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This is a map that shows
where we traveled in Moldova and Romania. In Romania we spent our
entire time in Transylvania, home of Dracula. It is in the beautiful
Carpathian Mountains. Romania is more up to date than Moldova, and
richer. Still, things were much cheaper than you see elsewhere in
Europe. The trip started in Chisinau (Keeshnow), Moldova, moved
through Bucharest, Romania to Brasov (Brashoff), where we spent
three nights; Harman, a small Saxon village where we spent one
night; and Sighisoara (Sigishwora), two nights. Then we returned via
the same route, to Chisinau, for a week in Moldova which included a
quick one-nighter to Nathaniel's site of Ocnita (Oknitza). |
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This is the Chisinau train
station. We are about to board for the 12 hour overnight trip
Bucharest. It is always nice to travel with pretty girls. |
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The most interesting
thing about the trip was the stop to change out the train's
undercarriage. Romania has different gauge rails than Moldova (silly
Europeans are always thinking about invasion) and thus the wheels
must be switched. This is a fuzzy shot of the apparatus that lifts
three cars at a time so the Moldovan undercarriage can be rolled out
and the Romanian can be rolled in. The whole thing took about four
hours. That's why it takes 12 hours to get to Bucharest. |
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We traveled Moldovan 1st
Class. That entitled us to a sleeping cabin for four. There is heat,
but no air-conditioning. Therefore, it was a bit warm in June/July.
However, Nathaniel had done this before and knew how to beat the
heat. We simply had to take off our shirts. Not everyone did.
Nathaniel was amazing. He pitched right in and made up our beds and
otherwise got the cabin ready for the trip. In the middle of the
night we were rousted for customs, but they only checked Nathaniel
(young male profile we suspect) and since he spoke Romanian he had
no trouble. It is GREAT traveling with a translator.
When we got off the train in
Bucharest we were starving and rushed to McDonalds to get some food.
They do not have Quarter Pounders (Metric System), they have the
same thing, but you have to figure out what they call it. They do
take your order entirely in English, no matter how much Romanian you
speak. Cheeseburger in any language is still cheeseburger.
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We arrived in Brasov in
the late morning and were able to get to the right section (Old
Town) but not good enough to find the right bus to our prospective
abode. We walked all over Old Town, seemingly mostly uphill, and
finally stumbled on the bus at the bottom of the hill. Cindy wasn't
sure she could do much more of the suitcase pulling hike, but we
finally got to the Anna Brasov hotel where these cute chalets
awaited us. |
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Actually, we had to await
the chalets for awhile until some late arising young Britons. While
we waited the owner gave us some incredibly strong liquor to tide us
over. We (I) drank it gamely at this patio table and the wait was
soon over. The owner spoke several languages-German, Russian, etc,
but not English. However, he was delighted that Nathaniel spoke
Romanian and they carried on an extensive conversation. |
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Here is Casey during her
nap that afternoon. Not bad for a TOTAL of about 30 bucks (American)
a night. We thoroughly enjoyed staying at this place. The bathroom
was shared, but very clean and nice. There was also a little dining
room and kitchen behind these rooms where residents fixed breakfast,
etc. Quite nice. |
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We eventually descended
the hill from our hotel to the center of Old Town, the Piazza. It
was beautiful. They were getting ready for Brasov Days, apparently
the only time in the entire year the native Romanians (peasants)
were allowed inside the Saxon fortress. The Saxons were invited to
settle in the area to fight off the Turks and various other
invaders. They built walled cities and fortified churches (Lutheran)
all over the place and about 190,000 native German speaking Saxons
emigrated out of this area in the 1990s, to Germany, after the
reunification of Germany. |
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While we were in Brasov
we took a private tour, by car, of some surrounding places. The
first was the Saxon fortress of Rasnov. It perches on top of a
substantial hill where it affords this view of the village it
protects. It was neat wondering around the restored fortress. It has
been used as a hotel and other things in this century. Currently you
can rent the whole thing for a convention. Who knew? |
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This is a lovely Orthodox
church we visited. It is associated with a surrounding monastery,
all quite old. |
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This is the
fairy tale-like palace at Sinaia that was built by Romania's King Carol at the
beginning of this century. It is quite lovely. The inside is just as
story-like as the exterior. |
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This was
Casey's favorite place. The Country Inn in Harmon. Harmon was a
small Saxon village, very German looking, in a flat plain nestled in
the Carpathian Mountains outside Brasov. It was touted as being
quite luxurious and was also quite expensive ($100/night). So... we
were surprised (concerned) when the cab from Brasov pulled up to a a
kind of ratty looking gate in a row of partially restored Saxon
houses, all attached by a continuous wall.
Not to worry. The place was
luxurious. Casey, princess that she is, was delighted. Here she is
about to enter one of the two beautiful showers. She loved
everything about this place.
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This is the
courtyard. The next morning we were able to see the owner's helper
out picking the vegetables for our breakfast in the field behind the
courtyard. There was a pool, as advertised, but no water. |
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We were encouraged to go
to the only restaurant in town, where Nathaniel's inability to say
"bread" correctly in Romanian led to quite an evolution
until a German at the next table helped us out. To give him credit,
it was one of Nathaniel's few failings in the language department.
This trip would have been about 1/8th as much fun without his
language skills. |
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This was the scene for
breakfast the next morning. It was not really traditional Romanian,
but it was delicious. Mostly home produced fare. The lady who owned
the Country Inn had lived in Houston for several years. Her 13 year
old daughter was brought up there. Nathaniel stopped by there
portion of the hotel and chatted with the daughter for several
hours. She is hoping to go back to Houston.
The owner is an artist and sells
homemade flax-based linen products. They were on the beds in our
rooms and they are beautiful. Her web site is:
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While there seem to be a
lot of pictures of people napping (except me, of course), we really
did not sleep the trip away. They just look so cute when they are
nodding off. This is an afternoon nap prior to walking around
Sighisoara. This was also a very nice hotel (read relatively
expensive) but had a nice restaurant and very nice lodging. Cindy
and I slept upstairs in a kind of loft. |
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This is the view from a
hatch-like window in the loft. Sighisoara is billed as the only
currently occupied citadel-city remaining in Europe. We stayed right
in the small citadel. |
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We walked out of
the citadel, down the hill, to the portion of the city in the
valley. It was a very clean town with parks, as here, and we also
ate at a restaurant down here one night. |
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This is the bust of Vlad
the Impaler (he of Dracula repute). Vlad was born in Sighisoara. |
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Here we are having a
little snack and libations in a picturesque setting. We had just
walked all over the citadel. |
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After Sighisoara we
returned to Chisinau, Moldova. Since we were going to be in there
for a week, with short excursions, we decided to rent an apartment
rather than get a hotel room. It cost s $55 per night and was very
nice. We had one bedroom (Cindy and I) and a fold out bed in the
living room (Casey and Nathaniel). |
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We had a nice little
kitchen too. We did not cook, but we went the super market (quite
nice) around the corner and got stuff for breakfast and lunch. Here
are the girls eating the (very) traditional veggies and cold cuts
for breakfast. |
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Since Peace Corps
volunteers don't get much money, they are always looking for ways to
save money. Every night we spend in Chisinau we had one of
Nathaniel's friends sleep over. When they come to the city from
their work sites, they must find a place to stay and our place was
free. |
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The most impressive
building in Chisinau is the Mayor's office, shown here. The
Moldovans call Chisinau the most beautiful city in Europe, but
although it has lots of parks, I would not say it was that nice.
Now, if you are counting the girls, I might have to agree. I failed
to take a picture from what must be the best girl watching spot in
the world, the McDonalds in Chisinau. Nathaniel just sat there
sipping our beer and enjoying the view. It is right down the street
from here.
Moldova, unfortunately, provides 60%
of the worlds white slave trade. The girls are beautiful, European,
and largely poor. This leads to being taken advantage of as they try
to improve their lot.
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This is a pretty Orthodox
church in a park in Chisinau. |
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Aren't the kids cute
together? This is in the same park as the church above. |
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Next, Nathaniel and his
friends decided we HAD to go to a Karaoke Bar. After much effort
they found one open on Tuesdays and off we went. It was the
four of us and two of Nathaniel's Peace Corps friends, Chad and
Mark.
Also present was a party of five
Moldovans. Everybody kept pretty much to themselves, taking turns
singing and drinking lots of Vodka. We were singing American rock
and the Moldovans sang some of that and some Romanian and Russian
songs.
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THEN... Nathaniel and his
friends decided to sing some of the Romanian songs they had learned
during their training. The Moldovans went nuts! They loved it. They
sang along. They got up and came over to talk to us. They asked us
to dance. The Dad, for it was a family with a boyfriend, etc.,
seemed to want to buy Cindy and marry Casey off to his son. |
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WE had a GREAT time!
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The next day we became
wine tourists. Nathaniel had reserved a
guided tour at one of the large subterranean wineries. The winery,
Milesti Mici, is so big the tour is conducted by car. Unfortunately
he did not realize that were supposed to furnish the car. Here we
are, carless, having gotten to the winery by rutiera and a half mile
walk, after being told, "no car, no tour." We walked back
to the main road to flag down the next rutiera, but while we were
waiting they called Nathaniel's cell phone to say they had found a
car and driver. |
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We crammed all four of us
in the back seat (the driver and guide were in the front) and began
the tour. This is a picture of the party in front of a decorative
water fall in the cavern. They have regular streets named for
different types of wine. Each street is lined with caverns filled
with bottles of wine. The place is huge. A cosmonaut was lost for
three days in another similar winery. They say he enjoyed the visit.
We had a very large meal with a wine tasting. It was pretty neat,
all underground. |
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That afternoon we took a
rutiera to the village of Suraceni (Sur'achen) to visit Nathaniel's
host family for his ten weeks of training at the beginning of his
tour. This is the view from their house. Very nice. We were immediately
seated at a table in the living room and served copious amounts of
delicious food (such as a meatball-like dish wrapped in leaves) and vin da casa, the homemade wine that everyone
seems to have. Olga, Nathaniel's host mom, really enjoyed talking to
him since he had not been very good at Romanian when he lived with
them.
For the rest of the conversation,
Alina, Nathaniel's host sister, and Nathaniel both provided the
translation services. They suggested they should be paid for this.
Hah!
Alina speaks about five languages
fluently and a few more slightly. Sasha apparently speaks English,
but is too shy to use it in front of strangers.
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I was to busy eating and
talking to take pictures during the afternoon and evening, but I did
capture breakfast the next morning. The night had been spent in fold
out beds in various rooms. It was very comfortable. |
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Breakfast was some of the
meatballs from the previous meal, with the addition of a plate
of food that looked like pancakes, bread, and coffee. Casey
and Cindy asked for cream and Casey noted that it was quite warm in
the pitcher. That turned out to be warm because it had just come out of
the neighbor's cow. We all had a big laugh over that. Once again,
everything was delicious and we had wonderful conversations
translated by Alina and Nathaniel. |
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Their house is quite
nice. They have lots of appliances including a very modern washing
machine. Dad works most of the year in construction in Portugal and
sends most of the money he makes home. This is pretty common in
Moldova. This is what allows them to have such nice things. The only
thing you would notice as much different than here is the plumbing.
They have an indoor and outdoor bathroom (both with flushing
toilets). The outhouse is used most of the time, with the indoor one
for nighttime and winter use. |
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After breakfast we took a
walk to the main point of attraction in the village, the monastery. |
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We passed a lot of
grapes, which is where they get the raw material to make their own
wine. |
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Here we are just inside
the monastery gates. The monastery has a beautiful garden. |
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Back at the house, Casey
gave there new little puppy some last hugs before we left. His name
is Topic (Toe'-pick). He was really cute. |
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The group posed for a
last picture and off we went... |
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On a Rutiera... |
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To Ocnita, to see
Nathaniel's work site and apartment. He used to live with his Bunica
(Boo'-nick-ka) (Grandmother) but wanted his own place for partying
and other things. He now lives across the hall from his Bunica. This
is his living room where we all slept. |
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This is his bathroom. He
has water about once a week, for a few hours. He has no hot water.
He brings most of his water form the well (see below) and when he
wants a bath he heats some up on the stove, pours it in the tub and
hops in. |
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This is the well outside
the apartment building. Nathaniel is pulling up a couple of buckets
worth to take back to the apartment. |
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The water boy walks back
to his entrance. Luckily he is on the second floor, so the climb is
not too bad. |
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Here we are with
Nathaniel's Bunica, Tamara, who is very nice and gave us Russian
cookies and vin du casa. We had a nice conversation about
Nathaniel's behavior, which apparently is quite good. |
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In the evening we walked
over to a restaurant. On the way we passed the building where
Nathaniel works. He is on the forth floor. |
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When we got to the
restaurant we were surprised by two things. First, it was a
beautiful building! Second, nobody spoke Romanian, only Russian,
except the youngest daughter, a cute little ten year old. Even the
menu was in Russian only. We could not even successfully order a
beer, so the girls (the three daughters) disappeared for a while and
then returned with a tray with 21 brands of beer so we could choose
what we wanted. Worked out OK. With the help of the youngest we
ordered dinner and had a very nice meal.
This area, about 7 miles from the Ukrainian
border, was heavily Russified. Therefore, almost no one in the city
speaks Rumanian. In the countryside, the villages, they do speak
Rumanian and that is where Nathaniel gets to use his language. He is
now taking Russian lessons.
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The next morning we
walked downtown to catch the Rutiera back to Chisinau. On the way we
passed a bust of Lenin. He is not an outcast everywhere. |
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As we neared the bus
station we walked through the piazza where the market was in full
swing.
This is the last picture I took since
we had to be back in Chisinau for our flight the next morning.
It was another great Savio trip.
Everyone had a wonderful time and it was very nice to get to see
Nathaniel during his tour in Moldova.
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