Hotel Continental Suceava

... and amongst themselves.

We discuss the economics of the hostel. Roughly, she pulls in $1,000/mo in revenue. $600/mo pays her rental costs. She has another $100/mo in utilities. It is enough to pay her bills and in Romania, she is doing pretty well. The extra $ comes in from tours and she freelances as a limo driver for one of the big hotels. She had a 3 AM airport pickup later this evening. She works really hard.

... show the colors of fall, towns are fascinating reflections of other worlds …

The bus does not actually go to our destination, Suceava, but drops us off 30 minutes away. An older Romanian couple is doing the same transfer and helps us find the right bus to continue. This bus has to be flagged down from the main street.

In Suceava we are greeted by the owner of the hostel Monica. She does everything off season (reception, cleaning, giving of tours ...

Mobina Case de Lemn
i) inspecteaza respectarea prevederilor legale privind functionarea


laboratoarelor de incercari din constructii ;





j) inspecteaza la agentii economici cu activitate in constructii respectarea


prevederilor legale referitoare la controlul si atestarea calitatii


materialelor, elementelor si ...

... and where cows and horse-drawn carts are a very common cause of traffic jams on the road. Many of the young men of the region have gone to work in Western Europe and they send money back home which is used to built these new houses, but the old traditional culture is still very much alive in these parts. One wonders though what will happen to this culture when all the young men come back...

... with Voronet, then Humor, then Sucevita, before driving to Suceava for the night. The monasteries are Romanian Orthodox and the outside of all of them are completely covered with religious paintings. They were built in the 15th and 16th centuries and the paintings serve to tell the religious stories to the peasants who might not have been able to read. They're pretty amazing although the devil is portrayed as a woman at Humor - I'll let you make ...

... but in one that I did not visit the picture of one of the sons was obliterated after he converted to Islam. Not being the regular church going type as of late, my recollections of my catholic upbringing may not be quite accurate. However, here the connections and teaching of the old testament seem to be given equal weight. Also, the Tree of Jesse (which I had never heard of) was a common scene on most of the painted monasteries. This traces the lineage of Jesus thru Mary ...

... women where heels or boots. Romania has some of the most beautiful people in the world, both inside and out. I can't say enough about all of them. My translator was Emma. Her mom was our cook this week and her father was our jack-of-all-trades. Emma will be a model someday I assure you. I will post pics when I get back to the USA so you can see for yourself. They all have share a dream common to young people in Romania and that is to make Romania a better ...

... I found what qualifies as Botosani's "old town." It's actually little more than a long street of 19th-century buildings with pretty iron balconies, with a few smaller streets stretching away from it and a nice square in the middle. For being in a city that is the seat of one of Romania's poorest counties, it was remarkably well-maintained in parts, but still needs some serious restoration work. Nevertheless, getting a good idea of the place took little over an hour and, after a quick ...

... I didn't have time for today (other than the two museums in town) was the large ruins of the Cetatea de Scaun, or former fortress. This lies a little out of town on a hill overlooking the center from a distance. I've visited it before - actually I visited all of the above back when I came here on a short vacation in 2001 - but I'd like to hop over once more to have a look while I'm here. The last time I was in Suceava, it rained all day, so it'd be nice ...

... beautiful. The wooden monastery at Barsana is in a fantastic setting surrounded by rolling hills and forests (this is where all the bears and wolves hide - we never saw any!). To get around this area you either take the one daily bus or do what we did - hitch a few miles at a time and then walk off the side roads to visit the attractions. The old wooden church at Ieud was built back in 1364 and was both beautiful and really ...