayaking from Calafat to Vidin

The following day, we left the hotel quite early despite not setting an alarm. We walked down to the river without taking a break, past a police station with a guy hanging outside, looking towards us. Our unclear presence in Romania gave me the heebie-jeebies. My shoulders hurt a lot by the time we were at the beach.

We were not alone; the early morning saw some Romanian fishermen and old guys sitting on benches. The temperature was very pleasant. We inflated Zucchini, analyzed the ever-expanding bulge in the bottom air chamber, and paddled away from Calafat and Romania at 8:34.

Our first order of business was to cross the Thalweg of the Danube in this area so we would only be checked by Bulgarian river police. Jonas was kind of hoping for that so we could also ask them exactly where we should go. As long as the Romanian river police wouldn’t chase after us as they’ve done so many times, today will be doable. We’re hoping the Bulgarian border police will be kinder than the frustrated fella from Calafat.

To cross as quickly as possible, we aimed to go straight for the other shore before the green and maybe even red buoys just 250 meters downstream from our starting point. The current picked us up and took us further downstream. We passed between the green and red buoys. I wanted to keep paddling until we were outside the red buoy so we would be officially outside of the Romanian water police’s territory. Behind us, the New Europe Bridge stood majestically in the morning light. We paddled away from it downstream. I looked over to Calafat and its border facilities one last time.

The first thing we passed on the Bulgarian side was a man in a small fishing rowboat at the water’s edge, followed by a small port facility of Vidin. After that, we passed a motorboat that we first thought might be Bulgarian water police. Turns out it was just a group of four men chilling in the boat and fishing. One of them slapped some kind of hollow thing on the water’s surface. I’d heard that noise on day 68 as well and thought it was Zucchini somehow. Turns out it’s something called ‘slapping the rig’ and it’s meant to lure in fish. Anyway, the guys were chill and very happy and said hello.

We kayaked past the former ramp for the international ferry between Vidin and Calafat. That’s where we picked up a sprint canoeist balancing on one knee. It looks painful as fuck. Ahead of us, we could see the start of the old town of Vidin and to the left the little Romanian island called Ostrovul Calafatul Mic. The canoeist paddled along with us at a similar speed till the canoe-kayak club of Vidin, which has definitely seen better days. It’s right on the edge of where the fortified city of Vidin begins and one of a few good landing spots (43.99503974531256, 22.89066214610309).

Arriving in Vidin: Baba Vida + City Beach + Cat!

Next, we paddled beneath Baba Vida fortress (see also header photo📸 of article), which is the most famous sight of Vidin. We’ll hopefully visit it another day. From below, we couldn’t see much. There’s a gate through the fortress that leads to the city beach, which was quite well-visited this morning by swimmers and fishermen. A woman walked out of the gate while I was filming and waved at us. So far, Vidin and Bulgaria give us incredibly good vibes.

Ahead of us was a tall concrete pillar with a statue on top. Communist, for sure. Turns out it’s the Freedom Monument of Vidin. There are tall mountains in the background, which might be the middle range of the Balkan Mountains, or perhaps even the Serbo-Bulgarian border ridge, including peak Midžor. At the Freedom Monument were two 791-kilometers-to-the-Black-Sea signs, one of them old and rusty, and another new and also a bit larger. At kilometer 718, we will have paddled halfway of what was left this year. This makes me feel like the kilometers are flying by, though they’re not.

A few minutes later, we spotted a tricolor cat on the shores of Bulgaria. We were first paddling a little closer just to say hi and express how much we love her. When she didn’t immediately run off, I thought it was a good idea to land and see if I can pet my first Bulgarian cat before going through immigration. But then we got too close in our scary-looking mode of transport and she ran off. It happened below the old double stone walls of the old core of Vidin called Kaleto below some restaurants. Thankfully, this wasn’t the last time we saw her.

After this short (failed) side quest, it was time to arrive in Vidin. We were entering the concrete embankment area after the statue of the swimmer. We first had to paddle around some jetties with moored boats. The current picked up strongly, which wasn’t exactly what we needed as we searched for landing spots.

There was one area below the riverside promenade with a Bulgarian and EU flag. It would have been possible to land there easily. Steps out of the water and then stairs up the embankment. But this was probably not the place where we can go through Bulgarian immigration in Vidin.

We decided to continue to the big flight of stairs we’d identified on satellite view and drone view the day before:

But the reality didn’t really seem to match what our research had told us. There were no concrete stones at the base because, well, the water levels were high. The concrete embankment wasn’t a pleasant slope, but rather steep and with these odd concrete blocks in them. I don’t know if it would be possible to just land anywhere here. And I’m wondering what happens to the people that fall in the river each year. Where can they climb out?

Ahead of us was a Ukrainian cruise ship called Fidelio moored to one of the landing ships. As we paddled by, there was an announcement in English to warn the guests to not use the sundeck because it will be excessively hot today. Thankfully, that’s not now and won’t be our problem.

Behind the Fidelio was one more landing ship for cruise ships right at Rechna Gara river port and restaurant, but the stairs we were looking for weren’t here. Had we missed them? Shit.

We paddled behind the last mooring ship. I tried to see if I could think of a way up, but it’s too high and that’s probably one sure way to get the immigration people pissed. Behind it, there were some skinny stairs going all the way from the water up the embankment. It was so high that we couldn’t see what laid beyond the tree. Perhaps this is a way up. At least it’s worthy of exploration before we have to paddle back upstream against the current.

We slowly approached. Once close, we turned Zucchini around and slowly backed up to the stairs. Arrival time: 9:24.

Jonas held on first and got out, then moved me in Zucchini to a spot where I could hold on. He walked up the stairs to do a reality check. It was good once we’d be up there, but the getting up there was tricky.

Jonas took the dry bags and CabinMAX out of Zucchini. At some point, he decided everything loose had to go and be carried up the embankment first. Once I was out of the boat, I managed to hand over my dry bag and hiking stick. While Jonas cleared the path and put everything high up on the grass, I pulled up Zucchini onto the stairs and in a diagonal angle. These were some steep stairs.

When Jonas was ready, he came down and lifted the front of the boat. I managed to get down and get the back. Two more obstacles to go. The first was the tall concrete ledge that existed for some reason. Getting Zucchini on top of that wasn’t such an issue, but the climb was almost too tall for me without help. I managed to get up and slide onto my life jacket to get up. And then I made the mistake of looking down. That would be quite a drop on very hard concrete.

The last obstacle was getting Zucchini through the bush that had decided to grown in this path. It wasn’t spikey, thankfully. We plowed our inflated boat through there and then had to do a weird maneuver to get her onto the grass on the upper part of the embankment.

But here we were with all our stuff on dry land. It was time to dry Zucchini really well and change clothes. And checking into Bulgaria legally, of course.

Bulgarian Water Police: Welcome to Vidin!

After putting on his land shoes, Jonas walked away to figure out if we’re anywhere near the right spot to check into Bulgaria. Walking parallel to the river, he noticed we were in a completely fenced-in area. The building next to us looked seemingly abandoned. He was already pretty sure that this isn’t the right place when he suddenly saw a guy around the corner who waved to him in a friendly manner and invited him into the building. The guy was chonky, had only a few teeth, and looked very happy. Perhaps a dockworker?

To Jonas’ surprise, it actually read “BORDER CROSSING POINT VIDIN – RECHNA GARA”

Inside, there were EU symbols and a plastic table and a few such chairs. The man invited Jonas to sit down, while he walked around the corner to get the actual policeman, who was also relatively chonky and balding. This man who was in charge wasn’t smiley, but relaxed.

Jonas told him that we’re in a kayak and that we’re two people. The policeman asked for our documents, followed by the dreaded question about our boat’s documents. Jonas said that we don’t have boat documents, and braced himself for another mantrum like on the Romanian side the day before. But the policeman just said “OK” and walked into his office with the passports. Jonas sent me some pictures of the inside.

About 10 minutes later, the policeman returned with the passports and a roughly-filled-out crew manifest, that was already stamped with the Bulgarian entry stamp with a ship on it. He still asked Jonas to sign the crew manifest and the policeman told Jonas that the crew manifest belongs to our boat and is for us to keep.

Jonas returned to Zucchini and me with papers in hand. There was a certain spring in his step that indicated a good mood.

“It’s done.”

I was happily surprised. Jonas recounted the story and I couldn’t really grasp how polar-opposite this experience with immigration had been. He showed me the CONTROL FORM FOR PLEASURE BOAT, which had “XXX” for our boat name, the date, the flag of our ship, our names, DOBs, passport numbers, and nationalities on the crew list. Since it’s only two names, he had scratched out the other 10 lines on the crew list so we can’t just add more names with pen and do some human trafficking of our own. Not that another human would fit in Zucchini.

The beautiful stamp and Jonas’ signature finished the paperwork. I love it.

Packing Up Zucchini + Meeting a Small Cat

Meanwhile, I’d put on my shoes, deflated Zucchini a bit, taken out the bottom air chamber, laid it all out to dry, and begun the packing. There were lots of people passing by, going upstairs to the restaurant. The barrier between inside Bulgaria and inside the immigration zone was a low fence I could totally climb over.

Jonas was only gone a short while and I didn’t manage to do much. I’d found a promising spot beneath the Rechna Gara restaurant/port facilities on a metal walkway that went all the way through. It had shadow for us while still a good view of Zucchini drying in the sun.

We sat down, ate our leftover pizza from the evening before and some chocolate. We were just chilling when suddenly a little tortoiseshell cat showed up. I grabbed the Felix cat snacks and walked towards her. To my surprise, she actually came over to us. At first, she just wanted pets and head rubs, not snacks. But she also wasn’t mad about the snacks. I think she was very young.

We hung out with her for a while until Zucchini was completely dry. We tried to give this little cat some water, but she wasn’t interested. When we packed up Zucchini, she dashed off.

Once we were ready to leave this area, we walked through the immigration station Jonas had gone through before. He greeted one of the people he met there and we went inside. Besides a big empty space, there were some table-tennis tables and offices with signs. We first tried the wrong door to leave, but eventually found an open one. No one bothered us or asked to see our papers. Welcome to Bulgaria!

It’s technically my third time in Bulgaria as I hitchhiked through the country twice in 2014. But I never spent a full night here. It’s Jonas’ first time here and already the third new country for him on the kayak trip this year.

First order of business, Jonas left me with the luggage in a shadowy spot while he went to get Bulgarian Lev from an ATM. As I was sitting there, I spotted a familiar silhouette. I said pspspsps and she eventually came over. This tortie hung out with me until Jonas returned, who was very happy to see her as well. While we enjoyed her company a bit more, she tried hunting a lizard.

Eventually, we had to walk to the Airbnb. It’s 1.2 kilometers from Rechna Gara. We took a break on a bench one time to relax those shoulder muscles. All this work for just 5.8-kilometers of kayaked river is of course a little silly, but I was really looking forward to staying in Vidin. When we continue kayaking on Saturday, we will launch from the city beach, which is a lot closer to our apartment and… much more friendly to put the boat in the water.

Through the park, we got a bit sweaty. The heat of the day was definitely becoming noticeable. There’s a heat wave warning for southern Romania, which basically applies to the other side of the river, too.

Once in our neighborhood, we couldn’t find the exact apartment. Jonas messaged our host, who showed up on his scooter a few minutes later and showed us around the place and gave us tips for our stay in Vidin.

Six Days in Vidin

This is how we spent our stay in Vidin.

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