6 am load up. Happily I was with 3rd and 5th grade NOT the 8th who make me miserable.
There are no such things as seatbelts on these things.
Just thought I'd show this - all of the Marshruktas have religious icons hanging. Look close at the middle one is a CD! Pretty clever. The one on the left, well that is an air-freshener, though there is an icon behind it.
So the planned trip was to go to Sorocca then to a monastery. This is a town WAY up North, 5 hours, yes 5 hours on these horrible vehicle, that's one way of course. But unlike the usual rides on these things, this wasn't so bad, it was rented as a private bus so I had first choice of seats (upfront) and there was room for all, there were NOT 15 people crammed in the isle. And we stopped for bathroom breaks. I won't get into what that was like.
As I've mentioned before these things are terrible to ride on, I take 3 motion sickness meds, starting the night before, and still I have felt sick. Just so you know it's not my imagination, I lost count of how many of these children threw up into little plastic bags (CLEAR, YUCK) that Natalia brought with her.She's done this enough times to know, bring plenty. The thing about kids, they barf, and move on...... and thankfully they have little tummies. That many ADULTS throwing up in plastic bags, oh the thought of it..... Every stop we made, out went a few bags. After a child handed me one (ggrrrooossss) Natalia yelled at the children to not give Miss Sandra the bags hold on to them until we stop. Phew....
We climbed 650 steps in the burning sun to get to this monument, sure it's nice, the view was nice, the tiny inside was beautiful, but really, it doesn't look real different than ones we have in New England. And I couldn't understand a word of the history that we were being told about. That's ok, the monastery will make it worth it.
We stayed about 30 minutes then went to downtown Sorocca. This town is famous for the fort and it's why we came this far. Well it was CLOSED! On-line it said it was opened, but not. So we walked around outside for 10 minutes, again, didn't understand a thing that was being said about the history. That's OK the monastery will be worth it.
After driving back towards the south I started to think, huh, it sure is taking a long time to get to that beautiful monastery that I am so looking forward to seeing. But then I started seeing signs for the capital, Chisinau, that is on the way home. Hmmm. I noticed we passed the zoo and I thought to myself "Oh THAT is where the zoo is, I wouldn't mind going there some day" and then a YOU TURN suddenly happened and into the lot we went. Huh? See in Russian it is a ZOO too! Only it's pronounced ZOH, actually it's a zoopark pronounced zohpark, if you call it a zoopark, not a zohpark, they have NO IDEA what you just said. They CAN NOT wrap their minds around the mispronunciation of a word.
It was a lovely zoo as far as zoos go. The kids all scattered. I sat in a shady outdoor café and had ice cream and ice tea that I drank in 30 seconds. The day before I travel on these things I drink no liquids. If you were trapped on an insane speeding, swerving, bumpy Marshrukta
with no bathroom in site and you are to the point of tears because you are in so much pain, and you know you are 10 seconds from giving up and wetting yourself, well, you would understand the lack of drinking fluids before traveling. But even this doesn't always work, I worry about it happening again, really really worry, it was a nightmare. I would choose throwing up to that any day.
So with no fluids, climbing 650 stairs in the burning sun, stuffy hot Marshruktas (Moldovans believe that a breeze will make them sick all vents and windows stay closed on the Marshruktas. 100 degrees, packed with 30 people, doesn't matter) I had been fantasizing for hours and hours about drinking - anything! God help that child that pulled out half a bottle of hot water, took all my might to hold back. At the zoo, in the shade with a nice breeze on a pond with pelicans, inhaling the ice tea, well... it wasn't the monastery but I was feeling mighty fine.
Then onward for another surprise. That's the thing about not knowing a language I guess, you're in for many surprises. An amusement park was next on the agenda.
These kids are playing with my Kindle Fire (kids here are fascinated by the electronic book). I have one game, and they played and played.
Since my phone battery was almost dead I didn't have a camera but I thought that's ok, my kindle takes photos. So that is where the photos of the amusement park are and I am not smart enough to figure how to get them onto my computer. Logic says I go to my kindle folder, click on "pictures" and they'd be there, but no. And after googling and amazon help, I give up.
There were the typical amusement park rides, roller coaster, bumper cars, twirly wirly things, stuff I stay away from. However I had 4 girls tugging on me to go on a ride, though I said "no way!" Natalia said, "oh Sandra that is slow, you get a beautiful view" so ok, I've never been afraid of Ferris wheels, they do go slow. This "wheel' had no cages like ones I've been on, just an open circle for 4 people to sit (sadly 1 girl was left behind). I thought "cool I can do this" but on the climb up and over the top I was frozen with fear. As the girls oooohhheedd and aaaahhheeddd looking over the edge my legs were like jell, I couldn't turn my head for fear of making it flip over. I kept telling myself "don't panic you have 3 little girls here". As we stared our decent I finally took a breath... however I was able to lift my hand with my camera for this one photo, beautiful view right?
These kids were lucky, they had the 2 cool teachers and a cool driver. The dance music was cranked up for hours. I loved it, time went by fast, there was a disco on the Marshrukta and the kids had a blast. See... no seatbelts. With each slam of the brakes (happens a lot) or a screech around a corner (happens a lot), it was better than the amusement park rides for these kids as they squealed and laughed as they flew across the vehicle. Only ONE flew and landed under the dashboard. Now you would think that since she was the child of the woman in charge that she would YELL AT THE KIDS TO SIT DOWN!!!! NOW!! Like I felt I should. But nope. So I spent much of my time with a leg or arm across the isle to catch flying children.
The kids were having so much fun they kept yelling for me to dance with them, I gave the some arm pumps and yahoos and they LOVED IT! "MISS SANDRA DANCE" ok... so finally, well "everybody dance now..." song came on, so I did, I danced a bit. But I realized that me dancing rocked the vehicle, all of them dancing, not. So I sat down. Needless to say if any of these kids didn't like Miss Sandra before they sure do now (of course they already did they are the young ones).
Now what do children do at amusement parks? They eat hotdogs, candy, drink soda, and ride on bouncy and twirly wirly things. Yes, this produced a new round of throwing up all the way home. But as I said, kids throw up and continue on as if nothing has happened.
So a 10 hour trip, yes, it was fun and I'm glad I went and if I had been asked "do you want to go to the zoo?" I would have happily said "Oh yes!" but a zoo and amusement park are NOT a monastery. So I give up on waiting for others to get me there. I have hired a private car for 2 days to take me to 4 of them next week. Expensive, yes, but there is no way on earth I will ride on a public Marshrukta for 10 hours! This way I have my own guide and my own schedule for potty breaks.
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