The young people who sold their wedding rings to fulfill their dream in the Delta

"I arrived by ship at Periprava - me, my husband, a wheelbarrow with an electric heater inside and a dog"

Once upon a time there was a corporate couple who, after years of work and money put aside, saw their dream come true and lived to a ripe old age managing a guesthouse in a wonderful place. It seems like a classic story that we read almost weekly in online newspapers and that sometimes makes us think. What if that couple is not made up of wealthy corporate people, but simple people who wanted to see their dream come true and went through such hard times that they even had to sell their wedding rings? This is the story of the Cruceanu family that I invite you to discover in the following lines. 

"I've only been to Periprava once before, during my student days, but it seemed to us that this is where Delta is defined"

Morena and Ion Cruceanu are from Constanța , they are 40 years old and have worked in sales for many years, but somehow the tourism sector kept winking at them. They decided to sublet a guesthouse in Mamaia Nord, but they realized that mass tourism was not for them. “We really liked the field, but we wanted something else. We had a different vision of what tourism means,” Morena recalls. After long discussions about a possible investment, they chose to buy a plot of land with two houses in the town of Periprava. “We had only been to Periprava once before, during our student days, but it seemed to us that this was the definition of the Delta. You have the Letea Forest, canals rich in fish, Omer's dunes, Lake Nebunul, and the town of Sulina is only 40 km away,” Morena says.

Reality hit them, however, when they arrived at the land they were going to purchase. The lot was located on two sand dunes, the houses were practically destroyed, half the fence was missing, and the only vine stumps that had withstood the drought looked like Christmas trees, only instead of baubles, plastic bags were hanging. “But, to us, it seemed fantastic! Two traditional houses overlooking the Letea Forest and the Nebunul Lake… and a lot of sand ,” Morena says with a laugh.

"I arrived by ship at Periprava - me, my husband, a wheelbarrow with an electric heater inside and a dog"

Two years ago, on February 28, the couple arrived in the town where they hoped to see their dream come true. “We arrived by boat in Periprava - me, my husband, a wheelbarrow with an electric heater inside and a dog. It was night, the jackals were howling, and we were laughing because we had something to show the tourists,” Morena says. The couple admit that the first night in Periprava, spent right in one of the houses they bought, reminded them of their childhood and gave them the strength to continue a project that, in fact, not even they knew if they would see it through to the end. “We decided to renovate and attract a different type of tourist than the one in Mamaia. We wanted to integrate a place in nature that those who want peace and freedom would seek out.”

While working, daily, on the renovation of the houses, the two husbands realized that in fact the idyllic area of ​​Periprava, which they intended to promote to attract tourists, was turning into a big garbage can. All over the village pens were built for the recycling of plastic materials, a project financed by the European Union, but no one collected the waste. 

“The pens were emptied halfway through the year, and the garbage was buried in the Danube Delta right on the edge of the Letea Forest. We started a real fight with the local authorities, because the situation didn't smell good at all. Literally! ”, Morena says, nervously. And the fight with the local authorities was also fought in the evening by the light of the only two light bulbs that provided light in the village. After several live broadcasts on social networks, plus threats that the images would reach television, the miracle happened. The garbage disappeared!

The couple even sold their wedding rings to continue renovating their homes 

While fighting with local authorities to clean up the village visited by tens of thousands of tourists, the couple, helped by Ion's father, saw their traditional houses begin to take shape. They brought the building materials by barge from Tulcea, and the costs were beyond expectations. In a financial impasse, the couple made a radical decision. "I sold all the gold I had, even the wedding rings, plus a piece of land outside the city that I owned. The entire investment amounts to 15.000 euros ," says Morena. This calculation does not include labor because everything they did on the land and in the houses was their own. Ion and his father worked on the construction, and Morena decorated the houses. This is the result!

"My advice for those who want to embark on such an adventure is to do it! The results are extraordinary, and the fact that you help and promote a community on the verge of extinction helps you move forward by becoming an example for them ," believes Morena.

If you liked what the two husbands achieved and want to spend a few days in Periprava, at Casa Pesoka, you have the link for accommodation HERE.