Watching the Purr-fect President on the Black Sea
It’s a rare moment when you get to be in the presence of a loyal, cuddly and honest president, but we hit the lottery with Domnule Presedinte in Constanta. DP, or Mr. President, was the housesitting gift we received from Annie, an American who had been running a non-profit to help Roma women and children for the past 20 years. She named him so because she wasn’t happy with either of the candidates running for US presidency when she got him in 2020 and said her cat could do a better job. Go figure. And in Annie and Domnule Presedinte, even from afar in Turkiye, we saw something quite special and worthy of flying out of our way just to watch him for a month. We arrived the week before Thanksgiving and couldn’t have felt more grateful for our new friends, which also included a view of the Black Sea out our window.
As the leaves floated down over the course of the month, the view got even better, although the sun showed itself less and less.
Welcome to the world’s best lap cat, who was renamed Sir Purrs-a-Lot.
A blissful place to cuddle up with tea or wine (depending on time of day), write and stare out the window at the sea.
The bathroom, which we happily shared with the president.
The kitchen was stocked with all the latest gadgets. Annie, our hostess, is American and provided us with not only the basics, but a fancy cappuccino maker, popcorn maker and other things you didn’t know were missing from your life. She also sweetly left us a bottle of wine, jar of Nutella and lots of food. What an amazing friend we’ve met as well!
And, Mandy had a great place to practice yoga while…
…others were a bit lazy.
Except when he was “hunting.”
When Mandy wasn’t helping, she was busy catching the sunrise over the water.
Our very cozy living room.
Cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Although we always carry our own spices, it’s fun to have access to others. And cooking is always extra fun with Google Camera to translate!
Our ‘lil Thanksgiving appetizer! And our ‘lil Thanksgiving meal.
Greg was so very excited to get Turkey this year. (I can’t type Turkey without autocorrect thinking it’s a country 🤣)
And to top off the feast, a bottle of Romanian red to match Mandy’s new hair. DP helped himself to our water. The cost for the wine was 20 Lei or $4. Tap water was drinkable, although quite hard if not filtered first. Our Turkey was 40 Lei, $8 for a 3 lb. breast. Prices were definitely more expensive in Romania than the last time we visited in 2019, and inflation is at 15%. Still, we were grateful our dollar was still strong.
Life on the Black Sea
Constanta is Romania’s major seaport on the Black Sea, which is also surrounded by Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine…some of our favorite countries we’ve ever visited. And it also made us nostalgic for when we crossed the sea on a trucker’s ferry from Ukraine to Georgia. We truly love this part of the world!
That said, when we got the opportunity to have four weeks of downtime housesitting next to the city’s most popular seaside promenade, we jumped at the chance. With its long sandy beaches and obvious waterfront tourist structure, in the summer Constanta is a hopping tourist town, but in November, it was simply tranquil. And although the weather wasn’t stellar, we still had a few days of sun to savor it in. But mostly, we just loved being by the water.
The most notable attraction, only a few paces from our apartment, is the art nouveau casino which was built in 1910. Once considered Romania’s very own Monte Carlo, it is currently undergoing major renovations and unfortunately inaccessible to enter.
According to romaniatourism.com, during the 1914 visit to Romania of the Russian Imperial Family, the casino was host to a royal gala. Despite the intended arrangement, Grand Duchess Olga refused the proposed marriage to Prince Carol II of Romania and the Russians sailed away. The Grand Duchess was later killed by the Bolsheviks along with the rest of her family.
We took many long walks on the surrounding beaches, which was about a 10-minute walk away.
And along the marina, which was lined with closed-up restaurants and kitties looking for morsels of food which we always tried to bring for them on our walks.
Also, this beach was paradise for a shell collector. We’d often see little kids with their buckets scoring loot.
Another shot of the marina topped with the iconic Carol I Romanian-style mosque looming in the background. The architecture is very bizarre in Constanta….Romanian, meets Ottoman meets Communist.
These concrete blocker barriers remind us of giant Jacks.
The promenade was mostly empty for us.
We can assure you, not every day was this sunny and bright! 🤣 The Genoese Lighthouse in front of our place was built in 1860 and according to romaniatourism.com, “soars” to a height of 26 feet. Aka, not that tall. Still, it was quite surreal to see a lighthouse out your window every morning.
You can’t see them but these seagull were circling dolphins.
Exploring Constanta
An ancient metropolis, Romania’s oldest continuously inhabited and the country’s largest seaport, as well as third biggest city, Constanta traces its history some 2,500 years. As mentioned, the long beaches and rolling promenade make it a tourist hotspot in the summer, but serene in winter. It hosts a sprinkling of bizarre architecture ranging from Romanian to Ottoman, to Art Nouveau to Modern to Communist. It has mosques, churches, and a sadly ruined synagogue, great supermarkets, a decent restaurant selection, and a smattering of Roman ruins as well.
A street scene going into the main square. We saw lots of heated dining bubbles here. Not sure if these have always been a thing or if they gained popularity with COVID. Regardless, what a great way to keep al fresco dining going all year.
The main square by day. Since most European cities have a grand church on their squares, we found it interesting that their archeological museum was the centerpiece. The building dates from 1911 and is quite beautiful. The majority of the artifacts are from the Greek and Roman civilizations so we decided to skip it.
This striking, yet dilapidated synagogue is in dire need of some TLC before it tumbles into shambles. It was built in 1910 in a Moorish revival style and fell into disuse as the number of Jews declined.
The Victory Monument in one of Constanta’s main parks couldn’t look more…Soviet. According to the website for audio travel guide Romania, this monument is “designed in the style specific to the socialist realism and glorifies the anti-fascist battle of the Romanian people. It was unveiled during the year 1968.” During Romania’s National Day on December 1, it was bedecked with wreaths and flowers.
Imagine buying land, starting to dig, and uncovering layers of Roman ruins. If this happens in Romania, oh well. Gotta stop your digging pronto!
One of the major avenues in the city alongside the sea.
More ruins. Found in the front lawn of this church. Well, at least they’ll always be lots of places to hide Easter eggs 🤣
Ottoman meets Moorish can be found in the Folk Art Museum.
Time to go to church in Romania! Unless you have a disability. Then, not sure if there’s a ramp for you 🙁
This former hotel on the seaside near our place called Hotel Palace appears that it used to be quite opulent. Sadly it’s gone to complete disrepair. We saw this a lot in Constanta 😕
The first and only eye-catching street art we saw in the city.
A park that showcases lots of stubs of balustrades and columns from Constanta’s Roman and Greek past. After all our time in Turkiye, our privileged asses we weren’t overly excited.
Carol I Mosque
The unmissable Carol I Mosque, built in 1910, is a Constanta landmark that continues to exhibit the Turkish role in the region. However, we thought it was the most Romanian-esque mosque you could ask for featuring a 50-meter-high (160 ft.) climbable minaret tower with expansive views of the surrounding area including the Black Sea. It was a bit ominous looming over the city at night, the turret almost resembling an evil tower (where undoubtedly a princess was being held captive.) It was the first minaret tower we’ve ever been able to climb and cost 6 Leu or about $1.25.
Catching the sunset. The building at left in this photo is quite beautiful although in dire need of some love. The front facade of “Casa cu Lei” (House of Lions) has two Greek columns on each side of the entrance with 4 lions on top of them.
The view of the main square. We were a bit disappointed the Christmas Market didn’t take place there because it’s only a few blocks from our place.
Checking out the sky view of the world’s largest inland body of water, the Black Sea, which evidently at one time was actually turquoise. Now, the lower levels of the sea are shockingly biologically dead due to a lack of oxygen.
The main square and the marina.
Gazing at the crescent moon mosque dome from the minaret. Initially, the top of the minaret had a crown of 50 electric lamps to illuminate the tower on the Ramadan holidays. Now it’s no longer publicly used, including for the Call to Prayer.
Less ominous by day.
Celebrating Romanian National Day
Joining in the Romanian National Day celebrations on December 1st, which marks the country’s unification in 1918. It was then that Romania – made of Moldova and Wallachia at the time – was united with Transylvania, Crisana, Banat and the Maramures area.
The primary colors symbolize those 3 Romanian provinces – Wallachia (yellow), Moldavia (red), and Transylvania (blue).
As we stood there, the bitterly cold northerly wind was whipping down from Ukraine. It was hard not to think of so many of them needlessly suffering without heat this year. Fortunately, many countries are providing aid to help, although undoubtedly not enough. But, it’s also nice to see several military forces represented at the national day, including our own.… 🇷🇴 🇺🇸 🇺🇦
Date Night at the Constanta Opera & Christmas Market
Now that we’re slow traveling for a bit, we’ve reinvigorated date night! Since we’d never been together and Mandy had it on her 60 by 60 List, on Sunday we went to see our first opera for $5.50 each (!) Afterward, we toasted our mittens with a our first piping cup of mulled wine at the Christmas market! ‘Tis the season!!
The opera we saw, Tosca, was sung in Italian and subtitled in Romanian. In short, other than the Wikipedia synopsis we read beforehand, we had no idea what the hell was going on. But isn’t this normal with opera anyways? 🤣
The performance, from what we saw and understood, seemed great 👍🏻😂
The opera house wasn’t quite as immaculate as we were expecting after our venture to the opera and ballet house in Ukraine. In fact, it was a bit…uh…shabby chic?
The stairs leading up the the balcony seats. No, our $5.50 did not buy us orchestra level… 😂
The outside of the opera and ballet house named after Oleg Danovski. Turns out, we actually lived in the same building that the famous ballet dancer resided!
The Christmas market of Constanta of course had traditional Romanian foods for sale! That basically means meat, and anything jarred or pickled! To be honest, we were quite grateful we had a housesit and were doing our own cooking. The Romanian food that we experienced during our visit here in 2018 wasn’t exactly to die for. Except the pizza. They do that REALLY well 🤣
Walking home through the main square. We had yet to figure out why the Christmas market was not located here. It took us five days to find it. It seemed like a perfectly cozy spot for a vin fiert (mulled wine) stand!
Instead we holed ourselves in the most jolly, jingle bar we could find. Every surface was covered in suspicious elves, undoubtedly taking notes about how many drinks you’ve consumed.
To Mandy’s trained holiday decorating eye, Constanta seemed a bit un-detail-oriented when it came to their decor. For example, this giant lit sign indicating “202.” Of course, when you get closer, you’ll also notice a disproportionate and sad unlit “3.” 
Hmmm. Wonder who Santa’s chair is sponsored by?
Life in Constanta
Although we spent a month touring Romania in 2018, this time was quite different. This is not only because we were staying in one place, but it also didn’t feel overtly…Romanian? 🤔
Perhaps this is because we used the opportunity to catch up on life. For example, Mandy took care of some routine maintenance by getting a Holter Monitor. The cost was $42 which included the 24-hour monitor and a 30-minute consultation.
We got a lot of delicious fish at the supermarket, but this was just crap (actually carp spread, but we thought it was crab!!) As for Romanian in general, it has similarities and cadence of Italian with some bits of Spanish and French mixed in. We got quite excited when we understood anything…which wasn’t much although numbers were a possibility thanks to Spanish. Supposedly it evolved from “Vulgar Latin”…same as Portuguese.
An American cafe featured burgers, quesadillas, hot dogs, and scarily….pumpkin spice lattes.
A cozy little wine bar.
We’ve never in our travels seen a bio/special foods section quite like this one in a regular grocery store! The selection of non-dairy milks alone was insane. The costs have increased since we were in Romania in 2018 and groceries seem surprisingly similar to Portugal…not super cheap. We spent about $90 every two weeks. And no we didn’t shop exclusively at the fancy store 🤣
We also had dental checkups and cleanings while here, which cost $30/each. There was a nice bowl of candy for you to munch on after as well 🤣🤔
🤣 Look familiar?!
And the cheese was so good they had to lock it up 🤣 First time seeing security cages for cheese….seriously.
With the cheese and the dream kitty, by the end, Mandy had decided she wasn’t leaving. Eventually she did, but not without some major crocodile tears.
