The Palace of Culture is the most iconic and unmissable place in the city of Iași. Its unusual scale, the clean look, coupled with the fact that the Palace Mall is surrounding the entire area, made me assume that the Palace was part of the shopping mall, which was not true. The Palace was constructed in 1925, and now houses the Modavia National Museum Complex.It was very sunny and hot today, and the colors look overly saturated, but they were what it seemed like with naked eyes.@ Palace of Culture, Iași, Romania, June 14, 2019
I had the pleasure to attend Oana and Liviu’s wedding in Botoșani, a region in Romania where the locals refer to as just ‘Moldova’, which is separate from yet closely related to the neighboring country, Republic of Moldova.
In the country’s capital, Bucharest, I was told that Moldovans know how to party, and this was exactly witnessed at the wedding after party. We repeated eating, drinking, and dancing overnight.
The traditional ‘Hora’ dance was a good exercise and it was great to meet other guests in general. Each song was quite long (about 10 minutes or less) so it helped renew my appetite for the next course meal dish, which was served up until 2:30am.
@ Botoșani, Romania, June 16, 2019
The majority of Romanians (86%) belongs to Romanian Orthodox Church, and most weddings follow such traditions. I knew little about Orthodox Church in general, and attending a Romanian Orthodox wedding opened up my eyes to the long-standing world of Orthodox Christianity.
One thing that particularly captured my attention was the fast and endless chanting of the priest. Almost during the entire session, he never stopped chanting, which, at the end, felt like he had finished reciting a small book. And he did all this with well-timed collaboration with his colleague (he might be a monk but I am not sure about the formal title), who was providing the background chanting, occasionally with melodies. I was told that some or many of the messages are not deemed relevant to some widely-accepted modern values, for example regarding gender roles. But from the point of execution, I saw a high degree of professionalism and definition of rituals.
@ Botoșani, Romania, June 16, 2019
The Voroneț Monastery is one of the Painted churches of Moldavia that are collectively listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The church is well known for its exterior frescos, whose details and intense colors have been well-preserved. Personally, I liked the organic circular design of the building, and the not-too-overwhelming feeling around the church and inside the monastery. This place was one of the things that inspired me to learn more about Orthodox Church.
@ Voroneț Monastery, Suceava, Romania, June 17, 2019