sunflower fields forever.

last saturday, a few of us went on an excursion to see some monasteries near iași! we chose the painted monastery option, so we drove out towards the mountains 2 hours away from the city. and along this drive, we passed through the outskirts of iași as well as other villages, and a whole lot of countryside. most notably: fields and fields of sunflowers! have i mentioned how beautiful romania is? not yet? oh, well let me say it again: ROMANIA IS BEAUTIFUL!

we started at rezervația de zimbri. the largest nature reservation around. what does zimbri mean? bison! so we saw some buffalo. a sad and lonely bear. rudolph's brother with molting and therefore bloody antlers. wolves. tortoises. turkeys. peacocks. glamorous, eh? indeed. gicu, our tour guide thought it was pretty great too. with good reason. i think my favorite part was that he refused to pay because he was 'just the driver,' but he still went in and walked around with us. romanians are so funny. love them.

our monastery crew:
roslyn, melissa, me, rebecca, and amanda.

vii ca turist, pleci ca prieten.
living like a tourist. leaving like a friend.

our next destination was mănăstirea neamț. which is a beautiful monastery, and has a round bookshop across the street! we arrived just before an enormous group of teenagers, so that made things interesting when it came to walking through the church, but all was well. other interesting fact: this monastery was built in the year 1250!

the cemetery within the monastery.

catacombs=creepy.

the ceiling and walls in the bookshop. gorgeous.

the saintly teenagers taking over the road.

from there, we drove a little ways and past a few gypsy carts to mănăstirea secu, another beautiful monastery. as we were walking in, we ran into one of the women that works in melissa's room and my room at section 2! it was such a lucky happenstance, so of course we snapped a photo as she left and we entered.

melissa and me with mihaela!

member that time roslyn fed her slice of ham to a romanian cat? oh, just the usual.

last stop: mănăstirea sinastria. this one was my favorite monastery. all of them were beautiful, but there was something about this place that was just charming and stunning. and it did help that in the smaller church in this monastery, one of the monks started talking to us as we were about to walk out and we chatted about why we're in romania and all that. he was super nice. i thoroughly enjoyed it. and i always enjoy when romanians think i'm doing good with romanian. there was a cemetery at this one, kind of like the first one, but it was at the top of a cobblestoned pathway leading to the top of a slight hill. yes, it sure was as pretty and dreamy as it sounds.

from this place, we made our way back home in our little maxi taxi of sorts and began the 2 hour trek back to iași. all 5 of us may or may not have fallen asleep at some point on the ride. some for longer than others. ahem. i may or may not have slept on and off for almost the whole ride. and i could see gicu through the rearview mirror whenever i woke up. i think he was laughing at me and all of our bobbing heads. scratch that. i know he was. baha. we're so funny. he's so funny. thanks to him for our lovely day!