Another great detour!

Today marks the two thirds completed milestone for my trip! I'm currently in Suceava and should be visiting the painted monasteries that this area is famed for. However, yesterday on my way to one of them, I managed to pull a muscle in my calf and after an unbelievably painful journey back to the hostel via the pharmacist for painkillers and supermarket for supplies (including frozen peas...) I've been laid up in bed resting said calf. Am gutted I'll miss the monasteries, this is why I'm here after all! But such is life and the medical advice from the lovely Shalini has been fab and it's definitely improving so hopefully I won't be hindered by my injury for too long. In case you were wondering, I did it just walking down the road. I'd slipped a few days ago and it was twinging a little and then yesterday, when crossing the road something felt like it popped in my calf and the pain was excruciating. Wish I could report that I did it doing something more exciting, but sadly not!

Anyway, fortunately I didn't happen whilst I was in Iași and I had a really lovely visit! I stayed in the Bicycle Hostel which is right up there with the best hostels I've stayed in. Super clean, friendly staff and residents, good location etc. Highly recommended! 

Iași itself I really liked, again a great place for a weekend visit! There was lots of beautiful architecture, some great restaurants and a botanic garden, so of course with that it's pretty much guaranteed to get my vote! Iași is another detour on my trip. I hadn't originally planned to go there but my friend Kerry's friend Manuela had recommended it rather than another town I'd planned to go through (mainly for the ease of travel) so I decided to follow her advice and change my route.

I went to Iași from Piatra Neamt, getting an earlier bus than planned due to the mouse getting me out of bed at least an hour before I'd intended to! I did almost miss the bus due to the whole app/location issue again but fortunately made it by the skin of my teeth, a hot and sweaty mess from the rush! Attractive! But it was an amazingly uneventful journey which I was thankful for after the previous one!

On my arrival I did my usual recce trip, having a covrig cu ciocolata to keep me going...

It doesn't look much, but these are chocolate filled pretzels that are to die for. I'm not a huge chocolate person (preferring Haribo to chocolate!) but seriously, these are amazing. 

It was Halloween the day of my arrival, but as you know by now, it's not really a big deal over here, but I did love this pumpkin that I saw!

My initial impressions of the city were good and I looked forward to exploring more the next day, which was 1st November and All Saints Day I've since discovered from my friend Katalin and this is what all the chrysanthemums were for in Tirgu Mures - it's the day that people go to the cemeteries to remember their dead and take the flowers to put on the graves. Thank you for the info Katalin! Incidentally it's also my nephew Joe's birthday; he was 14. Doesn't seem 2 minutes since he was born...

Anyway, the day dawned beautiful and sunny and so I started off at the Golia Monastery

 The went round to the Metropolitan Cathedral

Which has this amazing mosaic above the entrance (on the other side of the building to which the photo was taken)

At this point I didn't know about the All Saints Day tradition and so couldn't understand why the cathedral was so rammed!! From there I went to the Biserica Sfantul Nicolae Domnesc

Before heading to the Roman Catholic Cathedral

When I visit religious buildings I often wonder to myself if God would want to live in them. The answer is often 'no' because as you'll have gathered by now, the overly onstentatious buildings I see as being a reflection on the humans building them rather than what God wants. This building though was different, this building God, I think, would want to live in. And at this point I do realise how ridiculous the conclusion is that I've drawn because I'm basically saying it's somewhere I would want to be if I was God! There was a mass going on when I was there which I was somehow drawn to because of the beauty of this building, it was so serene. Anyway, from there I went and had a look at Cultural Palace (plus a bonus photo of the building at night!).

That afternoon I headed up to the University area, what can I say? I love universities!

And then to Copou park before heading back to the hostel for a birthday chat with Joe!

The next day was lovely and sunny again and a lot warmer and so I headed up to the botanical garden. You know me, I love a good botanic garden and this was precisely that! They had an exhibition of squashes which was amazing!

Plus chrysanthemums and dahlias again

And again without me in front of it!

They also had fab succulents (one of my favourite species of plant but no photos as I took so many and I can't decide which to include) and a beautiful ornamental garden which had a peacock with a tail of ornamental cabbages!

I did love it here... If I've not convinced you yet, hopefully this picture will...

This pretty much ended my sightseeing in Iași. The following morning I had a lazy morning in the hostel, then got the bus up to Suceava. That day I had such lovely conversations. First with the person who ran the hostel, then with Andreea, the person I sat next to on the bus. She's an Electrical Engineering student at Iași University and someone with so much potential in life, and then with Heather, a Canadian woman I was sharing my hostel room with. This was exactly the sort of day that we do these sort of trips for. It was wonderful!!

And now I'm laid up in bed, which as I say, obviously wasn't what I'd planned, but hopefully means I'll be able to share exciting adventures in Brasov with you that I wasn't able to share from Suceava.