We paddled from Bulgaria to Romania on the Danube on Tuesday, the 9th of July 2024. We started our morning in Silistra on the Bulgarian side where we had checked out of the country the day before. Then we had to cross the Danube to Chiciu in Romania to legally check in per kayak there. This happened a few months before both Bulgaria and Romania fully joined Schengen. But our destination of the day was a small village called Ostrov a little further downstream.

Silistra Immigration by Kayak

Two days before kayaking back into Romania, we tried to find out where to check out of Bulgaria at Silistra’s water police. Jonas found the address on the Via Donau document (pages 181–2), mostly intrigued by the specific mention of pleasure boats:

“East Point” with 1 embankment for passenger ships, small vessels and pleasure boats

We narrowed it down to this address (44.12410259094308, 27.266335962807325) near the port, where Google Streetview also showed one of those electronic signs that gives information about the rising/falling water levels of the Danube.

On Sunday the 7th of July, we did an evening walk to this location, just to check if it’s the right spot. We found a border police boat at the jetty where a man popped out. Jonas walked down to ask him about kayaking to Romania and border. He pointed at the building next door and said it was already closed. Since he didn’t see if we’d understood, he came up and walked with us to the building, confirmed that it was closed, and told us to come back tomorrow between 8:00 and 19:00. We thanked him and would try again the next day.

On Monday the 8th of July, we walked there via the shorter route via the embankment between Hotel Drustar and the Bulgarian water police. Jonas had our passports and our crew manifest from Vidin. We walked into the correct building and tried to find anyone that works there. We had to go all the way to the back and knock on an office until we heard a “Da!”.

Jonas told him what we were here for, and this guy who spoke very good English said we can do the formalities here tomorrow. Jonas asked if it’s possible to do it today. After a think, he said yes and called his colleagues while looking at our documents. It took 10 minutes for his colleagues to show up: one man who was definitely juggling too many things and spoke some German and a rather silent woman who would make sure all boxes got checked.

We were sent in and out of the office a bunch of times, each time answering questions, such as our boat name Z-U-C-C-H-I-N-I and where we’re going. Sfântu Gheorghe didn’t really ring a bell, so it all gets rounded down to Constanța.

After 20 minutes, we received our documents back, but there was no stamp on the crew manifest. Jonas bravely went back in to ask for one, and he got something stamped with a written date and signature. Upon closer inspection, it’s a customs stamp instead of an immigration stamp, which is still better than nothing.

On the way out, we asked them where we need to go on the Romanian side. They pointed at the very large white building across the river in Chiciu. We thanked them and left.

Leaving Bulgaria for Romania

The morning of departure the following day, we weren’t much in a hurry. We ate breakfast downstairs in Hotel Drustar and took our time. This was the earliest we ever made it to breakfast and the composition of people was very different. I recognized some faces from the work force that’s renovating the restaurant of this hotel.

At breakfast, we also heard two guys speaking German. I’m nosy, so I asked Jonas what they were talking about. He had been listening and said they were also in a boat, but probably a big cargo ship or something like that.

Once we were done with breakfast, we returned to our room, enjoyed the wonderful balcony view one last time, brushed teeth and finished packing. Jonas brought the piece of paper that our room cards came in, in case people at the launch spot would try to prevent us from setting up our kayak. We took the elevator downstairs and Jonas checked us out. It was a quick thing. No one checked in the room if we’d taken anything from the minibar or had used the 3.50 BGN apiece coffee capsules. A cargo ship carrying the wing of a windmill cruised upstream.

Once outside, we walked to our landing/launching spot and were happy to see that the chain across had been taken down. One obstacle less. Jonas hopped the fence and I handed him the heavy luggage to put on the other side. Then I hopped with slightly less elegance and we began setting up shop.

There was a cat I tried to befriend and feed, but she ran away at some point. There were also some people on the far end of this mini marina that had been fishing since morning. We pumped up Zucchini in our own time and prepared to launch, when I saw that there was a lot of broken glass where we wanted to launch from. Shit. What an asshole thing to do. Moreover, the water levels had dropped by about 30 centimeters since arriving in Silistra.

We managed to avoid putting Zucchini in the glass or stepping in it ourselves. We used the concrete ledge that was in 20 centimeters of water to load up our kayak. And then it was time to go.

At 9:55, we began crossing the Danube from Bulgaria to Romania.

Romanian Immigration in Chiciu/Călărași

With the headwind, it wasn’t difficult to cross the Danube without the current dragging us too far downstream. The river is about 600 meters wide in this area, which we find quite narrow these days. We started crossing the river perpendicular to the shore and adapted in a downstream direction as we made more progress.

The truck ferry from Silistra to Chiciu also crossed, and we followed it after they overtook us. As we started slowly turning our bow downstream, we could look back at Silistra and our starting point.

Before getting closer to the Romanian shore we had an overview of the Danube downstream from here. Most of the river branches (except the Borcea Branch) were visible from here. It’s a little look into our future and the paths not chosen.

The timing for this crossing could not have been better, as the ferry was just unloading trucks on land when we passed behind it again, ready to land. No cargo ships had been in our way either.

This area of Călărași (Muntenia County) is called Chiciu, which means “crossing place” in Slavonic. There are multiple ferries crossing the Danube here between Bulgaria on the right bank and Romania on the left, and Romania’s left bank of the Danube and Romania’s right bank of the Danube. It’s difficult to describe how exactly the border goes, so here’s a map:

After the first ferry landing spot in Chiciu, we paddled past a moored dredging/logs ship and landed at the first landing spot I’d flagged at 10:09. The Bulgarian water police told us to head to the big white building across the river, so Jonas got out and walked with our passports to the big white building. I stayed with Zucchini and tried to balance since the mud was treacherously slippery and suctiony here while another ferry in Chiciu started crossing to its Ostrov landing spot.

Jonas walked on a path parallel to the river with no opportunity to get up to the building. Eventually, he reached a small building with a guy sitting out front. He asked him for the border police by kayak. This man told Jonas to go a few hundred meters downstream to a police pontoon. Jonas saw a nice landing spot there and decided to call me to ask if I could kayak Zucchini down to his position by myself instead of him walking all the way back.

I loaded up Zucchini and fixed Jonas’ paddle in a spot so it wouldn’t be in my way. I hopped into Jonas’ seat and began kayaking downstream to an unknown location. It’s a bit weird to sit in another place in the boat than I’m used to, but Jonas and I switched seats in Zucchini in 2024 before on the day from Grocka na Dunavu to Smederevo in Serbia. So it wasn’t too weird either.

Around another moored ship, I found Jonas on a jetty waving at me to come to him. As per my request, he took some photos and videos of me soloing Zucchini. Without a person sitting in the front, the bow of Zucchini sways quite a lot.

I landed there and got out of Zucchini, thinking this is the place where we’ll go through immigration, but Jonas just freed his paddle and hopped into his seat and said we had to paddle a bit more. Together, we slowly paddled to the final police pontoon, which you’ll find here (44.13315, 27.27401). We both got out, but I stayed with Zucchini in a shadowy spot while Jonas walked up and immediately got barked at by a dog on the police pontoon.

Jonas courageously approached the unchained police dog and the pontoon and yelled “Bună ziua!” in that direction. A policeman came out and said yes, this is the place and invited Jonas on the pontoon. The second this man acknowledged Jonas as being here on legitimate business, the dog stopped barking.

On the pontoon, they pointed Jonas to a chair where he could wait. They said it would take about 10 minutes. It wasn’t 10 minutes.

Eventually, another policeman with a badge came and reconfirmed that we just came from Bulgaria, want to enter Romania, and that we’re two people. He directly asked if this is our first time entering Romania. Jonas truthfully answered that we entered before, but by ferry from Golubac to Moldova Veche. He asked where the other person and the kayak is, and Jonas pointed him in my direction. Badge man walked to my location quickly. He then said OK to Jonas and left with our passports and our Bulgarian crew manifest in the direction of the Călăraşi Business Center building.

Jonas now waited with me and we moved Zucchini a bit more into the shadow and stumbled upon a truly big (thick) frog. Badge man returned to us at least two more times to reconfirm what happened in Calafat, Romania, where we checked out. Entering Romania by land border and exiting by water border wasn’t very cool. We told him that we talked to the police in Calafat, who just said we could just go and didn’t give us a paper. We politely left out the part where the policeman in Calafat was an angry child.

He asked, so we shared details like the dates we entered and left Romania. He asked if it was the 8th of June or the 8th of July when we left Calafat—today is the 9th of July and there’s 414 kilometers between Calafat and Chiciu… I had to remind myself this man could stop our trip if offended, so I kept a straight face. But this man was very friendly and understanding and never accused us of breaking any rules. He just wanted clarification after clarification to get the story as straight as possible.

Before we got our passports back, two guys in a kayak with a jerry-rigged outrigger with a small motorboat engine appeared. I recognized them from breakfast at Hotel Drustar, the two German-speaking guys. They recognized us as well. Jonas offered to help them land, but they just moored at another boat and walked via the other boat on land. These are only the second Danube travelers we met this year, after the German guy during mouse rescue from Lom to Oryahovo.

We had a chat with these two Austrian guys, who started this year’s trip after Đerdap I hydroelectric dam. With their fascinating setup, they can do 100 – 120 kilometers per day maximum. They said they’d like to go to the Black Sea, but even though they can do 80 kilometers in one day and there’s 375 kilometers left, they don’t have enough time. These guys also stay mostly in hotels and often for multiple days, just like us they’re not in a rush.

Somehow, they checked out at the land border in Silistra because they were (wrongfully) told that the Bulgarian water police is closed. They called us lucky for having exited Bulgaria like that.

The older guy said he’d one day like to do the whole Danube in a real kayak, “But then you need six weeks, which is crazy.” I asked where they put the boat at night, the young one said “We put it somewhere and hope for the best.” Now that’s crazy.

Badge man returned and gave us our passports, Bulgarian document, and new Romanian document back and said “Welcome to Romania!” He then started helping the Austrian dudes. He asked the Austrian dudes where they’re going next, which reminded him that he’d forgotten to ask us that. Badge man walked to Jonas, who looked so hurt as he had to reopen the dry bag with our passports he’d so carefully closed.

Badge man asked where we’re going next. I answered “Ostrov” and pointed across the river. But then he was like “Where are you really going?”

“Ostrov, Rasova, Cernavodă, Hârșova, Mărașu, Brăila, Galați, Isaccea, Sfântu Gheorghe…”

“Cernavodă” he replied. On the spot, he wrote this name on the brand new Romanian crew manifest under the box of “Next port of call”. He said that we should refer the water police in Cernavodă to this document when the time comes. And mention it was all drawn up in Chiciu/Călărași.

And now we were free to go at 11:36. The whole ordeal – including finding the correct place and paddling between them – took one hour and 27 minutes. Let’s hope that Bulgaria and Romania will soon be fully in Schengen, so that these border crossings will be as easy as going from Germany to Austria was back in 2019.

Borcea: the Branch Not Taken

Crossing from Chiciu to Ostrov Jianu Branch

So at 11:36, we awkwardly paddled out of the Chiciu water police zone. The Austrian’s outrigger-kayak setup made our exit a lot more narrow than when we arrived. Meanwhile, the wind had picked up drastically in the last hour. Thanks a lot, fellas.

We began crossing the Danube back to the right bank, aiming a little downstream of where the Ostrov–Chiciu ferry departs and arrives. There were some ships on the water, but none of them were headed our way.

Though our first order of business was crossing the Danube, we also had to find the gap that’s (hopefully) a quiet branch of the Danube to the town of Ostrov (Constanța County) between an unnamed island. This branch is called the Jianu Branch (Romanian: Braţul Jianu) on OSM. Could we have also crossed the Danube and entered the (confusingly-named) Ostrov Branch (Braţul Ostrovului)? Probably, but then we wouldn’t have protection from this hardcore wind.

The crossing was terrifying. The waves were high and splashed over the bow. It felt like it took forever. Being in the middle of the river with both shores far from sight, I was happy to wear a life jacket and to be in a rather populated area, where people in boats could help us if we capsized.

But this wasn’t the craziest weather we’ve been in. It didn’t beat the day from Belgrade to Grocka na Dunavu, and certainly not the attempted day from Ram to Golubac. In the end, it was fine. There was no real risk of capsizing.

And the whole crossing took only 16 minutes.

The current had dragged us quite downstream, so when approaching the shore of the rather bald river island, we had to correct for that again. Once we were intolerable wind and waves, we aimed Zucchini towards the entrance to the Jianu Branch. There were many birds such as black-headed gulls chilling on the beach or herons fishing in the water. And then we came to spoil their joy for a few minutes.

The entrance to the channel was very sandy and shallow and we actually ran aground once. Jonas put a leg out of the boat to take the pressure off and we were soon moving again. For the next shallow patches, I managed to successfully divert our course on time.

Kayaking the Calm Jianu Branch to Ostrov

It was noon when we were enjoying the quietude of the Jianu Branch on our way to Ostrov. We could hear ourselves again and didn’t need to shout. She meanders a bit and provided great wind protection from that terrible wind.

Most of the upstream area was very natural and wild—full of water plants, shallow areas, and sudden speedy bits. We only encountered one fisherman in that area, chilling in his boat. After that, we also saw piggies trotting around on the island to our right.

Just before we exited the Jianu Branch, things became more man-made. There was a farm on the island to our left. There were sheep, horses, and bathing cows. Jonas missed the exit from the Jianu Branch into the (second) Ostrov Branch because of this Old MacDonald situation. We were out a little before 12:30. If you’re taking the same route on the Danube as we do, I fully recommend this little side quest.

The last stretch to our hotel for one night in Ostrov was a little less than five kilometers. The headwind was back, but the waves weren’t intimidating. All we had to do is make sure we’re not too close to the inhabited shores of Ostrov so that we won’t trigger dogs that will chase us like they’d done on the day from Crivina to the Gogoșu Dam.

There were boys swimming in the river who shouted some (friendly-sounding) things at us. Abandoned boats rotting on the edge of the water, a horse pegged to the ground with a rope that’s never long enough. Hay bales, but not the Romanian-style hay stacks I remember from 2013. That will come later in the year, I think.

We knew it wasn’t far anymore. There were a few identifiable objects in the water ahead of us. One of those is probably the jetty we’d seen on Google Maps and satellite view when we booked Casa Antonia si Maria online.

Once we were closer and I used GPS for our final approach, I could tell Jonas with certainty that this was the jetty. The water plants around it were short and broken. We decided to try to land on the shore next to the jetty instead of at it. We gained speed to make it as far up the muddy embankment as possible.

Arrival time in Ostrov: 13:20.

One Night in Ostrov, Constanța, Romania

This is how we spent our one night in Ostrov, Constanța County, last first stop in Romania.

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