Adventura: the Romanian Trip Pt 3

So I've covered the basic schedule of the trip, and I've covered the churches and some of the people we met there. But I haven't told you anything about the places we visited that were, for lack of a better term, "tourist attractions."

During the first week, we went to the Bear's Caves in Bihor and wandered around there for a bit. I loved getting to drive around in the mountains...not sure who has the picture from the caves in their possession, but it looked so much like a snippet from The Sound of Music that we started singing the music on the way home, and got Cristi laughing over our attempts to yodel in "The Lonely Goatherd" song. :D Inside the caverns, Cristi scared the piddiddle outta me by snorting right behind my ear in the darkest part of the cave. I would not have been scared if it was a bear-noise he made, having expected that. But to hear something like a wild-boar right in my ear was definitely startling enough to make me scream. The Bear Caves reminded me a whole lot of Luray Caverns. I have no idea where the pictures are from that day though...you had to pay 15 leu to bring a camera in (like 5 bucks) so only one or two of our group did so, and I forget who it was. :D Beautiful stalactites and stalagmites...I touched even though it said no touching. *oopsie*

Friday night of the first week we were able to go with the youth from Bethel and stand in the Town Square of Arad. We sang "Ma-ncred in El" ("Muncrayed un yell", more or less...we don't really have phonetic spelling for their letters) in English and Romanian were twenty years ago, 100,000 Christians were flat on their faces with Communist guns pointed at them. Really powerful stuff.

Justin had to ride in the trunk because we were packing way too many people into Adventura. (Christi's car). At the stoplights he kept popping the lid and waving at people.

The buildings in The Square were beautiful...

An excerpt from my journal:

Standing there in the quiet, brilliantly lit Square, a chill traveled down my spine. I listened while Alex read the inscription on the plaque, and the tune of "Red and Black" began to spin through my mind. The names on the monument had ages beside them...most were 18,19,20, 21...our ages. The appropriateness of this group of Christians standing in the Square where 20 years ago many were killed settled upon my heart...As Christi and Pastor John told us, the Government may press the Church, but they cannot steal Jesus' bride. "Amin".

We also went to Timisoara's Town Square where the whole Revolution actually started. That was really neat as well, though I was focused less on the history, and more on Italian shoes and catching pigeons...and buying the world's most amazing softserve.

I tried so desperately hard to catch a pigeon, even pilfering some of Matthew's Romanian Chicken Nuggets...they were cannibalistic enough to eat the nuggets, but I never did get my hands on one.

Sometimes we stayed closer to home and visited more...common places like the Mall! My only complaint about the new, three-story mall in Arad is that you can still smoke inside. And that gives me a headache. Especially when we walked past the hookah-bar. O.o Christi took us bowling at the mall on e day after a funeral. :D He and Justin were the best bowlers.

We were able to go a really neat basilica (and old cathedral) made in 1520! It was absolutely breathtaking...

Here is my initial take on it from The Journal:

We drove out first to an immense cathedral that, at first glance, appears to be entirely crumbling. Crumbling, yes, but entirely powerful and intimidating. We walked up at our leisure--it seems a boorish thing to rush a cathedral--and made it up the 3 immense flights of stairs to the castle-style front doors...so much pomp and circumstance, but little heart. The building made me dizzy. Literally so much splendour and the soaring arches were so high I couldn't look up without tipping over. :) The name of the church was Maria Radna, and I know there are so many stories behind that church...

These are a few of the amazing places we were privileged to see. Of course I enjoyed going to all the random little villages--so special. 

Next up: Home and Eatables! ;D