Sucky Suceava and the painted monasteries

Sounds like a Harry Potter title.

We finally made it to Romania, first stop Suceava. Its fair to say that the town is not the most attractive - something about the way they dye the water in their fountains pink, green and blue. There is however one redeeming tourist feature, which are the nearby monasteries with many painted frescos on the exterior and interior.

We stayed at a very nice hostal "Monicas". She also leads informative tours around the monasteries (she was a guide for Michael Palin on his EE foray into Romania!). It was a fascinating day out, passing lots splendid scenery, many many cabbages and some of the worst toilets we have yet to experience ever in the world. (Romania is now officially top of our "shit list" - not a great tourist statistic).

We finished off the day with some Romanian guided cooking - ie Monica told us what to buy and we stood back and watched her cook ! Not surprisingly there was a core theme of cabbage to the dishes, but in defense of Romanian cuisine they all tasted excellent. Two Italians joined us late in the evening and we had a most enlightening conversation about Romanian Gypsies (apparently Italy has a large population of these gypsies and there are many tensions between the two countries).

Next up a long train journey that we are somewhat pessimistic about.