Orhei Vechi, Moldova Travelogue

Orhei Vechi

Road from Orhei Vechi

March 28, 2004

We had the hardest time finding a ride to Orheil or Orheil Vechi. We found one shuttle going to nearby Trebujeni, but it didn’t leave until 2:00 so we caught a ride to Orheil instead. After arriving in Orheil we negotiated a taxi down to 80 lei for a ride to the middle of no where to the top of a river-carved ridge.

We went into the caves/tunnels, which were built in the 12th century. The monks slept in the one room and the other is currently a church, I’m unsure of what it used to be, but presumably the same with its shape and size. We walked out onto the edge and saw the shear drop to the river below. We talked to the monastery's keeper, a monk for awhile as he taught us all about the area and history.

We bought candles and lit them, then left and walked along the ridge to see the church and view from afar. We met a young boy here who seemed fond of us or at least entertained by our presence... the feeling was mutual.

At the bottom of the ridge, there's a “museum,” which was open if we paid enough, but we really only needed the bathroom so left. They laughed at us because Sabrina didn’t want to go in the eastern-style squat toilet out house. They said it’s not a big city and that’s all they had.

Buses back to Chisinau were non-existent so we started walking. For the first half hour we saw no cars going in our direction and only two the other way. We then saw a group of guys (8-10) working on a building in the middle of no where; there were two soldiers watching them with semi-automatics, which was a little sketchy. As we passed they watched us until we were far away enough they began to whistle and shout at the girls.

Another hour passed and we took a turn past the prison into a small town. The prisoners found an open window and continued the hooting and hollering until we were out of their sight. The towns were normal for Moldova: chickens, cows, and dogs walking the streets, with few cars or people. Only an oil tanker and a log truck seemed to show any interest in helping us.

As we continued to avoid cow pies a car stopped for us... a guy probably in his 30’s with a small child. He asked us where we were going and told us to get in. He cranked the tunes and started dancing, but said very little. After a few minutes he dropped us off on the main road and wished us luck as he turned north as we were heading south.

It was no longer than 30 seconds from the time we got dropped of to the time another car stopped, which was headed to Chisinau and offered to take us so we got in. The driver and his brother (also there) are in a band so gave us their CD and invited us to their next concert. They seemed very smart, one spoke German, Italian, Moldovan and Russian, the other German, Moldovan, Russian, and a little English. They were both Moldovan, but said they sing Russian songs. They were nice, but smoked a lot and I couldn't handle the smoke chamber their car quickly became.

They dropped us off at the store near our house and we got our pictures taken with them before we each went our own ways. We missed the circus we had tickets for that evening, but we still had dinner at Alaverdi, the Georgian restaurant in Chisinau.