This Saturday was the Project’s Abroad excursion to the Saharna Monastery, about 120km outside of Chisinau. The Saharna Monastery is known for having monasteries and chapels cut into the sides of cliffs, and for having a spring fed pool of ‘Saint’s Water’. The trip up there took more than an hour, but we made a few stops on the way to take in some of the monuments and scenery during the drive.

Our first stop was a small town to see some monuments to the people who died in Afghanistan during the ten year Soviet war from 1979 to 1989, a monument to those who died as a result of the Chernobyl incident, and then a monument to those who were sent to the gulag camps in Siberia during the Soviet rule of Moldova. With all the McDonalds’ and Addidas stores, new western movies and Coka Cola, I sometimes forget that Moldova suffered a great deal during World War II (by Soviets and Nazis) and afterwards during the Soviet Union. These monuments in the small town, which are rarely seen by visitors, remind the people of their unfortunate history. However we did not dwell on the monuments for long before we needed to board the bus again to continue our ride. The next stop was a World War II tank, raised up on a pedestal along the side of the highway. It was the site of a World War II memorial site, but seemed to have been very unmaintained. A lot of it was overgrown with weeds and grass. Even though the tank was up on a pedestal, we were still able to climb it, and managed to get up on top for some pretty awesome pictures. Everybody likes standing on top of a tank, everybody.
For lunch, we stopped at a pie restaurant. Pies in Europe… I can’t say much about them except that everyone loves them but me. The cheese they use here just isn’t the same/good. So I suffered down a couple pieces of cheese-filled ‘pie’, had my beer and we were off again. This time to the Transdniestr river. Across the river was the pseudo-country Transdniestr. The monastery was on a creek that flowed into the river, so I knew we were close. And finally, when I thought that the ride couldn’t get any longer, we pulled up to the entrance gate to the Saharna Monastery. We were in the hills (kind of like a mini-Smokey Mountains) and I could already see steps and trails leading up the hill to the top where a large cross and small building were overlooking the valley. I was finally in the country.
We started our exploration of the monastery by going up that same hill. It began with steps, but quickly turned into a gravel/rock trail. Igor (our director), Clint (another Volunteer from Australia), and I all took the path less traveled, and climbed up a very steep passage to the top. Everyone else followed the steps around the long way, but showed up just after we did. The view from the top though was extraordinary (at least for where I’d been for the last two weeks). The great Transdniestr river was below us to the East, and the other way were more hills with valleys covered in trees with creeks at the bottom. And directly below was the Monastery. It was a nice time. And we spent a good deal at the top, but it was nearly a hundred degrees so we began descending the other side on our way to the waterfalls that were lurking below.
The way down was much more treacherous though; lots of slippery gravel and uneven rocks made it a slow downhill trek, but I loved it. About halfway down the hill were some caves. They were part of a rock quarry that was used to build most of the monastery and so we went deep into the bowels of the “mountain”. It was dark and about thirty degrees cooler than outside, so we took as long as we could before rejoining everyone and finishing the descent.
At the bottom, we took some dirt paths into the trees, found a creek to follow and after about a mile of densely wooded, shady hiking over rocks and across the creek a few times, we came to the waterfall. It wasn’t very large; in fact it wasn’t very impressive at all. But it was still beautiful, and we could walk around behind it and sit on a rock directly where it fell. It was so hot, I didn’t even bother finding a place to change into my suit, I just went right into the water and soaked up as much as I could. It was cold, but it was very refreshing after being in the hundred degree heat. We took a bunch of pictures and spent a good amount of time there before packing up and taking off again. Following different trails, we headed to a pool of Saint’s Water, where there were many people dunking themselves before a cross and spending a good amount of time praying. We observed for a little bit, tried out some of the water coming from the pipes, which was crystal clear and very cold, and then went on our way again. The next stop on our way back out was the monastery carved into the rock. Unfortunately it was closed, but there was a small icon room open and we all filed through the narrow entrance into the cool, dark room inside the cliff. After that was our trek back to the minibus.

The trip was a very nice change from life in the big, dirty city of Chisinau and I’d been looking forward to getting out and seeing some of the Moldovan countryside, which was just as beautiful as it looked from the air. The ride back was long and tiring. We were all exhausted from being out in the heat all day and so many of us took naps, at least for a little bit. One of the other volunteers, Erin (from Texas) and I were jamming to some music most of the way back before, as the music became calmer, I became sleepier and just passed out for a good while. It was a good day to be out, but when talking with the other volunteers on the return trip I realized I only have three weekends left in Moldova! Four weeks, but I leave on that Saturday, so there’s only three weekends left for me, and if I want to get to Pripyat I’m going to have to begin planning this week.
The best part about Saturday, was that Erin informed me of a competition started by Ridley Scott of people filming on only the 24th of July, a ‘Day in the Life’; of any sort of footage/documentary about the day, so needless to say, she and I recorded a lot of footage during the trip and are planning on submitting it to Ridley Scott. Who else is going to have video of Moldova, waterfalls, monasteries, and the Capital city? We’ve got high hopes for the competition and figure we’ll be big Hollywood stars in a year or two.