18th May 2006 - bucharest

... and yesterday has become today.

where am I? a glance out of the window: hundreds of garden gnomes! ah yes, somewhere along Bucharest beach. the situation here was described to me thus: the bands that are known in the west are all Roma bands and they don't have much standing here. The "white" Romas don't listen to this music and where it is played (at events in the Roma community), there are then the "Real" stars who are like American rappers, driving through the countryside with tonnes of girls in stretch limousines, kilos of gold on their teeth, hands and chests. But these people in turn only play for Romas and are not interested in the white public. Self-preservation or chauvinism, or a little of both?

If I had had concerns at the beginning of the trip, it was that in total there could be too many, or even only Roma musicians - and now I'm in the situation to date of having none on board. That's not right either of course. But I can feel the rejection of the Romas everywhere. Nowhere does anyone want to see their country represented by these people.

We cross the Danube from north to south across to the right bank, on a tiny ferry along with seven other cars. Back in primitive times there was a ferry here to the Ukraine. Now only a man and his dog live in the little borderpost building.

We stand on the bank and look into the dark water. Flooding here too, whole forests are under water. The difference from the floods that I know from home: there you have infernal drumming and whooshing, springs spew out fountains, waterfalls appear, you hear the rolling and crashing of the stones in the river ... here everything is quiet, the water moves silently, but is no less destructive. THe only thing I can hear is the distant croaking of a huge orchestra of frogs from the Ukrainian bank opposite. I think the place is great, perhaps we will play here?