Back to the nature

On last Sunday (just after Orheiul Vechi – lovely, busy weekend) I made a trip to "Pădurea Domnească" (Royal Forest) – natural reserve at the border with Romania, about 150 km from Chisinau. Unfortunately there won’t be any tips how to get there, it was an organized trip by my generous hosting organization and we had a mini-bus on our disposal.

We left from Chisinau about 8 in the morning, the journey is long, lasts about 3 hours. Our first stop was in Glodeni, the biggest city of the area, where we met our guide, the scientist who told us lots of interesting stories about the reserve. The entrance to the forest, at least to some areas, is limited and you should contact the reserve administration. The ticket is 25 lei (about 1,5 euro) so money shouldn’t be any problem. 

 

The day was very cold, cloudy, with freezing wind and some rain drops appearing from time to time. In addition, because the reserve is pretty big and the most interesting places are far from each other we had to spent most of the time in the bus, getting out only to see something, listening to the guide's description and go back to the vehicle. It could be better but there is no reason to complain, the day was really nice anyway. 

 

The reserve, besides that it includes of one of the oldest forests in Europe, is also a geological treasure, with the coral reef (!) hills, remained after the Sarmat Sea that covered Europe long time ago. You can easily find shelves and rocks with the prints of prehistoric sea animals.

Another sensation of the region is area called “The hundred hills”. On the plain ground there are more than 3 thousand hills spread along the Prut River and no one knows how they really appeared there. There are several hypotheses (one of them is the Alien’ contribution ;)) but even after many researches there is no answer to that question. What’s more, the guide told us that in the area the electronic devices, like computers cannot work and get broken, like when last year they installed there equipment worth 1 million euro and it got destroyed. Is it true or not? I have no idea. And I’m not going to be a person who will check it ;)

Our next stop is a forest and a nesting area of local herons. And we have another curiosity. The bird that normally builds its nest in rushes, here built it at the threes! Seems like everything is not in the right way in here ;) The guide tells us to be quite and watch out on the “surprises” from above. Indeed, the threes the birds sit on are all white and it is not because of snow, or anything pleasant. 

Fortunately, no one gets hit by the “surprise” and we continue our journey to the place everyone were waiting for – Zimbru reserve! Zimbru (rom.) – European bison extinct in Moldova at the end of XVIII century and now they try to renew its population. The first 3 were brought from Poland and now they have 5 of them, 2 little ones which stay in a small, closed area and 3 big ones that have a possibility to wander in a bigger space. An adult male may reach up to one tone of weight, but despite walking around the park we didn’t manage to see one. Before our return journey we had a lunch break, like some local Moldovans who shared with us two bottles of their home-made wine. The true spirit of hospitality!

I’m very happy I managed to visit this place, which is another proof that the nature of Moldova is stunning and it’s truly the best what this country has. 

 

On the very tourist path

Finally the moment of visiting places in Moldova have came! It was a pretty intensive weekend, with hours spent  in the bus, no sun and terrible cold. But of course it was worth it! 

Saturday was a day of visiting the main Moldova's tourist attraction - Orheiul Vechi. We took the marshrutka from Central Station (strada Tighina, just next to Piata Centrala) to Butuceni at 10:20. The ticket cost 26 MDL one way. The journey takes about an hour, don't worry about where to get out, if the driver knows where are you going he will stop at the right place. 
The view is stunning from the first minutes - a high, rock cliff, what is not very common sight in Moldova (for how long I haven't seen a hill? since the moment I left Poland!). In the rocks there are several caves where we follow in the first place. They are in the middle of the hill, we need to go a bit up, but the way is pretty easy even for someone with fear of heights :D   

The caves arised naturally, but later they were secured by the rectangle blocks to not collapse. Even like this they give a great impression and the view from up there is very beautifull. We see the monastery on the distance, the river flowing below us and the sea of fields with some horses going around. The rocks themselves are also really interesting, there are plenty of shells as relics of the very old times when this area was covered with the sea.

We decide to go to the monastery up on the cliff  (there is also second option, along the river) but going straight up appears to be too difficults (at least for someone with the fear of hights :D). So we go a bit back to the village Trebujeni in order to get up on the cliff by the gentle slope. The village itself is also very interesting and I recommend to take this path. It is so traditional, with all the houses in Moldovan style, beautifully painted in different ornaments. 

As we go up the view is even better and we go straight to the monastery enjoing the nature. On the path, we are alone but when we get to the place we meet much more people, as the evidence that Orheiul Vechi is a truly tourist attraction. The church is renovated, looks nice and has a plesant garden around, but we cannot take a look to the interior because it's closed. 

Anyway, another church which is open seems much more interesting than the previous one could ever be, we go down into the cave made (dug) by the monks, the first monastery here that comes from XIII century. It's dark, he rock walls are full of icons and one old, stooping monk bustle around talking to himself. Beautiful impression.

  

After the monastery we go down to another village - Butuceni, which looks exactly like the previous one. Although is a bit more touristic, the group of children stops us offering to tell us something about the monastery for 1 leu :) Further we find a guesthouse with the outdoor swimming pool! And this image so characteristic for Moldova, on the road which doesn't have an asphalt surface are going super expensive cars (belonged to the pilgrimes from the capital city) getting so dirty and leaving a dense trial of dust behind. 

The village has two other interesting places - a museum with the exhibition of items found in the place coming from different time periods (situated at the end of the village) and an exhibitory traditional house. Both worth seeing. 
The trips (for someone who travels by bus) has to end at 4 pm when the last bus to Chisinau is going. You can catch it at the bridge in the village. But before is good to eat something in the only restaurant in the village (I think) which serves typical Moldovan food of course. Very recommended! 





It was a great trip, the place really suprised me in a positive way, it offers a lot of different attractions and surely would be interesting for many. Don't miss it while being in Moldova! 

The report from another day is coming soon! Don't miss the description of crazy herons and european bisons ;)


Some more pics:

The view from the cave

Trebujeni village

A car crossing by