Today has been one of my favorite days while here in Romania. Despite the cold, and yes it is freezing here even with all of our layers on, it was well worth suffering through. We had an amazing day planned with the girls, Mario, Dr. Porter, and Aaron. They had come from the states and wanted to do something that really would be memorable. So, Aaron was kind enough to choose the most famous monasteries in Romania! We left at 8:00am this morning and traveled 600km to 3 different monasteries in Moldova. To clarify this was the region of Moldova that is still part of Romania, not the country of Moldova owned by the Russians that we went to before. It took about 3 hours to get there but it was well worth the trip. Talk about an amazing cultural experience.
The three monasteries we went to were: first, Sianta Mănăstire, second, Moldovita Mănăstire, and last Mănăstirea Sucenvita. You may ask why these monasteries were so amazing? Well these monasteries had art work on both the inside and the outside. Yes, I have pictures up on facebook for all to see. These were amazing! I have always loved art and I really enjoy culture so I felt right at home with marveling such beauty. The ones we saw were built around the 15-16th century. These monasteries were all run by the nuns and were for the Romanian Orthodox church. It was interesting to learn some of there beliefs about their church and to see it reflected in the art work. All that was painted included past saints, scenes of Christ from the Old and New Testament, and other religious symbolism. Honestly I can't put into words how amazing it was to travel and see these monasteries (which is why I tried to take some pictures). But it was such an experience to see something unique to Romania. They have tons of monasteries in Romania, and they have 7 just in Iasi. It only cost us 3 lei to get in and then a little more if you wanted to take pictures. But it was well worth it to have one of those experiences you will never forget.
To end the day, we had a surprise from Mario...a trip to a salt mine near one of the monasteries. We paid 10 lei to get in and the owner was so nice to give us a tour because they had technically already closed when we got there. We went 40 meters underground and walked tons of steps to get there. On the way through the tunnels we saw both a catholic and orthodox shrine underground. We also saw several carvings into the salt walls. These included Adam and Even, the saint who watches over all those who work in mines, and many others. Then we passed by a little artificial pond thing. Couples who wanted to get married used to have to row across the water in order to be able to. Our last stop was an underground ballroom. Mario told us that there are other ballrooms around that people use to help asthma. I am not exactly sure how but they will do activities, dance, play basketball in these salt mines and it helps their asthma. I thought that was pretty cool. We then had to struggle to climb the stairs we just came down. We then all drove back to Romania which took about 1:45 minutes because we did somewhat of a circle in driving to the different monasteries.
We were blessed with good weather (the rain held out till we were almost home), Mario who helped us explain insights of the experience, and a great driver who was friendly, and just an overall amazing trip! I really loved exploring these kinds of things and experiencing the culture in a unique way. I wish I could write more but we all came back exhausted from such a fun filled day.
Mare vis,
Dani
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