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Previous: Chisinau
One day, Victor introduced me to Alexei Vdovin, an ex army buddy and associate who drove us (Victor, Angelica, Caty and I), to the old village of Orhei some 45 km north of Chisinau.
I took this picture of a typical Moldovan homestead somewhere along the way.
This beautiful church in Ivancea, not far from Orheiul Vechi attracted my attention so I took this picture and the one on the left below.
On the right is a long distance shot of the limestone cliff in which orthodox monks carved an underground monastery in the 13th century. The Raut River seen here at the foot of the cliff, doubles back to flow in the opposite direction at the foot of the hills on the other side, leaving an easily defended ridge in which the monastery was excavated.
Here, we have crossed the bridge over the river where it doubles back and are enjoying a good view of the Orheiul Vechi village as we drive up the ridge.
These stairs leading down from the small dome seen in the first picture, lead to the underground chapel where services are still being held.
Here is entrance to the small chapel.
Its a typical Orthodox chapel with a richly decorated iconostasis hiding an inner sanctum where only priests may enter.
The monks used to live in these stalls like bees in a beehive.
Below on the left, Alexei Vdovin karate champion of Moldova (first dan) and myself on the right pose for a picture on the narrow ledge where the monks used to stretch their legs after prayer centuries ago (The ledge can be seen on the first picture of the cliff above.)
The chapel being much too small, this church was built in 1907 to accommodate the inhabitants of the nearby Butceni village. It was closed by the Soviets but has been put in service again since 1996.
This photo of a peasant driving his wagon shows the other side of the ridge with Butceni village at the bottom of the hill and the Raut River in the background.
Back in Chisinau, here is a picture of the central market near the bus station where I boarded an overnight bus that took me all the way to Cluj-Napoca in Transylvania.
One last view of the market before that 14 hour bus ride to Cluj-Napoca. I had walked a lot in Moldova and my bad knee was acting up so 14 hours of rest was welcome. I slept most of the way.
On the ground, those are turkeys being bought and sold.
Bere means beer in Romanian.
