Into Southern Bucovina
Trip Start
Apr 08, 2007
1
101
144
Trip End
Oct 01, 2007
Suceava,
Romania
Friday, August 3, 2007
Suceava isn't an especially nice city. In all honesty, it's pretty drab, with the town center almost uniformly bland and concrete. Having just an afternoon to take in the sights actually worked out pretty well as a result. With that time available, I was able to have a look at the remaining medieval churches that dot the downtown area. Most of these are quite lovely, in fact, so I can't honestly say there's nothing to see here. The historic St. Dimitru's Church and UNESCO-listed St. John's Church are particularly impressive, the former of which having been expertly restored on the inside. St. John's itself is one of Moldavia's famed painted monasteries, but its frescoes have been almost completely deteriorated by pollution, the elements and other effects of time. Even still, it's a striking structure, with a roof composed of colorful tiles arranged in an attractive design.
The one thing 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 to see the main attractions while the conditions are favorable. In any case, I'll be able to trump the last pictures I took out this way.
Undoubtedly the biggest draw of the region - and really my main reason for coming up here again - is the painted monasteries of Sucevita, Moldovita, Voronet, Humor and Putna. Well, Putna isn't actually painted on the outside, but it still dates from the same period. And, truthfully, there are two other painted monasteries at Arbore and Solca, but most people don't bother with those. Anyhow, I was originally going to try and do them all on my own, navigating the confusing and inadequate public transport between them and hitchhiking where I couldn't come up with anything. However, in light of my increasingly cramped schedule trip-wise, I've decided to splurge and do a tour tomorrow. The owner of the hostel where I'm staying does her own tours, and she's arranged one for tomorrow that includes the whole lot. It's going to cost me about a day's budget extra, but this way I hit the all in one fell swoop and can therefore cut my visit to the region by one day. Thus, one more day to tack on later, like on the Trans-Siberian (where I'll almost certainly need it!).
So, I'm here for about three nights, then heading on towards the Moldovan border. Hopefully the weather will stay nice (but at the same time, not heat up again like it did a week back!).
