A Day of Sightseeing in Iasi




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  • 2015-03-21 21:32:09
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  Have you been to Moldova? I have not. At the same time, I have recently spent two weeks there. Can it be more confusing than that? Those interested in history might know that except for the country Moldova, there is a historical and geographical region Moldova located in Northeast Romania. Over the spring break, I traveled to Iasi, a cultural capital of this region. [caption id="attachment_26268" align="alignleft" width="126"]IMG_5711 Church of the Three Hierarchs[/caption] Iasi has five public universities and I have always thought of it as a student city because of all those Romanian work and travel students in the States who all studied at the same university or at least in the same city, Iasi. That is why it was hard for me to believe that the town has about 20 times more churches and monasteries than universities. It is one of the oldest cities in Romania and a candidate for a title of European Capital of Culture in 2021. From Sofia, I took a TAROM plane to the capital Bucharest and then a train from there. If anyone decides to repeat this journey, carefully arrange your trip. Your plane might take off up to 30 minutes later so make sure to have a back-up plan if you are short on time. Romanian trains are never late compared to other means of public transportation inside the country. “Romania is a small country where it takes a while to get from one city to another,” said my fellow traveler Tedi Cohai who studies in Iasi. Indeed, it took seven hours of a train ride from Bucharest to reach town. There is a noticeable difference between the two cities. Bucharest is "big" and busy: tall buildings, traffic on the street, and mostly grumpy people rushing to work. Such a typical capital! In comparison, life in Iasi is slower and locals are much friendlier. My Iasi must-visit list based on one full day of sightseeing can be summed up into three buildings located on the same street: Palace of Culture, Church of the Three Hierarchs, and The Metropolitan Cathedral. [caption id="attachment_26228" align="alignright" width="285"]The Palace of Culture The Palace of Culture[/caption] The Palace of Culture, a neo-gothic style building inspired by a Palace of Justice in Paris, is part of “Moldova” National Museum Complex. It is a museum and the most beautiful building I have seen in Iasi. It is undergoing restoration and will be available to the general public again in January 2016 if everything goes according to plan. Even though the Palace’s website advises visitors to take a tour of other museums of  the complex, my recommendation would be to go to Iasi sometime after January when the palace is already open to be able to combine knowledge gaining with aesthetical pleasure. “We don’t need hospitals. We have God,” Cohai said, smiling. In fact, Iasi, being a city of around a hundred square kilometers, has around a hundred churches. This means that there is one church per one square kilometer. As an example, along Stefan cel Mare si Sfant Boulevard, within a 300-meter radius of one another there is a Church of the Three Hierarchs and The Metropolitan Cathedral. The Church of the Three Hierarchs’ exterior is stunning: Oriental, western gothic and Renaissance motifs are sculpted in the stone walls of the church. Even for a sharp eye, it will take some time to find two similar ornaments, so unique and ingenious each of them is. The Metropolitan Cathedral contains a different mystery: the relics of St. Paraschiva, the patron saint of Moldova. Every Oct. 14, on St. Paraschiva’s feast day, millions of pilgrims come from Romania and neighboring countries to kneel before the relics and ask for miracles. “Miracles happen in everyday life,” one of the priests in the cathedral said, in a casual conversation with me. “We just have to notice them.” [caption id="attachment_26225" align="alignleft" width="305"]In La Placinte In La Placinte[/caption] A little "miracle" after a long day is a good meal at a nice place. I can recommend La Placinte. It has a great variety of Moldovan and Romanian national food, as well as some meals familiar to Bulgarians. Even though their coffee is not so great, the traditional pastry is delicious and definitely worth trying, especially placinta, a Romanian and Moldovan traditional flat cake with all sorts of different fillings, sweet or sour. Placinte made my day, but after a meal I realized that my mom still cooks the best borsch ever. Romania is considered to be one of the poorest countries in the European Union, but you would not say that about Iasi. People there are one of the friendliest, with men in suits giving women flowers on the street, maybe not only on the International Women’s Day.