Day Seven. Suçeava

We arrived in Suçeava it had been a long journey and we we're tired.  The "taxi" drove away as soon as he'd dropped us off, leaving us in a cloud of dust.

We stood and starred at our  pension, it was in darkness, I pushed the gate, it was locked. I spotted a buzzer on the gate post, pushing the button, nothing seemed to happen. I tried the gate again, it swung open.

The door was locked, but again there was another button.  Eventually a stern, surprised looking woman answered the door.  I explained we had a reservation, she shrugged.  I tried again, and she said "Of course" and gestured for us to enter.

She gave us a choice of rooms, we chose the one with a bath, and she left us to settle in.  When we left for dinner it struck us what a strange location was, a bit like finding a mansion on the centre of a run down council estate.

We were both very hungry, so opted to go straight out to eat.  The first decent looking place we found was called London Pub, we wasn't looking for somewhere to remind us of home, the food was okay, and the pub was nothing like anything you would find in London, but we welcomed the sustenance.

We returned to the hotel, and the joys of Romanian hotel plumbing, the bath was welcome, but we couldn't get it to drain, and when we did the room was filled with sewer stench. But it still was good to have a soak rather than a shower

When we got settled to sleep, we heard some dogs barking, it got louder and louder, and just when you thought it had stopped, they started again.

By 1am, I was ready to walk out and find somewhere new, but I fell asleep, and didn't wake till sunrise.

In the morning, both very tired, we debated whether to spend a second night, or cut our losses and checkout. We decided to talk it over after breakfast, and once we'd had some coffee inside of us.

Breakfast was fantastic, a range of local cheeses, tasty tomatoes, and cold cuts, with a freshly cooked omelette to boot.  We felt better after food, and decided that we would use our second night, no way could the same happen again, could it?

Suçeava, has a more modern feel than Cluj, but still feels stuck in the 1980's, it's part of the charm of Romania, but understandably, it's not something they are proud of.  The oldest buildings in Suçeava seem to be the churches, of which there are many, Stephen the Great built a new church every time he won a battle, it appears he was a successful war monger.  Every other building however appears to be a concrete tower block.

Suçeava does have a lovely plaza with stone paving and a pedestrianised street, something we didn't see in the traffic bustle of Cluj.  An Easter display had been made on the square, giant rabbits and eggs made of tinsel, it was illuminated at night and did look fantastic.

Either we missed something, or there's not much to see in Suçeava, we did have a couple of top notch meals and managed to get provisions for our journey to Kiev.

The monasteries are supposed to be fantastic, but, all but one you need transport to see, so it's not possible on this trip.

You do see the Ukrainian/Russian influence here, the language is slightly different, both in accent and the way it is written, you see fairer skinned people, some with blond hair.

After a lovely meal in the Latino restaurant we make our way back to the pension, in the distance we can hear dogs barking....