Useful Informations About Merigar East, 23 August Village and the Seaside

The Gar

Merigar East is situated between the village 23 August (3km) and the Black Sea coast (800m), in the middle of the fields, where there are no buildings at all, it is only open space! The Gar is situated between two seaside resorts (Costinesti and Olimp, 3 km far each). There are 2 beaches close to the Gar: the bigger one, with few restaurants serving Romanian traditional cuisine and local fish specialties and the smaller one, along the little fishermen’s village and beautiful cliff, almost wild, used mainly by local people and…

Dzogchen practitioners. During the retreat we will provide an outdoor kitchen in the Gar (for campingers) and will offer the opportunity of buying simple but tasty meals prepared by our kitchen team. More details about the eating in the Gar later.

23 August village

The village is situated on the main road (Constanta – Mangalia). Even if it is located on the seashore it is not a typical seaside resort. People are very friendly, open and hospitable in a typical, Romanian manner. You can do your basic shopping in a couple of groceries (one of them is 24h open!) There is also post office (9am – 5pm), police station, one cash machine, 2 bus stops, few local bars and very well stocked pharmacy (7am – 9pm). There are no restaurants at all in the village!

The seaside’s highlights

Between Constanta and the Bulgarian border, there are many very popular summer holiday resorts. Merigar East is situated between 2 such ones: Costinesti and Olimp. In all those places you can find nice beaches with fine sand and small shells. The seaside resorts offer a great variety of restaurants, coffees, fast foods, terraces, window bakeries, fruit sellers and food stores.

Summer weather is very hot and dry (average temperature for July and August is 25°C), also water in the Black Sea is quite warm! Holiday resorts offer everything one needs for a good rest: hotels with different standards (from ** till *****), restaurants, bars, night clubs and pubs on the beach, discotheques as well as all kind of touristic services: boat, motor boat or yacht trips, parachuting, helicopter flights and daily excursions among the Romanian and Bulgarian coast.

Each resort has its own particular tourist frequenter, for instance in Costinesti you will find mainly teenagers, in Olimp, Neptun or Saturn – the whole families making vacation and in legendary Vama Veche, you meet all globetrotters of all nations having fun since early morning till…early morning! Mamaia resort offers summer fun for those, who don’t want to leave the city and have all summer seaside highlights on the spot: aquapark, boutiques and shopping malls, casinos and night life.

Few kilometers far from Merigar East there is a worldwide famous lake called Techirghiol, much more salty than the Black Sea and containing a special mineralized mud used for many rheumatic treatments. Also in Mangalia and many other holiday resorts in the neighborhood, you can find various sanatoriums, spa, treatment and massage centers.

Money

Local currency is RON (1 RON= 10 000 [old] Lei). The actual exchange rate is 1€ = 4.1 RON. In all holidays centers and small towns around (the closest is Mangalia – 10km) there are several exchange offices, banks and cash machines. In the village 23 August there is only one cash machine, but neither bank nor exchange office.

Travelling

Buses On the national road which links Constanta and Mangalia several buses and microbuses are passing every 10 minutes. There are also many bus shuttles between the seaside resorts. The Gar is 3 km from the village 23 August, on this distance there is no public transport; it takes aprox. 40 minutes to walk there.

Trains

Between Constanta and Mangalia, there is a local train. In the summertime, there are 3 trains a day. Near the Gar is a train station called Halta Pescarus, it takes 10 minutes to walk to the Gar from there. Click www.cfr.ro for the timetable of the Romanian railways.

Taxi

In all touristic places you will find a lot of taxi drivers ready to do service night and day! Remember: ask the price before you enter and pay at the end of the ride! Bargain skills are always welcomed!

Internet

The internet connection in the Gar is free and very good.  

Please, be aware of that and don’t use internet during the webcast because it may disturb the webcast team and influence broadcasting of the live stream! However, every day after the teaching sessions, everybody will have the opportunity for public use of the internet. Any questions you may have, please direct them to us: office(at)dzogchen.ro .