It was a little disappointing to remain in Chisinau all week and not see more of what is a largely rural country but it did have advantages.
First I was in the excellent Bristol Hotel and didn’t have to pack and unpack. Secondly, when other STO teams deployed to and fro on Friday and Tuesday I was at leisure. On Tuesday three of us (F, señora M from Spain and I) drove about 60 km NE to Orheiul Vechi, a site of great antiquity. A nippy February morning with briefly a flurry of snow is a great time to be there but nobody else fancied it. We walked along a ridge above the river to a well-restored church. However, it only dates back to 1904 whereas the site yields traces of different epochs: Paleolithic, Eneolithic, Iron Age.
The church was locked so we walked down to gaze at a recreation of a typical Moldovan settlement. I was beginning to feel a bit disappointed, especially as it had been my idea to come here. On the way back to the car our driver opened a door that led into a tunnel that led downwards into the hillside. It reminded me of a door into an ice-house. I had no idea what to expect and couldn’t see anything as warmer air in the tunnel steamed up my specs. When I took them off I was in a chapel with two monks, one of whom lost no time berating me for wearing a hat. He then switched his fire to F and M for not covering their heads. Adjoining the chapel are cells in the limestone where the monks lived – an arrangement of extreme asceticism and discomfort. These days they live in rooms at the church we had seen earlier. In a pit below the cells there was a snake – a resident apparently.
The monk praying reminded me of Carpaccio’s picture of St Augustine in his study, although our monk has a snake in lieu of a dog.
It was all so unexpected and unusual but we must crack on. We drove to more caves in the limestone, passing a prison. The caves had been made to look like a Stone Age settlement – pure Fred Flintstone – and in the summer is a tourist attraction. They are still being extended, the limestone extracted being used for building. We wandered round inside and tried to watch the stone being cut but prison guards shooed us away – oops, the workers we saw were prisoners. We didn’t recognise them as they weren’t in uniform.
Time for lunch in a rustic restaurant. The shortest menu I saw in Moldova and the best food. I had borscht and dumplings. Wine? Also a short list: “wine, 1 litre, home-made’. We had the house red and very warming it was.
In the afternoon we visited Moldova’s most famous winery – Cricova. It’s famous for having 120 km of cellars in the limestone hillside and it’s getting bigger every year as more limestone is quarried for building. Tours are highly organised and ours, in English, was full but all of us were election observers. Cricova makes a lot of sparkling wine using the méthode champenoise, turning the bottles by hand. I think it is mechanised in France?
Then back to Chisinau for de-briefing by the Core Team and a buffet supper. I left when the disco music started – mission Moldova completed.
I am delighted that normal service has resumed today. Recent posts had caused me some concern that the author had traded his life of pleasure for one of tedious labour. Reading of early alarm calls, attending numerous briefings, completing STO homework, following official protocol & refraining from intervening when he thought he knew best, I wondered who was this mysterious figure; certainly not the sybaritic CJB to which we have become accustomed.
All this reporting of toil in the field makes for rather austere reading of one who is usually so aesthetically tempered. Finally, today, my hypothesis was confirmed: he only joined EOM for the free holidays. Jolly well done old boy!