Castles, and Statues, and stairs, Oh My!

Friday was our first official day “off” as a team. The kids at school had off, because their fall break was starting next week, so Melissa let us have the day to enjoy the city on a tour led by their friend Florin.

This is Tiffany, Florin, and I in front of the fountain outside of the mall.

 Let me tell you, there is nothing like seeing a city guided by someone who lives there. We had so much fun, and got to see so many cool things, so get ready for A LOT of pictures!

First we went to what they call the Bazaar. This place was very much like the markets I visited in Cambodia and the Dominican. There were booths everywhere, with a variety of goods…anything from headless fish in a bucket to tools, to clothes and shoes, to Persian rugs. It was a huge place!

No Smoking!

Walking down the steps into the first part of the market.

Addie and I in the Marriage Aisle. (We didn't pick to go there. Just so you know.) There were all kinds of shops with wedding dresses and tuxes, flowers, candles, anything you would need for your wedding.

A lot of time the headless fish would just be thrown in a bucket and placed at a stand that sold things like candy. We decided this would be a good place to play "One of These Things is not like the others..."

One of the nights that the 3 of us girls were bonding we got talking about random and silly things we are afraid. For Tiffany it was mannequins. We thought these ones were particularly creepy.

Walking through the streets of the Bazaar

From there we walked around the mall a little bit. In the market shop, we watched as a customer selected his live fish from the tank, the employee fished them out with the net, and still living, took them to back room and chopped off their heads. My expression must have been something, because Addie laughed at me. It was just an experience I wasn’t entirely prepared for. Although after seeing the pig’s feet for sale at the market in Oradea, I shouldn’t let these things surprise me.

Next, we hopped on the public bus (my first time taking the bus) to eat at…McDonalds. And then the real site-seeing began.

First we hit up an Orthodox Monastery built in the early 1500s. You can read about the architecture and history here: http://www.romanianmonasteries.org/bucovina/st-john-the-new  It was beautiful. There were people preforming religious duties, so we weren’t able to take many pictures inside the actual sanctuary, but even just the outside was very beautiful, as are all the Orthodox churches here. 

The entire main building was covered at one time in Fresco paintings. The remnants could still be seen in a lot of places.

Yes, we know we look like a girl band. No, we did not coordinate intentionally. We didn't realize we matched until after we got "home" that night and looked at the pictures. 

The roof of the main building was all beautiful tiles like this. 

After the Monastery we then took a very beautiful scenic path to our next destination. Nestled into the woods is a nice stone walking path that leads to an insane amount of steps, we lost count somewhere after 300. Which for me, wasn't that great because I didn't have my knee braced, and I didn't have my inhaler with me. But it was beautiful, so it made up for those minor technicalities. 

When we finally made it to the top, the first thing we saw was a giant statue stretching it’s way up to the sky. Florin explained that the statue was of one of the great “Bosses” [Kings] of Romania. Of course, I looked it up, and it is the statue of Stephen the Great, or Ștefan cel Mare in Romanian. Again, not to bore any of those who don't care about history and such, those who do can read about the statute here: http://www.romguide.net/Visit/The-Statue-of-Stefan-cel-Mare-from-Podul-Inalt_vtf7 For the rest of you, just continue to scroll down, look at the pictures, and then keep reading.

And then….get ready….

we saw the world’s largest traditional Easter egg. I don’t understand the purpose of this egg, but of course we got pictures with it, because when else are you ever going to get a picture with a giant egg, let alone the world’s largest…

This egg is 7.25 meters (23.8 feet) tall, 4.6 meters (15.9 feet) wide, and weighs 1.8 tons. That's one huge egg. The colors are traditional colors that hold the traditional meanings: red for the blood of Christ, black for eternity, and yellow for the light. If you are as intrigued by this egg as I am, you can read about it here: http://www.worldrecordacademy.com/biggest/largest_Painted_Easter_Egg-world_record_set_by_Suceava_city_90198.htm

From there, we saw the ruins of the Fortress of Suceava, or the Cetatea Suceava. We didn’t go down into them, but it was cool just to view it from afar. This fortress was first mentioned in the 1300s, but became a residential palace in the 1400s.  The original walls were 10 meters high and 2 meters thick, however new walls were added to the old, and in some places the walls became 4 meters thick! The walls were made in a circular fashion in order to better ward off attacks. This fortress withheld many attacks in the late 1400 and early 1500's, and finally fell due to treason in 1538.

There was a museum village right by the Fortress, so we headed there next. For any of you who are familiar with Old Bedford Village, it was along those lines. Because I love history, I enjoyed walking through and seeing all the different traditional houses that would have been found in various time periods across Romania. We took a bunch of pictures, but they won’t mean much to you all, so I will only put a few in this post, [so that those of you who don’t like history won’t be bored and stop reading. :)]

The stone streets through the village.

One of the parts of the flour mill.

A traditional room in one of the regions of Romania.

The Ironsmith's shop.

We all laughed because the doors were mostly very small. Addie and Tiffany and Florin had to duck a lot to get into the different buildings. I could mostly just walk right in, and when I did have to duck, it wasn't by much. 

The church roof

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The ornate decorations inside the church.

When we were done going through the village, it was time to go back down the 300+ steps, back through the woods, and into the city once again.

We still had time left before we were to meet Melissa and Bogdan for dinner, so Florin took us to the college at which he studied, and where he is now enrolled in his master’s program. It was really cool to walk around and see a beautiful college campus halfway around the world from where I attended school.

After that tour we just hung out with Florin and he told us stories of the camp that they work at over the summer (and told us that we should all come and help with camp) and showed us some pictures of the camp, and of Melissa and Bogdan’s wedding.

Then it was time to head to the restaurant. He hailed a taxi, we all piled in (my first ever ride in a taxi), and ended up at a beautiful restaurant called Latina. We shared a wonderful meal together (seriously, the steak that Addie and I ordered was the best I’ve ever had. I’ve always said that about my brother’s steak, so I don’t order steak at restaurants anymore, but sorry, Joe. This steak was amazing.) We all attempted to order in Romanian, which, I’m sure was hysterical for everyone else, but our waitress was patient with us and knew what we were trying to say.

Here we are in the back of the taxi!

We had such a full day of site-seeing and we were all very tired. Saturday was going to be a full day of ministry, followed by a long night on the train to Ploiesti. But more about that in the next blog.

Excited to now be able to brag about seeing the world’s largest traditional Easter Egg,

Ali