July 25 - Sailing finally...but where to?

So we sailed off with a massive delay - in addition to heading int the wrong direction. Our first destination was Constanze in Romania, as the fuel there was better/cheaper, not quite sure. It took several hours to reach there, and we were anchored about 10 km away from the shore, without the possibilty of deembarking. We had to wait for the tanker to show up, which pulled up only in the evening hours of the day.

This is the deck..

As we were in the territory of the EU, I could take care of some stuff on the internet, make calls - all of which is more expensive in Ukraine. There is some connection on the ship, but it only works in Odessa - and even that is flaky.

...the tanker ship in Constanze

I met a lot of fellow travellers, there is a German couple also on bike, next to a few Croatian and Ukrainan motorbikers, a young Polish couple doing business in Georgia, families with their children going on their vacation and a group of Ukrainain youngsters going on various adventures.We are what they call - appropriately - the 'passengers'. The others are the truck drivers - this, after all, is a huge ferry, capable of taking on even a train, which we currently are not carrying, instead we have 50+ trucks with their drivers. Some of these trucks are carrying live pigs, the poor animals are not too happy being locked up in the back, they are squeeking the entire time, by now, I've gotten used to their smell.

...poor pigs

The ferry itself is called 'Greifswald', made in Germany some 20 years ago, and is in a great shape. It is clean, my cabin is comfortable, having its own bathroom, with a shower and a toilette. Granted, if it were a second person here, it would be less comfy, but I must admit I was prepared for something worse. We get fed three times a day - and while it is not a gourmet restaurant, it is serving indeed very good food, and is included in the price of the ferry (which, by the way, was about Eur 100). Everyone has an allocated table and the food is already on the table, nicely set, at the times allocated to the respective meal (8:00, 13:00, 18:30). They even served Hungarian goulash, it was so good that I asked for an extra serving, which was provided with a smile.

...we carried some 50 trailers

The mood is very cosy and relaxed, there is not much to do other than to sleep, eat and chat with the others. They do have a TV or two in the lounge, but it is usually some Russian soap opera showing. We are quite massively delayed, I'll tell you in a second why, but I am actually enjoying the trip, it is becoming more like a vacation on a cruise ship. I borrowed a laptop from the Polish couple, so can jot down all my memories.

...our cook/barman/entertainer

So this tanker pulled up somewhere in the evening and we naively thought we'd be on the way soon afterwards. Well, no, for whatever reason, the fueling up took the entire night and was finished only around 7:00, so we sailed out to the sun to find the sea of green only an hour later.