A few pics off friends.

Eurovision songcontest.

Artiom and some of his friends.

Every sunday we have jam, where people bring their different instruments and play together. This day it was combined with a bbq. Here you can see pia (from right) julien, the bbq chef, Taru Jonas playing the contrabas and some randoms sitting on the bench on the side.

Daniel is playing the drumset, Jonas the drum.

Soroca and the Baron

Soroca is quite a way from Chisinau, so we had to leave early in the morning, but then arrived to nice weather and a picnic by the Nistru river, overlooking Ukraine.

I went with 3 mates, Marcia, Lisa ( I live with them) and Natasha. Even though a lot of people go to Soroca to speak with the Baron, we still caused a bit of a stir.
Here we are walking by the river on our way to see the fort ( the small thing sticking up in the background)

It was a high climb ( I am not use to stairs;)) but a great view,

Unlike Gypsys, Romas, Thinganis or whatever they are called around the world, the Gypsy people who live in Soroca are very "integrated"into society - just to use a frase you hear often in newsletters encouraging fear of the "travellers".

 In Soroca they have BIG houses, which they built themselves from Money they earn in Russia (mainly) doing trading etc.
This explains why they mainly speak Russian...
But anyway. This is a picture of one of the houses... pretty impressive eh?!

Walking and trying to find the Baron (it actually worked asking for the way to il Baron haha) we met this family who invited us in for tea.
The son spoke english quite well and they explained a lot of things.
We also had an interesting conversation about marriage, and family life. They have arranged marriges, and marry quite young. The women in the red was 21, married when she was 15 and had her first child when she was 18. Bum bum...

This is Natasha with the Baron Arthur. He inhereted the title, and his father was the Baron for all Gypsys in the USSR.
He knows many languages, plays 7 different instruments and makes a killer homemades wiskey;)
To be a Baron means to be a representative and good rolemodel, and he encouraged everyone to get an education, because the old crafts were slowly dying. To be a gypsy to him means to be close to family ( and something about spirituality, but I didnt quite understand it). They all live in the house, and it is the youngest sun who inherits it.

Here he is with his wife (to the right) and his sister (to the left)

Out and about in Moldova

May is full of public holidays which makes it perfect for travelling and seeing a bit of Moldova. But where to go?
Usually we just go to the nearest gara and take the first marchutka out. Since it only takes 6 hrs to cross moldova, you can never get to far away.
This is the view going to Leova.

Louise eating lunch in the only alimentare (name of the shops). There was nothing really interesting about this city, so sometimes we are not that lucky with out destinations.

Another day we went to Tipova which is known for their rock monestaries. (and crazy priests)

The new church... They are always very pretty!

View over Nestru river (one of Moldovas 2 rivers) On the other side you can see Transnistrea.

Walking to the rock monestary.
When we arrived we were greated my a a priest, who told us about the places and surroundings. The monestary is surrounded by waterfalls, and in the old days people would throw children down the waterfalls as sacrifice. Luckily the orthodox religion came and saved the soul and built a church, and as soon as this was done, the waterfalls holy, and now people go there to be healed.

 It was a very intense experience. he made us kneal why he told us the story and emphasized that there were a lot of dead people in the walls... Also there had been two attempt of renovation, but all the people ever working on the church became insane...