In attempt to fill the void of the annual boat parade on Upper South Long Lake and the infamous Brainerd fireworks, which just doesn’t display the best mullets Minnesota has to offer, I thought I’d try a whole new kind of parade. Much like Christmas morning I awoke with great anticipation because today was the day I got to pick up my package from home, which has been waiting at the Posta since Monday. I started the day a little earlier than normal (yes 7am) so I could catch the 8am Maxi Taxi (Giant Conversion van style taxi) to Suceava, a town of 110,000 that perfectly portrays one of Romania’s many concrete jungles, (communism’s gift to architecture) 2 hours away. Turns out the Maxi Taxi did not arrive until 8:50am, which is a drop in the bucket when just last week it took me 6 hours to travel 60 km. Anyhow, I probably should explain: Campulung Moldovenesc does have a post office but for the soul reason of increasing apricot sales, we have to pick up packages in Suceava. What does apricot sales have to do with anything? Absolutely nothing, I simply still try to find reasoning behind the way of life here. The post office specializing in packages is only open M-F 9am-12pm and there’s a good chance they might close early, so it’s better to get there sooner than later. I arrived promptly at 11am and succeeded in picking up my package without any difficulties. It actually worked out well because I had another package awaiting me which I had not yet been notified about so it saved me a trip. However, I’m not quite sure what constitutes a package because it was an 8x11 manila envelope, which I have received at home on several accounts. Apricot sales must be low indeed.
On a typical package trip, I would immediately get back on another maxi taxi and return home, that is of course whenever the next maxi taxi might be. However, on this gloriously sunny and hot day (perfect for the 4th of July I must say) I was to continue on to Siret, another hour north and 1 km from Ukraine, to do a workshop. Luckily, I had 7 hours to kill before my counterpart and sitemate arrived. So I strapped on my backpack and grabbed my approximate 1 ½ square foot package and began to roam. I quickly approached St. Dimitru’s Church (built in 1535 and still displays exterior frescoes), where I took refuge on a bench in the church yard to collect myself. I explored the contents of my packages, from which I was then able to make some lemonade in my trusty nalgene, and then opened up my Lonely Planet travel guide to develop my plan of attack. There were not too many points of interest but I opted to visit the City of Residence Citadel, which was a short 3 km walk to the edge of town. Once again I strapped on my backpack, grabbed my box and giddyapped. Surprisingly I went directly to it and did not take my usual wrong turn along the way (however, I did later determine there was a much more direct route in which I didn’t have to walk out of town but that’s neither here nor there). When I
first caught sight of the 1388 citadel fortress that warded off Mehemed II, conqueror of Constantinople in 1476, I was amazed to see what a vast complex it was. Now further intrigued, I eagerly paid my 2 Lei and descended into the fortress with my box in one arm and my camera in the other. We (me, my box and I) explored the execution place, old towers, guard rooms, prison, etc. and were pleasantly entertained by this bit of history. There were only about 8 other people that we encountered so I even managed to spook myself out.
On our jaunt back to town I had an overwhelming urge to use the facilities but clean and free public bathrooms are not a strong point in this country, so I stopped at a bench along side the road (not quite in town yet). I set my belongings on the bench and took a few steps behind into the woods to relieve myself. After I freshened up, I had a small picnic that entailed lemonade, apricots and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (one of the box’s stronger points), read further in the Lonely Planet and documented this 4th of July splendor as you can see in this photo.
Although it seems you have already been reading this particular memoir for hours, I still had another solid 5 hours.
Feeling re-energized, Me, My Box and I packed up and continued on to see what else the concrete jungle had to offer. We visited the Monastery of St. John the New (1522) that also still shows some of the legendary Frescoes of Bucovina, the Domnitelor (Princesses’) Church built in 1643 and possibly Mirauti Church (1375-91) the original Moldavian coronation church and where Stefan cel Mare became the ruler of Moldavia. Lastly, my pilgrimage took me up 300 stairs to the gigantic equestrian statue of Stefan cel Mare. It was quite a peaceful area out the city craziness that presented me with another enticing bench, where I awkwardly attempted to take a short cat nap with my head on my bag and my legs on my box.
Other than the museums, I felt confident that I had seen all Suceava had to offer so with 2 and half hours to go, I headed back to the bus station to wait for Godot. As scheduled my people arrived on time but only to find that the person who was picking us up was still over an hour away. We did eventually make it to Siret, Box and all, where we celebrated our independence at a “disco” in a town of 9,000 eating pizza with ketchup smothered on top.
On a side note, our workshop that we did for some of the hospital staff went fairly well. Since the focus was on Occupational Therapy, I did not have too much to offer so I got to present on the glorious topic of Active Listening (and for those of you here, you can only imagine how frustrating that was).
In conclusion, to be truly patriotic it is pertinent to carry around a large box with American postage while exploring Romanian history in a concrete Jungle, and then finish off the evening having drinks with a Ukrainian, who’s Romanian side kick does magic card tricks. My personal opinion…Uncle Sam’s being doing it all wrong!
On a typical package trip, I would immediately get back on another maxi taxi and return home, that is of course whenever the next maxi taxi might be. However, on this gloriously sunny and hot day (perfect for the 4th of July I must say) I was to continue on to Siret, another hour north and 1 km from Ukraine, to do a workshop. Luckily, I had 7 hours to kill before my counterpart and sitemate arrived. So I strapped on my backpack and grabbed my approximate 1 ½ square foot package and began to roam. I quickly approached St. Dimitru’s Church (built in 1535 and still displays exterior frescoes), where I took refuge on a bench in the church yard to collect myself. I explored the contents of my packages, from which I was then able to make some lemonade in my trusty nalgene, and then opened up my Lonely Planet travel guide to develop my plan of attack. There were not too many points of interest but I opted to visit the City of Residence Citadel, which was a short 3 km walk to the edge of town. Once again I strapped on my backpack, grabbed my box and giddyapped. Surprisingly I went directly to it and did not take my usual wrong turn along the way (however, I did later determine there was a much more direct route in which I didn’t have to walk out of town but that’s neither here nor there). When I
first caught sight of the 1388 citadel fortress that warded off Mehemed II, conqueror of Constantinople in 1476, I was amazed to see what a vast complex it was. Now further intrigued, I eagerly paid my 2 Lei and descended into the fortress with my box in one arm and my camera in the other. We (me, my box and I) explored the execution place, old towers, guard rooms, prison, etc. and were pleasantly entertained by this bit of history. There were only about 8 other people that we encountered so I even managed to spook myself out.On our jaunt back to town I had an overwhelming urge to use the facilities but clean and free public bathrooms are not a strong point in this country, so I stopped at a bench along side the road (not quite in town yet). I set my belongings on the bench and took a few steps behind into the woods to relieve myself. After I freshened up, I had a small picnic that entailed lemonade, apricots and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (one of the box’s stronger points), read further in the Lonely Planet and documented this 4th of July splendor as you can see in this photo.
Although it seems you have already been reading this particular memoir for hours, I still had another solid 5 hours.Feeling re-energized, Me, My Box and I packed up and continued on to see what else the concrete jungle had to offer. We visited the Monastery of St. John the New (1522) that also still shows some of the legendary Frescoes of Bucovina, the Domnitelor (Princesses’) Church built in 1643 and possibly Mirauti Church (1375-91) the original Moldavian coronation church and where Stefan cel Mare became the ruler of Moldavia. Lastly, my pilgrimage took me up 300 stairs to the gigantic equestrian statue of Stefan cel Mare. It was quite a peaceful area out the city craziness that presented me with another enticing bench, where I awkwardly attempted to take a short cat nap with my head on my bag and my legs on my box.
Other than the museums, I felt confident that I had seen all Suceava had to offer so with 2 and half hours to go, I headed back to the bus station to wait for Godot. As scheduled my people arrived on time but only to find that the person who was picking us up was still over an hour away. We did eventually make it to Siret, Box and all, where we celebrated our independence at a “disco” in a town of 9,000 eating pizza with ketchup smothered on top.
On a side note, our workshop that we did for some of the hospital staff went fairly well. Since the focus was on Occupational Therapy, I did not have too much to offer so I got to present on the glorious topic of Active Listening (and for those of you here, you can only imagine how frustrating that was).
In conclusion, to be truly patriotic it is pertinent to carry around a large box with American postage while exploring Romanian history in a concrete Jungle, and then finish off the evening having drinks with a Ukrainian, who’s Romanian side kick does magic card tricks. My personal opinion…Uncle Sam’s being doing it all wrong!
2 comments:
Sounds quite exciting! What is your address?
Thank you for the Zoltan picture...you made my day :) Also, that stream (near the fish place) looks really peaceful. talk to you soon!
Katita
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