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  Suceava, Romania
Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Getting here to Romania was tough.  First, I missed my train out of Budapest.  Luckily, there was another one a couple hours later.  Then, I hopped on my train to Suceava (pronounced Soo-CHAW-vaw), which was scheduled to arrive at 7:45 am.  I got into a bed on the train and had a sweaty night, waking up several times.  5:00, not there yet...  6:10, not there yet...  Suddenly I hear a lot of noise, looked at my watch (whose alarm did not go off), and it's 7:47!  I jumped off the train to find myself in Suceava.  The train conductors had not woken me up, and I would have passed on to the next port of call.  AND I think the train ended at the Black Sea.  Uh oh.

Luckily, I have years of experience of screwing up (losing things, getting lost, being late, etc), so I don't panic too much when these things happen.  I swear as long as I come out of this alive (and there's no reason to think I shouldn't), I can weather losing a passport, losing money, getting lost, and such.  Oh, it would suck to get robbed though, just because it would be scary.

I was met there by Monika, the young owner of the Class Hostel.  The hostel is a little bit in the country and seemed the perfect antidote to city living.  I took a nap and then went into the main Suceava city that day.  I was under the impression that the main city was going to be really dull, but there were a smattering of sites, like some beautiful churches and an old fortress.

And guess what?  I got caught in a thunderstorm, my third thunderstorm of the trip (Arles, Venice, now Suceava)!!  And I hear Seattle weather is perfect these days!

So that was a wonderful day.  Also, this is my first experience on this trip with a hostel.  I kind of hate the hostel/backpacker idea.  I think it's because I both love people and hate people (in theory maybe) at the same time, so the idea of being stuck with and feeling pressure to socialize with random people was not so fun to me.  But the people I've met are so cool -- maybe because of the type of people that Suceava attracts, ie, not the crazy stupid just-out-of-college types.

And the reason I came to Suceava... Nick had recommended seeing the some painted monasteries here (http://www.romanianmonasteries.org/allchurches.html), claiming it was his favorite site in Europe (I think).  Today five of us went on a tour of four of the monasteries, hosted by Monika.  There are painted frescoes both inside and outside the monastery, depicting different Bible stories for the then-illiterate populace.  The inside depicts different martyrs and the nasty way they met their maker in graphic detail.  With Monika's knowledge and obvious passion for the subject, it made for a great day, seeing these amazing sites and winding into the Romanian Carpathian Mountains. 

Guess what I ate today?  Pig brains (!) -- at the suggestion of our hostess.  It was actually pretty good.  I combined it with some garlic mushrooms. 

I've been thinking... so many times when we travel, we go to the big name sites, missing the little places along the way.  We saw glimpses of rural Romanian life wherever we went -- horses pulling carts, cows walking along the road.  This was one of the places I was most looking forward to seeing, and I am so glad that I am here.

I've added a select few pictures, up through Budapest, on my Flickr site, which you can view at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mistyminhee.  You can scroll down, or click on Month 1 on the right hand side to see them.

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