Well, the day started when the sun wanted it. He gave awakening!
Going through all the morning activities ... we got to the streets again! We quit the habit of taking our first coffee in our favorite coffee shop because we want to save time. We take the coffee packed!
Going on this walk in a city we are tourists and I want this post to turn into a travel post. To try to make it useful for potential readers who could come to these places at some point!
Still, in front of the favorite church in Iasi, a special architectural monument. Actually, it's a monastery, a downtown monastery.
The Three Holy Hierarchs Monastery is located in the traditional center of Iaşi, on Stefan cel Mare and St. Stephen's Boulevard. It was built by voivode Vasile Lupu, between 1637 and 1639. Here are the relics of St. Parascheva, the protector of Iasi. They were here from 1641 until 1888. After a fire, the relics were moved to the Metropolitan Cathedral of Iasi, where they are now.
Stefan cel Mare and St. Stephen's Boulevard is the main boulevard in Iasi, the place where the inhabitants and tourists walk every day, from morning till night. The boulevard starts from the Palace of Culture and is largely pedestrian. It is surrounded by important buildings for the history of Iasi and Romania.
Some of the buildings I mentioned, Metropolitan Cathedral of Iasi where are the relics of St. Parascheva...
... and the National Opera House in Iasi, which is very important for us.
We stayed pretty much here to drink a little coffee ... now on the way, it will show you a few things that caught our attention and we liked it. As I have already said, it is important to see the beauty of the small things and gestures around us ... this will definitely make us a beautiful day.
In the middle of the boulevard are large flower containers and even a golden car ... not really golden, it's gold-plated mosaic. Also, there are a few cars that will appear at a race ...
We have reached the end of the boulevard, close to an important square, Unirii Square. We see one of the colorful trams in Iasi and ...
... a venerable lady feeding the pigeons. This is a piece of her beautiful and sublime Sunday, for sure!
Unirii Square
The statue is of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the first prince of the Romanian provinces of Moldova and Tara Romaneasca, united in 1859. This was the first union.
The second union was between the two and Transylvania in 1918. Now we celebrate a hundred years since Romania existed in this form.
The crossing of the Unirii Square is quite dangerous, hundreds of pigeons fly in all directions!
There is always someone to feed them.
Well, it all happens on a five hundred meters walk. Our true ride is just beginning (in our intent).
Start with our favorite street in Iasi, Alexandru Lapusneanu street, also a street where there are no cars.
I want to hurry a bit, it's already late and I think I'm a little lost in details.
We could buy a good ice cream but we abstained, we could take funny pictures but we abstained, we could buy a book but we stopped.
But I went into a church and lit two candles in the memory of some dear ones.
That's how we got through pretty fast and we got to the beginning of Copou Boulevard, our target today. We meet the statue of Mihai Eminescu, the greatest Romanian poet.
We are halfway to the Botanical Garden, our ultimate goal. The alert rhythm of our walk takes us a few minutes of rest.
Besides us a father and a child passed quickly, they were at the advantage of being on a bicycle.
A very beautiful surprise for us, the biker not only did not mind me as I photographed ... even thanked me. It made me great joy and a very beautiful day for this reason. Even sublime!
There are beautiful people around us, the world is not lost ... if the child learns from his father we have a future!
The advantage of walking. We meet interesting places and buildings. I'm attracted to the very old and degraded buildings, I do not know why, I never liked the new stuff.
We see another house left to degrade, I was wondering why this is happening ... until we got nearer and read the plaque that was placed on the wall.
Oh, horror! Here was the seat of security in the first years since the establishment of communism in Romania with the help of the USSR. Here people who opposed the Communist and Russian powers were imprisoned, tortured and killed. Let's quickly get through these places with very low and bad energy!
Fortunately, very close, after some buildings is the technical faculty building. It's an old building almost two hundred years old, especially beautiful. Now it is being renovated.
The fact that here teaches thousands of young people brings a lot of good energy. They are on vacation but the energy has remained.
I entered the empty building now for the young and I had a very big surprise. A separate post that will fill it out will also show you what I found inside.
I did it: Beautiful Day, Long Day of Sunday (first addition)!
After a few hundred meters we reached the first park. There are many parks here. The neighborhood is called Copou, it is the most beautiful in Iasi, and here live the richest in this city.
I have noticed here that the biggest birds live, the trees are their homes.
I left the boulevard and continued the walk through the coolness of the park.
The trees in the park were part of a forest that covered the whole area. Many of them were cut to release the land to build. They only stay in the parks and the botanical garden.
Corn flakes just bake. What luck!
A new little joy that must be shown.
We did not even get to finish eating popcorn, and another one looked like something cold and sweet. Because my wife is a big kid (fortunately!), she stays at the tail to get her ice cream. At first I tried to keep myself away but I was corrupt. I have to recall that it was very tasty!
Walking is more enjoyable after something good passed through our nose. The park is full of people who want to spend Sundays outside the house. Even the lonely ones are not so alone ...
There is something very special in this park. One Tree. Linden tree. Eminescu's linden tree! It is the oldest tree in Iasi, it is about 540 years old. Here Eminescu, the greatest Roman poet, used to sit in the shade and read while he was in Iasi(1875).
About Eminescu and Iasi will also be a separate post.
We still have a little walk and get to the botanical garden. I did not know what to expect here, but it really is a big temptation. A place to eat in the street (in our case ... in the park) with countless goodies. I could not resist and I took something very easy, fries with a salad. With beer, of course, because I was stuck. The long walk has dehydrated us.
We were strong, we resisted the temptation to eat more. It was our luck otherwise we would have given up the visit to the botanical garden. About this place filled with good things and temptations will be a new post attached to this about beautiful and sublime Sunday!
That's how we arrived, pushing through temptations, to the botanical garden. The superb botanical garden in Iasi, the oldest in Romania. It was founded in 1856!
There is too much to show and say so again I have to promise that there will be a separate post about the botanical garden, a post that complements this post about the beautiful and sublime Sunday. Until then, a flower from the garden.
It was again a beautiful Sunday full of joy. A Sunday of discoveries in the beautiful city of Iasi.
Tired, after almost seven hours of walking, we dropped back to our house. We took a bus that took us close to the house in ten minutes.
Because I did not eat in the park (and I'm sorry I did not) we stopped at a Greek restaurant near our house.
I ate for the first time in this restaurant and I was pleasantly surprised. We ate the famous Greek gyros, to think a little about the holiday that will come in over a month.
How well our house is so close. We live on the top floor of this block. Over a week we will leave Iasi.
We have come to an end. I made this post as a report, we followed our moves step by step. I did this to help potential tourists find it easier to find the beauties in Iasi. Of course, if they liked what they saw here!
A brief recapitulation.
The route followed was this:
It was a distance of about five kilometers.
Well, let's see!
- Popcorn = $1.25
- Ice cream(5) = $4.0
- Beer (2) = $2.50
- Fries and salad = $3.50
- Tickets to the botanical garden(2) = $3.0
- Tickets to the bus(2) = $1.0
- Restaurant(2) = $17.50
Total for a beautiful day = $32.75
In conclusion, I don't find it expensive. It is reported by the purchasing power of the Romanians. For foreign tourists this amount is probably small. Of course, if you want things, special places ... the price can grow a lot.
