14th july 2007 - orsova

early morning, the day after the concert. some old people, who grew up in the orsova that disappeared in 1972 beneath the flooding from the dam, say that they can't remember a time when as many people were voluntarily in one place, as at our concert. it was the way i had always dreamed: lots of people, a good atmosphere and a guest band without fear of contact and without neuroses about their profile. loredana groza was great; she took on the double role, namely of being both guest and host at the same time. it's "my" ship, but "her" audience. there was a real spark and everyone went home happy. even george from the municipality can sleep well again.

we will be casting off in half an hour and passing through the last lock on the danube. we are now at the actual iron gate, so called because it was deemed to be difficult to negotiate. studded with rock shelves and shallows, the danube loses 9 metres in depth between orsova and djerdap I (the name of the great dam). we're still in the upper part of the dam, the danube is like a great lake here, a bay surrounded by wooded mountains. it has been a little like being in a fjord, since we entered the stretch of the danube that passes through the carpathian mountains the day before yesterday. there's still half an hour until the lock. we are just going over the point where "ada kaleh" lay, the sunken "turkish island". the monarchy once ruled as far as here. and before then the turks, romans, dacians and greeks too ruled over this land.

the locks that we will be passing are not only the last before the black sea, but are also the highest of the whole danube. we will descend 2x 18 metres. then we will travel into the unending romanian-bulgarian expanse.

tomorrow, inshallah, we will be playing the first of 3 concerts in bulgaria. darinka will meet us, we're really looking forward to seeing her and the karandila band. although i also feel a bit queasy about having 15 extra people on board for 6 days. the ship isn't that big and boundaries are set for us in catering, as well as with water reserves.

djerdap II - from now on the danube is finally "free", it flows through land that becomes ever flatter, spreads out, luring people on account of its low water level with beaches and idylls that one knows from the romantic painters: cattle stand in the shallow waters of the bays, beyond are horses and carts with hay, on the shore are fishing boats ... the banks an infinity away from each other.

you can literally feel the relaxation that the river experiences. after the many dams and river regulations, the water has cast off all the constraints put upon it by not only the danube, but also its innumerable inflows and after the final major effort with which it broke through the carpathian belt, it is palpably happy with itself and the world.
this peace spreads to my own disposition.