“Don’t steal and don’t drown!”

When we were kids we had two rules: don’t steal! and don’t drown!
Otherwise you could do anything. And I would sit with a group of kids there on the banks of the Danube, we would fish and find a board somewhere, we would put it on two bricks, we would take salt from home and a loaf of bread and we would make ourselves a brine there that was better than the food at home.
We would play the guitar, we would sit and tell stories until late at night, we would bathe, we would get out of the water… we would sit in the water for hours, and our skin would wrinkle in the summer. And in the winter, during the winter holidays, the ponds behind would freeze and we would go skating and play hockey until dark. We would still play hockey by moonlight. I mean, it was a really carefree childhood and I don’t think anyone from Sulina ever felt hungry. Because if you didn’t have anything to eat, you would go with your fishing rod and catch two fish and solve your problem.