Bucovina

Horowitz Travel- May 18, 2017- Bucovina

To quote Longfellow, "This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks." We wove our way down wooded roads and emerged in a miniature Switzerland of variegated green hills, pastures, and tidy houses looking freshly painted. Farm animals roam freely as do children, bicyclists, and more horse carts than we expected. There was even a horse cart leading a cow behind it. Reminded me of Jack and the Beanstalk. Moldova is, literally, a breath of fresh air.

We did a 60-mile loop of painted monasteries today. They all house nuns. Frescos in various states of preservation were the main draw to these structures dating from Stefan the Great through his son and successor, Petru Rares. Stefan began building in the area of Moldova in 1488. His masterpiece is Voronet known as the Sistine Chapel of the East. The preferred color for the background of his churches was blue. The technique of mixing lapis lazuli into paint was new and the artist was enthralled with it. I said that Stefan built churches, because he built one after each battle with the Ottomans. As for his lineage, he's a cousin of Vlad The Impaler. More on Vlad another day.

Moldovita Monastery, built in the 16th century by Petru Rares, reflects the Ottoman attempts at conquering the area. It is surrounded by a Gothic fortress, guard towers and all. This artist preferred green backgrounds. By now, the frescoes were running together in my head whether they depicted the Creation, the life of Jesus, or the Last Judgement. Then came the Sucevita Monastery. Ditto. By this time, we were more interested in the graffiti on the exterior frescoes some dating from the 19th century and using the Cyrillic alphabet.

Of interest, we passed through the village of Clit. I was not sophomoric and didn't ask Radu to stop so I could get a photo of the sign. I am however, writing about it to you. We also went to a black pottery workshop in Marginea, and I lunched on forest mushroom soup in a light broth.

In Campulung, we saw our first Egg Museum. The award-winning artist, Lucia, has created thousands of eggs decorated in traditional Romanian style. They are displayed along with her daughter's work and eggs from around the world. Her husband's job is emptying the contents before the eggs are painted. So, when Lucia tells him to go suck an egg, he does. 

Although the road construction was at a minimum today, Radu found opportunity to curse other drivers in Romanian. As I did during yesterday's frustrating drive, I followed his curses with shouts of, "Yeah! And your Mother."  He explained that they don't have curses about their mothers as we do, so I began to vary my tag-lines with other family members. 

Donald Trump, Jr and his son were reportedly in Romania until today. He did some sightseeing and took advantage of bear hunting season. Foreigners are permitted to hunt if they pay a tariff. Gag me with a spoon.

Dinner tonight was back at Hilde's where Judi enjoyed goulash and David had duck. My meal was perch in lemon caper sauce. We were joined by the couple from New Zealand. We'll be with them the next couple of nights and look forward to their company. Quite a lot of tale telling yet to go.

Tomorrow we end up in Sighisoara.

Toby

Sfanta Monestary Voronet

Sucevita Monestary 

Giant painted egg

Another horse cart