Monastery Orheiul Vechi

Out of time. Transported to another world. How else do I describe this?

We took a two-day vacation from the family in Jeloboc and headed to Orhei Vechi — pronounced sort of like "or-HEY Veck."  

We stopped in the village of Trebujeni to drop off our luggage at Villa Roz. Right away, culture shock hit. I'd been thinking of Oberza pod Rózą, since the two names both conjure up lodging near roses. The lovely place we stayed in Nowy Targ had old world charm, warm, cheerful restaurant bar downstairs, WiFi, central heating and good Polish shower in our room. But now we're in Moldova, where central heating and internet in a rural village is unheard of, impossible. Here, our rooms had space "warmers," but the bathroom had no heater and was freezing cold. The dining area was outdoors, with some shelter from the wind provided by plastic sheeting. Brrrr. But we came to love Villa Roz!

This is Liuba, who owns Villa Roz. Liuba does all the cooking and maintains the lovely flower and vegetable gardens. She warmed up the whole place, made it feel like home.

We dropped off our baggage here on Thursday, went down to Cricova to see the wine tour, and then, having missed our bus, walked for over an hour along the roadside on our way back to Villa Roz in Trebujeni.

We finally came to a village, sat down on a roadside bench to rest our feet. Warren called for a taxi to take us the rest of the way — and a good thing, too, as we'd walked barely a quarter of the distance.

The taxi driver stopped along the way and asked us to get out of the taxi to have a look at the view of his town from a high ridge. We commented that the area was very beautiful. "Beautiful?" he asked.  "No money."

The next morning, we walked again, heading out to the limestone cliffs. 

It's not just one limestone cliff — as the river winds into a loop, the cliff winds above the river, and a new cliff emerges inside the river's loop.

This was a particularly charming community well.  See the cliffs in the far distance?

If you look closely, you can see a monastery on the left way in the distance, and a bell tower on the right.

Our destination was an ancient monastery dating back to the 13th century. The old monastery was dug into the side of the massive limestone cliffs that surround this area.  

Here's Zach inside the old monastery. You can see that the monks had to crawl into their spaces and kneel; they could not stand.

A new monastery was built along the ridge in 1905.

As we walked along the ridge to the new monastery, this was the view to the left — the little village of Butuceni.

Down in the village of Butuceni

Back in the neighboring village of Trebujeni, a block or two from Villa Roz. I was disappointed to learn that the caves right here are simply left over from limestone mining.

It was Friday at 5:00 pm. From there in Trebujeni, Warren sent his weekly text messages to PCV friends. Have a good weekend!  One replied immediately:  "Have they gone yet?" Ha ha.

The next day we took the bus back to Orhei and from there back to Jeloboc, in time for an all-night family wedding.  Next post!