But this time it wasn't that bad, somehow it passed fast and soon we were at the place. The bus station is situated just at the bank of Dniester river, at the other side is already Ukraine.
Soroca is famous because of a fortress and that's what we hoped to see the most, but as there was no sign or anything we decided to go up to the view point from where we hoped to see it. Just like looking for a hidden treasure, only a bit bigger :)
To get to view point you have to go left from the station, along the road you just came. Less than ten minutes from there you'll find a spot - very characteristic, a gate and behind it a number of stairs up the hill.
Stairs are not generally the best idea to go up and soon I felt a bit of pain in my legs that lasted even two days after. Well, that's only a sign I should exercise some more :) But the way isn't that bad and the view up there is so amazing you easily forget about past. You can see the city of Soroca placed at the river and Ukrainian bank as well, and it all is so green it's hard to belive it. Moldova is generally very green country, even Chisinau is very nice and feel natural, but this view was a real big thing.
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Of course we tried to spot the fortress, but we failed. Eventually I asked a guard who keep eye on the little church up there and with his help we managed to find our "treasure". It is just in the middle of the city, among the grey buildings and doesn't mark out. That's what we have in our defence :)
On the way to the fortress we went at the bank of the river, the weather was perfect, sunny and warm. In the city there's no single bridge that would let to get to the other side, they have small ferries instead. In front of it you would have to pass the border control, but there are no queues, everything seem so calm and easy-going.
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| Border control point |
When we got to the fortress it was closed, we have known about that, that's because of the renovation. But there is a funny thing, a board on the fence says that it should be finished exactly the day we've been there! Well, we didn't decide to wait for that, the work looks like it's still far from the end.
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| Renovation in progress :) |
We continue our walk along the river to find a place for lunch and we find absolutely perfect one! A few benches with umbrellas at the river, seems it's a sort of a beach, although pretty "grassy" one.
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| Lunch place! |
And that's basically all what is worth to see in Soroca, but it's not late enough to go back. So we continue our walk in the city. Up hill we see an interesting building with the gold dome and we decide to check it out. That's how we found ourselves in Roma neighbourhood. In Soroca lives a big Roma community and the city is often called "the Romani capital of Moldova". It was very interesting wandering around these specific houses, looking so differently from Moldovan ones.
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| Romani neighborhood |
After that we felt like we have seen everything in Soroca and we decided to go back to Chisinau. The buses leave every hour and the last one is at 6 pm. One day was absolutely enough to see it all and relax, not doing anything in a rush. Maybe if we would have a chance to visit a fortress it would be different, but it will be closed for a long time probably, so you can easily make such a one day trip.
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| The church at the view point |
Come to visit Moldova in the summer! It's totally worth it and this picture of green and nature will stay with you for a long time!
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| Crossing a border by ferry |
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