Rumenia - visit, Sunday april 3d

From this last beautiful Monastery it was another 55 kms to Suceava, where I had reserved a room in a hostel, managed by Monica, a young internationally oriented and cheerful Rumenian woman who speaks excellent English. I  recommend her, http://www.classhostel.ro/, also for guided tours, but do know that she will be leaving Romania to start a hostel in Singapore at the end of this year.
On the way we passed through Radauti, famous for it's black pottery, but we don't need things any more :)

The carpets, or rugs actually,from Rumania, like the one you see on the photo, with roses,  handwoven and beautiful on both sides, are suddenly very fashionable in the Netherlands; they cost here about 600 euro's. 
                               
Sunday we need to travel back to Chisinau. the landscape is the same every where: extended hilly plains, now and then cut by rivers and streams. Consisting of this beautiful black earth. I noticed that the farmers bring horse-manure on top of the soil. They have a lot of horses here to draw the carts, so there's more horse manure than cow-manure. Cows I sighted only one or two, now and then, looking lost somewhere on a field or in the woods. In many valleys there are dams for irrigation purposes. Near lunchtime we arrive at Iasi again, where we take leave of our hitchhiker lady. It's very common here to hitch hike, as there are only few long distance buses and trains only twice a day.

It is common to pay the busfee for a ride. I notice that all cities here look the same: wide streets/ boulevards with apartment buildings, all 4 or 5 floors high( no highrises or individually outstanding officebuildings, shops on the ground floor, broad sidewalks planted with trees, and cars parked alongside.  Maybe Rotterdam looked like that before the war, without the cars obviously!

We find ourselves a nice place for lunch, outside in the sun and out of the cold wind.They do salads and spaghetti and even have nice music and speak english. Recommendable: Clubul Bursei, opposite the cinema and next to Best Western hotel, just behind the main square.

From Iasi it's down alongside  the wide valley of the rivers Prut and Jijia; along the roadside we find storks, almost every other kilometer, on their nests built on electricity poles. So spring must be coming after all!