Pale Gold, With a Pear Aroma, and a Bubbly Splash of Peaches

I’ve developed a bad habit of waking up two hours before I actually need to leave and simply lying in bed for the rest of the time I could be dreaming through my REM phase. Instead, the night before, I set my alarm for 6:30 when we have to leave at 9. Why???

Anyway, Vera, Amelia (who returned from camp last night!) and I all went to the US Embassy this morning to board a bus that would take us to the Curchi Monastery in Orhei, another city near Chisinau. The day before, in order to get to Ultimate practice, I had to pass by the embassy. Being unaware of the restriction on photographing the embassy, I snapped a photo of the building with its guards and gates. I noticed a couple moments later that the guards had all gathered and were pointing at me. Woops. I just kept on walking. I got the picture!

After everyone had arrived we set off for the monastery. It took about forty-five minutes to get there by a contracted minibus that kept on stalling out and giving me little heart attacks. We made it eventually, driving through many farm fields with corn, grapes, and lots of other fruits and vegetables. Many of the farms we passed owned goats, cows, and horses. Some of the goats were relaxing (jchillin’) only a couple yards away from the highway! While the picture doesn’t show the country’s true beauty, the green and yellow of the farmland sprawls over the ground for miles and is just picturesque.

When arriving at the monastery, us women had to cover our heads with scarves we had brought with us, out of respect to the building and customs. Unfortunately we were not allowed to photograph the inside of the building, for it was stunning. Built from a light wood that was glossed over, the walls and ceiling of the building were gilded and the candlelight illuminated the church, reflecting of the gold. All the writing being in Russian, I couldn’t read the words on the walls or descriptions of artifacts but I recognized pictures of the Virgin Mary with Jesus and a few other disciples.

After visiting the gift shop, we boarded the bus again and this time headed to Chateau Vartely Winery! The winery was handsomely built with a tourist-like appearance but simultaneous authentic wine factory aura. The surrounding scenery was also amazing as the winery was built on one of the hills in the area. Our tour guide led us through the distillery and storage buildings, showing us the enormous metal tanks that held the wine. We ended the tour in the cellars holding the newest wines. Countless barrels filled the room, each labeled with the sample and vintage.

We proceeded to the wine tasting in the lower level of the basement. Each placemat at the table held four glasses, a smaller one for white wines, the regular red wine glass, and an extra glass. The fourth glass held still water. Between every few placemats, a wine bottle that was tempered into an appetizers tray was filled with cheese, walnuts, crackers, and dried apricots and grapes. Included at each placemat was a pamphlet for scoring each wine by color, bouquet (smell), and taste. I scored each of them, and my favorite was a white wine, which, of course, I didn’t catch the name of. Everyone was just a little tipsy by the time we went to lunch!

The lunch banquet was outside in the shade with a warm breeze blowing. We had a huge meal for only about $20, which is great, and my meal was delicious! It was way too much food, but I got to try a bit of everything. My first course was a game meat soup, which I had with placinte. Then I had mamaliga with cream-and-chicken. For dessert there was sweet placinte with some type of berry in it, maybe sour cherry, and powdered sugar sprinkled on top.  I was so stuffed!  A nice perk was that we got to finish the wines that were opened from the tasting so whichever was your favorite you could sample a little more of. The wine, sun, and excess of food made for a great car nap on the way home. When we got back to Chisinau I was exhausted but I had had an amazing day!

 

To top it off, I woke up this morning and had a two-hour Skype session with the best big brother in the world! <3