Sulina is waiting for tourists with QR codes linking to an audio guide that provides the history of some heritage buildings in the city and information about the birds of the Danube Delta, narrated by high school students, and many of the settlements of Tulcea County, including those located in the Muntii Macinului National Park, preparing prestigious events and guests for them.
The audio guides were made under the 'Voice Your Place' project and present both buildings and facilities in the town of Sulina, as well as monuments of tourist interest in Curtea de Arges and Slatina, and people who cannot reach the area can access the website by the same name of the project to find out the history of the facilities documented by teenagers.
'I think it is very important to understand what architecture means, to discover how the town has evolved, why it is necessary to preserve heritage buildings and how we practically relate to our history. It was an educational program dedicated to teenagers from Sulina, who became narrators and storytellers of our town,' project coordinator Iarina Tava told AGERPRES.
With the beginning of the school holiday, Navrom Delta SA has switched to the summer schedule for transport to the areas surrounded by waters in the reserve, so that on the Tulcea - Sulina route there are two ships running daily, leaving Tulcea at 10:00hrs and 13:30hrs.
Visitors arriving on Saturday, June 27, in the easternmost town of the European Union, will be able to applaud the children who will participate in an eco parade, meant to mark the Danube Day and the day of the Romanian blouse ia.
'The parade will take place on Saturday, at 17:00hrs, on the Danube seafront, and we will mark the Day of Ia and the Day of the Danube, within the project 'Sulina - city in reserve'. We are preparing for August a summer school in Sulina and the Farul festival with films, the last one being mentioned to take place between August 20-24', said the founder of the Cu drag din Sulina association Roxana Saraev-Strede.
Danube Delta communities present themselves to voistors with local traditions, as was at the end of last week Bibaniada, the only female team perch fishing competition in Romania, an event organized by the Ivan Patzaichin Association - Mila 23. Ten crews participated in the competition, each consisting of a local and a tourist.
'The competition was quite difficult, because we had to find the fish and it was very difficult. Our secret? When fishing, you must always be calm, not get angry and the fish will surely come to the hook', said the winners of this year's edition of the contest, Adina Mihai and Liliana Ifrim Ivanov, members of the Frogs team.
In total, the ten teams captured almost eight kilos of perch, and, for some participants in the competition, the event was special due to the atmosphere created by the locals.
'It's the first time I'm participating. The songs of the ladies from the village of Mila 23 remained in my mind. All of them encouraged us, the non-locals, by singing Lipovan, and it was a very beautiful moment,' said Oana Ganea of Bucharest, a participant in the event.
Although there were not many perch caught, each catch was applauded by the participants.
'If we had gone to another area, maybe it would have been more. In the end, the idea of this contest is not related to the amount of fish caught, but to the joy of being together, of socialising', pointed out the host of the contest, Lucica Buhaev, in whose courtyard the award ceremony was organised.
The winners of Bibaniada were also awarded prize money.
'It is a contest that was started in 2019 by my father, and we want to keep it, because he always wanted the women of the Delta to be promoted somehow. At that time, we also had a contest with canoes for fishermen at the Rowmania festival and this idea, to make a contest for women, seemed fabulous to him. We are glad that we managed to keep the tradition and to mobilise with all our strength, together with 'You and Tulcea', to do this contest at least at last year's quotas,' said Chair of the Ivan Patzaichin - Mila 23 Association, Ivona Patzaichin-Rusu.
The award ceremony was rounded up with recitals of the ensembles from the Delta, film screenings and a fair with various products specific to the area, and the tourists continued to open the door of the Ivan Patzaichin Centre, to see the medals won over time by the most successful canoeist in the world and to admire the Danube Delta from the top floor of the museum.
'I liked this small village in the Delta, we also have small villages in Greece and the United States, and I liked the culture of the place, because it is a combination of Russians, Ukrainians, Romanians and I just love them. I liked the food, the landscapes, the water, I liked everything,' said one of the spectators performing with the folkloric ensembles of the Delta within Bibaniade, Francine Papadimitrakis.
In fact, the local tradition was in the foreground at the end of last week in the village of Greci, located in the dry area of Tulcea County, where the Pastasciutta Festival took place - a dish celebrated in the community of stone carvers of Italy, who arrived after 1878 in Dobrogea.
According to the deputy mayor of Greci commune, Constantin Titi, the event was all the more special, as it was honoured by the Italian ambassador to Romania, Laura Aghilarre, who on Sunday participated in a religious service officiated in the church of Saint Lucia.
At the Saturday evening show of this festival, both local ensembles and Monica Anghel participated, and on the same evening, at an accommodation unit in the small town of Enisala, located on the shore of the Razim-Sinoe lagoon complex, Nicu Alifantis performed.
Among the events that have become traditional where tourists are expected this summer season are the Interethnic Week, the International Independent Film Festival The Anonymous and the Ivan Patzaichin Fest.
At the end of July, Tulcea will also host the European Women's Basketball Championship - Under 18, Division B. For the development of this sports competition, the county councillors are to adopt, at the end of this week, a decision on the Institutional Cooperation Agreement between the Romanian Basketball Federation and Tulcea County, in order to organise the FIBA U18 Women's EuroBasket 2026 - Division B competition, Tulcea, Romania, July 31 - August 9, 2026, and cover the related expenses. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Luisiana Bigea; EN - writing by: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)
