Suceava (pronounced Suchava) was the last city on my gotta see list in Romania. From here we will visit the painted monasteries. But first, a word about our hostel. Hostel Irene is the first place this trip where I haven't been the aged alien. So many people here are my own age,or close. We were a group made up of a Frenchman, Swede, Scot and Texan. Two of these were train conductors. How small is the world!
It rained yet again. I hear this has been the wettest winter in 30 years. The fellow at the hostel told us it went from being the coldest winter with temperatures in the double digits below zero, to rain, rain, rain. He says the crops were affected,and therefore expensive though you could have fooled me. At every stop we go to the outside market and buy cherries. Either way, the weather is terrible so we went to an inside ethnological museum that had beautiful examples of historic dress. Oh, the needlepoint! And yet there seem to be no artisan markets, a reminder of the lack of disposable income in this country.
We hiked in the rain to the castle of Stefan cel Mare, aka Stephen the Great. More about him later. This castle was built in the 1500s with the usual castle wall, then another one surrounding that. As usual, the castle was built on a high point, good for defense at that time, great for views now. In that era this area was in Moldovia, not a part of Romania as it is now. There is still some feeling from the neighboring country, Moldova, that this area should still be a part of their country. Its sad that so much of the castle is in poor repair, the interior houses now a grid of crumbling walls. One guide commented that people over the centuries used the rock from the castle villages to build their own houses. But the outer walls still stand as do the towers and restoration is in process.
We had an easier time finding cafes that serve real food in Suceava. In a country where incomes don't support much eating out, cafes sometimes serve nothing but drinks. People spend whole evenings over a few beers, coffee, milkshakes, etc. The big rush to eat and leave doesn't exist here which sometimes makes it a challenge just to get your check and go. In one town, we sat in such a cafe so that I could draw the building across the street. Our young waitress recommended a milkshake so I asked for her favorite and what a treat that was! Anyway, Suceava had more eating places. Food is quite cheap, very good and we are tipping outrageously just because we can. A few times the wait staff complained we'd given too much and tried to give it back.
We took a hostel tour to the painted monasteries and saw so many it came close to overdose. They were built by Stefan cel Mar who, after winning 33 out of 35 battles thus ending the Ottoman grip on Moldavia, was elevated to sainthood in 1992. His battles all took place 400 plus years earlier. I guess the Eastern Orthodox church has a waiting list. For each battle won, Stefan had a church built to commemorate it. There are less than a dozen remaining. One of Stefan's son's was so enamored with the art in the Roman churches that he decided to paint his own. Thanks to him, these churches had frescoes painted within and without but many of those are in disrepair or completely erased.Many of these were Bible stories in pictures for the benefit of a population unable to read. There are also many, many icons. Restoration is a serious and ongoing undertaking.
It rained yet again. I hear this has been the wettest winter in 30 years. The fellow at the hostel told us it went from being the coldest winter with temperatures in the double digits below zero, to rain, rain, rain. He says the crops were affected,and therefore expensive though you could have fooled me. At every stop we go to the outside market and buy cherries. Either way, the weather is terrible so we went to an inside ethnological museum that had beautiful examples of historic dress. Oh, the needlepoint! And yet there seem to be no artisan markets, a reminder of the lack of disposable income in this country.
We hiked in the rain to the castle of Stefan cel Mare, aka Stephen the Great. More about him later. This castle was built in the 1500s with the usual castle wall, then another one surrounding that. As usual, the castle was built on a high point, good for defense at that time, great for views now. In that era this area was in Moldovia, not a part of Romania as it is now. There is still some feeling from the neighboring country, Moldova, that this area should still be a part of their country. Its sad that so much of the castle is in poor repair, the interior houses now a grid of crumbling walls. One guide commented that people over the centuries used the rock from the castle villages to build their own houses. But the outer walls still stand as do the towers and restoration is in process.
We had an easier time finding cafes that serve real food in Suceava. In a country where incomes don't support much eating out, cafes sometimes serve nothing but drinks. People spend whole evenings over a few beers, coffee, milkshakes, etc. The big rush to eat and leave doesn't exist here which sometimes makes it a challenge just to get your check and go. In one town, we sat in such a cafe so that I could draw the building across the street. Our young waitress recommended a milkshake so I asked for her favorite and what a treat that was! Anyway, Suceava had more eating places. Food is quite cheap, very good and we are tipping outrageously just because we can. A few times the wait staff complained we'd given too much and tried to give it back.
We took a hostel tour to the painted monasteries and saw so many it came close to overdose. They were built by Stefan cel Mar who, after winning 33 out of 35 battles thus ending the Ottoman grip on Moldavia, was elevated to sainthood in 1992. His battles all took place 400 plus years earlier. I guess the Eastern Orthodox church has a waiting list. For each battle won, Stefan had a church built to commemorate it. There are less than a dozen remaining. One of Stefan's son's was so enamored with the art in the Roman churches that he decided to paint his own. Thanks to him, these churches had frescoes painted within and without but many of those are in disrepair or completely erased.Many of these were Bible stories in pictures for the benefit of a population unable to read. There are also many, many icons. Restoration is a serious and ongoing undertaking.
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