All those painted churches
I spent the very first two hours of the 17th talking with Alex, a Romanian tour guide whom I met just after I finished writing my previous blog. We talked about many topics regarding Romania, including an idea of organizing a bike tour through the country. I was very surprised to find out he was but 23 years old.
Going to bed really late, I slept in and missed the breakfast with Alex, it was only around 9:30 that I was on my bike in the city of Gura Humorului. The reason I went there was not just to meet my young "A" friends (Ammy, Andy and Alex), but to visit the painted monestaries of the region, eight of them under UNESCO protection. So a short ride to Voronet brought me to the first of these, which was really breath-taking.
To describe these churches, let me just cite what UNESCO has to say: "these churches of northern Moldavia, built from the late 15th century to the late 16th century, their external walls covered in fresco paintings, are masterpieces inspired by Byzantine art. They are authentic and particularly well preserved. Far from being mere wall decorations, the paintings form a systematic covering on all the facades and represent complete cycles of religious themes.Their exceptional composition, the elegance of the characters, and the harmony of the colors blend perfectly with the surrounding countryside''. How true...I could have just stared at those beautiful frecos, I heard a guide (a nun, actually) who went through one wall in about an hour...The one thing that got to me was the tranquility of the area - lush green hills surrounding the area, one can just hear the birds sing then there is this abundance of eye-pleasing paintings.
Gura Humorului is a bustling town, with its own set of impressive (but not painted...) chruches. I took off towards to second one, in Humorului (same name as the town), going past stork nests, where the youngsters were flapping their wings, but not yet being able to fly. The village houses are in Moldavian style, with a special shape at the gates (look it up on the Internet, I am a bit tired to explain 😉). A lot of houses have a well in front of them that look like shirnes.
The monestary Humorului is just as nice as the one at Voronet, but even more tranquil and quiet. Here they have a medivial tower right next to the church, climbing it was an adventure in my bike shoes; glad I made it without falling.
Talking about adventures, I decided to take a, well, "short-cut" to the next painted church, in Arbore, through some villaga roads. If you have been following my blog, I believe you know what is coming: it was a road made for off-road motorcycles, certainly not my bike with the thin tires. It was a roller-coaster ride, where going downhill was just as challanging as climbing. The one thing that did compensate was the scenery, it was an impressive landscape; could have easily been somewhere in Austria.
The monestary at Arbore was a bit unattended and I was questioning whether the detour I took had made any sense. Somewhere on the way there, at the town of Solca, I played with some hungry street puppies, giving them something to eat. I got some weird looks from the locals; though it was interesting to see how well developed one of the four dogs was compared to his siblings.
It was yet again some rural (therefore bad quality) roads towards the next monestary at Sucevita; it led me through some Moldavian villages, where people were quite happy to say hello to me. At a house, I stopped to take a picture of the well, the owner came and started showing how they haul the water. A person on a horse carriage stopped it when I was about to take a picture of it; and someone stopped his car and got out when he saw me studying my map. Yes, the people are very friendly in this area.
It was about 7 pm by the time I got to the monestary at Sucevita; to quote UNESCO, "the interior and exterior walls of the Church of the Suceviţa Monastery are entirely decorated with mural paintings of the 16th century, and this church is the only one to show a representation of the ladder of St John Climacus". Hmm, I think I missed the ladder; though the monestary was a beautiful sight in the rays of the setting sun, I consider myself lucky for having arrived at this hour.
I found a camping close to the church, where they would have washed for me, have given me a laptop, but I decided to move on, fully aware that there was a pass of 1100m ahead of me .It was quite a tiring ascent, not giving much of a view due to the thick forest - quite the contrary at the summit, offering an impressive view of the Carpathian ranges. There was a patch of grass illuminated by the sun, and I interpreted this as an invitation: I decided to set up my tent right there and then.
I was literally a happy camper as I laid down, just about to close my eyes, when I heard the SOUND. I had no idea what it was, but it was definately some animal and it did not sound friendly. I was thinking of a wild dog, a wolf, a fox...my heart was racing, by that time it was completely dark. I tried to sleep trying to pretend I did not hear anything, but the SOUND came again and I was thinking of packing up and getting the heck out of there - but that would have taken quite a lot of effort. I then pulled all my courage together, got out of my protected territory, my tent (well, not much of a protection if an animal really wants to get at you) and started flashing around with my lights. Two pair of eyes and altogether eight feet were looking back from some 15 meters away, these were some wild horses, apparently being upset that I took their patch of grass. I felt quite relieved and was able to fall asleep...just to be woken up around 3:30 in the morning, them grazing the grass close to my tent. It is close to the longest day of the year - at this time of the day you can already see the morning breaking.