17
August
2006
This trip has been on my mind for a few years now. I never went to Moldavia before, but I’ve heard a lot about what’s to see there and why, so the idea of seeing it one day sat patiently at the back of my mind, until we bought the car. Then, when planning this year’s vacation I realised that it can finally become reality. I asked Robi, who was interested in visiting some terra incognita himself and so it was settled.We were going where the yellow counties grow (and an orange one, too):
We started from Miercurea Ciuc (also known as the capital of Harghita county), on a sunny Thursday morning, after we picked up Robi’s cousin - Gabor, the cousin’s wife - Katalin and their 7years old - Lorand. The trip over the mountains was uneventful, but then we reached Comanesti, Lori got sick and we weren’t able to stop fast enough for him not to throw up all over his mom and the backseat. Lucky for us, it was only water. Not so lucky for him, he threw up another 4-5 times before we reached his uncle’s home where they were to visit for the next three days. However, after the initial burst of vomit we learned to stop at the faintest sign of cough, before his neurons were even starting to signal for the mouth to form the word “stop”. We were fast, but, by Golly, so was his stomach. Final score - backseat vs Lori - 0-1.
Jus before we got out of Bacau, we noticed this monstrosity. Yes, it’s a real Audi. No, I have no idea why the owner decided to incorporate it in the house.
Gabi’s brother, Jozsef (or Joska, as everybody calls him) married a girl from the ellusive population known as Csango. They live in Bacau county, speak a medieval form of Hungarian, practice Roman Catholicism and are fierce keepers of their traditions.There are less than 10 000 of them left. The village Joska, his wife Monika and their daughter Sidonia live in is called Lespezi.We took some pics of the merry family gathering where you can see, from the left to the right: Moni, Sidi, Joska, Robi, yours truly, Gabi and Kati.I have no idea where Lori was.
After depositing relatives and luggage safely at Joska’s Csango Palace, we continued on our way north, until we reached Agapia monastery,in Neamt county. The sunny day changed into a rainy mess by the time we got to the gate of the convent..
as you can very well see here.
The candles burning for the souls of the living (”vii”) and the dead (”morti”) couldn’t care less, since they had an iron roof above them..
but the “toaca” (a piece of wood hammered a few times per day to call the believers to the Orthodox mass) looked really sad.
After visiting, we thought it would be a good time to find a place for our tent, so we asked a nun we saw sitting on the porch of her house
if she knew about any good camping spots nearby. She offered to rent us a twin bedded room for the lowly sum of 20 RON ( around seven dollars) and we gladly accepted. The room was full of icons and pictures of monastic people..
..including herself, in a much younger version..
than today, when she’s 82.
Her mind was still young though, and she was witty and talkative, so we stood up until midnight listening to stories about running away from home to become a nun, being an apprentice, going to the Theological university, surviving second world war, being a nun during commie times and going in a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Too bad she considered Catholics “sectants”.
We went to bed while the rain was pouring outside and woke up an hour later to the sound of the bells tolling from the monastery tower. In the sleepy confusional state I was in, I thought there’s a flood and the bells are singnaling for the good people outside the walls to take their cars and run for their lives, like last year in Voronet. I woke up Robi and we went outside, only to be greeted by the calm sight of the nightrain and nothing else, We went to bed, managed to sleep until 5 AM when the bells started to sing again, and did so for almost half an hour. Around 6:30 we gave up on resting, and packed our bags. We had a long day ahead.
Posted: on the road
16
August
2006
I’m back. I’ve got about 650 pics on the camera so it will take one or two days to select and start uploading from them. But rest assured, I’ll show you what I’ve seen, because it was beautiful.
Other than this, we’re fine, healthy and tired. See you tomorrow, and thanks for all the very, very nice comments and letters.
Posted: on the road
5
August
2006
Tomorrow we’re leaving for a short stay at the in-laws and then we’ll see most, if not all of these:
Bacau, Agapia, Varatec
Neamt, Humulesti, Ipotesti, Arbore
Suceava, Putna, Sucevita,
Moldovita, Voronet, Humor, Bicaz, Lacu Rosu
I’m curious just how much of my reader base will be intact by the 22nd of August, when this blog will resume, and how many mails will I receive here:
(keep them coming, they keep me blogging)
See you in two weeks, if all goes well -and thanks for reading and liking this weblog.
Posted: on the road
5
August
2006
I have a CV posted on a jobhunt site. I posted it a few years ago, during a particularly stressful period of my life as a hospital psychologist, and forgot about it after the situation got better.
This spring, they sent me a letter asking if I wanted to be notified if a company viewed my CV, and I said yes. I occasionally get a note about bank X or pharmaceutical company Y being interested in me, I see their working hours/ salary/ requirements don’t match with what I would like to see to actually contact them back and life goes on. Today, however, a different species of corporate animal raised its head from my inbox - a call center.
Dude. Just the idea of meter-wide cubicles full of graveyard shift working apatethic zombies makes my skin crawl. And I don’t care that they want me for a supervising job. (because this includes monitoring how much time each employee has spent in the bathroom - no, I’m not kidding - and spying randomly on the employees conversations with the clients - to “assess and increase productivity” ). I’ll stay with my ocasionally smelly, most of the time crazy patients, thankyouverymuch.
On a lighter note - I’d give a try to this call-center as a supervisor. Looks like fun 
Posted: stumbled upon
3
August
2006
This week, I’m on vacation and I’m home. Therefore, nothing interesting is happening - Timi and I get up in the morning, go to my parents’ house where she plays in the sand and tortures Archie the dog, the four cats and the two kittens, we get home at noon, I put her to bed and proceed to prepare the day’s meal, trying to involve as little stove time as possible, because it’s bleeping hot, then I play some Sims and read a few Simone de Beauvoir pages, then Robi comes home, we eat, discuss the day, he goes to work on the computer on a webpage that has to be finished before we go on vacation. Around 9-10 PM we brush Timi’s teeth and put her to bed. Then, around midnight, we go to bed too.
On Saturday, if all goes well, we leave for Miercurea Ciuc, where Robi’s parents live. We’ll stay there for a few days, then leave - sans Timi - to Northern Moldavia, to see the painted monasteries and the citadel of Suceava.
I told you I like ruins.
P. S. Yes, the template’s sidebar is broken. I know. I upgraded to the latest WordPress version and it’s been like this since then. Robi’s not fixing it yet because I intend to change the template anyway - to something involving less green - and he’ll fix it then. So there.
Posted: chestii
2
August
2006
This week’s renter is a photographer. One of my favourite blogging amateur photographers, actually. You can see his blog at the top of the sidebar, and you can pay him a visit to see a lighting technique and some angles I haven’t even begun to master. Don’t take my word for it, click on the image to the right and see for yourselves!
Posted: chestii
2
August
2006
Here are the rest of the pics we took this weekend at the medieval festival:
On most of the streets of the citadel there were swarms of merchants trying to make you buy something from them, be it a pair of traditional leather shoes:
or some hand-embroided belts
or perhaps some carved wooden spoons
if not some semi-precious stones or jewelry made out of them.
Me, I preferred to buy a hand-made choker and get a butterfly painted on my face:
Along with the usual mixture of goth kids/ rockers/ hippies/ clueless turists you can find at the standard Transilvanian festival, there were also a large amount of people dressed in Middle Ages garments.
Look for example at these young ladies:
or this young gipsy merchant:
not to mention these wandering minstrels
There were also people dressed in folk costumes, like this proud girl:
Music was everywhere, popping up where you least expected it -
in the theatre square, as accompaniation to the stilt walkers
near the wall of the citadel, where these very talented girls improvised a two-violin concerto, which we stood mesmerised for almost half an hour to listen to:
(what you cannot see from this picture is just how smashingly beautiful both of them were);
or as another impromptu performance we overheard while eating a pizza in the afternoon, and which turned out to be delivered by a bunch of jolly South-Americans, dressed in North American natives and singing and dancing their hearts out while two locals were offering the band’s CDs for sale. We had to leave Julia and Nora there while we went on a second tour of the citadel, ’cause they didn’t want to move until the Indians ended their concert.
Posted: on the road
