Day 34 - July 16th - Moldova (Soroca)

Day 34 – July 16^th – Moldova (Soroca)

The dawned nicely with the promise of fine, warm weather again. We enjoyed the opportunity to linger over the breakfast at the plush Italian restaurant next door to our ‘Aparthotel’, the quality of which still continued to impress us. Both Slava senior and junior were picking us up today for a day of sightseeing at the very northern border of Moldova on the eastern edge of Ukraine.

They called for us at 10am and we headed north out of town, basically retracing the route from the day before. We passed through Orhei and continued on what was a very good highway for another 130k to the northern border town of Soroca. The countryside all the way was flat, with magnificent views of beautiful rural landscapes of sunflowers and other crops. The fields were wide and open, stretching to the horizon with occasional villages.

Soroca is known for its high population of ‘Roma’ or ‘Romani’ people, better known by the exonym ‘Gypsies’. We have seen the Roma people in Turkey and Romania in particular, particularly as beggars in the city areas and also in small communities outside of towns and cities. Originating in India over 1,000 years ago, they have become common particularly in Eastern Europe but also wider Europe and the Americas. In WW2 the Nazis embarked on systematic genocide of the Romani, and were often shot on sight. There is now a lovely memorial to the Romani people in the park alongside the Reichstag in Berlin.

The Romani are most often connected to poverty, mainly due to the sights of beggars on the streets, however, we were amazed at the opulence of some of the housing in Soroca which is owned by Romani which is a whole different story which is probably not the subject to cover in this blog.

Soroca is also famous for the 12^th century Fort which takes the name of the city – Fort Soroca. The Fort sits on the edge of Soroca, on the river Nistru which forms the border between Moldova and Ukraine, and was built by Prince Stephen the Great in 1499 as part of a chain of nine forts protecting the northern frontier of the Kingdom. It is built in a perfect circle with five bastions at equal distances. There are beautiful views from the turrets across the city and especially the river Nistru and across the border into Ukraine.

Before leaving Soroca, we made our way along narrow country lanes until we came upon the other great attraction of Soroca – the ‘Thanksgiving Candle’ or ‘Candle Monument’ which includes an Orthodox Chapel in its base. It sits high on a point above a bend in the Nistru River just downstream from the township of Soroca, but with breathtaking views across the river into Ukraine to the north. The monument is 20 metres tall and symbolizes a candle, representing a tribute to the many heroes of Moldova who have preserved the culture, language and history of the country. Although voted on in 1918, it took until 2004 before it was finally constructed and opened.

We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at one of Moldova’s chain food stores – Andy’s Pizzas – which seem to be everywhere and which offer a very good quality of service and also food. The trip home was very long. The day was hot and all four of us were keen for a ‘nanny nap’ before thinking about dinner.

We have enjoyed being able to tune in to the Tour de France at a reasonable hour, the finish being usually about 6pm which is certainly better than 1am back home. We joined Majors Graeme and Helene Carey for dinner at another of Moldova’s chain restaurants – the ‘La Placinta’. The Carey’s are the Regional Commanders of The Salvation Army work here in Moldova, and are due to enter retirement back in England on 1 September. It was wonderful to catch up with them and to spend good fellowship and friendship with them that is not normally possible from our side of the world.

As the sun sets at the end of another long but gratifying day here in this wonderful country of Moldova, we send our love.

KRA