Soroca Trip

Last Sunday, my host parents and I went on an excursion with a tour group. The group consisted of people that worked in my moms office and their friends and relatives. Apparently they go on tours twice a year or so. My host-sister told me that last year they traveled to the ocean twice. This trip, we went to Soroca. There we visited Cetatea Soroca, Monastery Soroca and Luminarea Recunostintei.

We left the house around 7:00 and shared a taxi with our neighbors to the center of town where we met up with my mom's co-workers. From there we took a rutiera to Chisinau. We arrived at the tour bus at around 8:30 and before long we headed off to Soroca. Our first stop was Cetatea Soroca.

Cetatea Soroca was built a really long time ago. And that is all I know about it because I couldn't understand what the tour guide was saying. At the Cetatea, they had some placenta, wine and champagne for us to eat and drink. After having a bite to eat, I explored the fortress and took some pictures.






After we left the fortress, we headed to the monastery. This monastery was not as nice or as interesting as the two monasteries that I went to before. It was smaller and the did not have beautiful gardens like Hincu and Capriana; however, the area surrounding it was much more naturally picturesque.





When we got back on the bus the tour guide was giving every one water, or so I thought. Turns out she was only giving this special water from the monastery to single women. Apparently, if you drink the water you will get married (Yes, I drank the water. I figure it's about the only shot i've got. Lol)

The last place we went to for the day was Luminarea Recunostintei, or that one church-like place with a bazillion stairs. Literally, the stairs continued forever, but once I actually made it to the top the views were beautiful! Here are some pics:







After all the sightseeing, everyone unpacked the food they had bought and we stopped on the way home for a masa. My we had all sorts of food, house wine, champagne, cognac, and visinata. I have to say that cognac is growing on me. When I first tried it, I though it was the nastiest thing ever, bit now I think it's kind of good. After all of that food and alcohol, I didn't have any trouble sleeping in the way back.

The tour bus dropped us off at the Gara de Sud. Where we would normally catch the rutiera back to Hincesti. Unfortunately, we were too late and had missed the last rutiera. We asked another driver if we could pay him to detour through Hincesti. But before we left someone found a rutiera that was going to Leova through Hincesti and we took it.

We finally got home a little before 10:00 and I was exhausted. It was a long day, but now I think I have seen more important places in Moldova than I ever did in America.