(73) {Romania and Serbia} ~ Friday October 25th

Upon waking from a long sleep, having gotten very little sleep the night before,

I saw the beautiful grounds of the Patriarch's Garden that our AirBnB looked out upon.

And we heard the most beautiful church bells from the Patriarchal Cathedral. 

I went out while Mr Husband was sleeping and talked to various Romanians to find

the small grocery store nearby called "Mega Image" the word "Image" pronounced

"IM-AHG-ch" .. most of them did not speak fluent English and I felt the distinct

impression of what it is like to talk to others in a foreign (to them) language. 

Because I already knew how to say "Mega Image" as they pronounce it,

they were able to help me.

Everyone was so helpful, I was delighted.  And determined to buy

food as we had none and I knew that the first thing I needed, after sleep, was a good breakfast.

I found yogurt, eggs, a delicious cherry jam, Peanut butter, sliced bread, 

milk, Orange Juice and a jar of lovely honey.  I had brought my own tea from home.  

I used their more"Turkish" stovetop coffee pot as a teapot 

and saved the small teapot for Mr Husband's tea.

Soon I had the breakfast I needed and it gave me strength to deal with the jet lag. 

I felt so well that I later we went back and I bought 2 cans of Italian tomatoes 

with basil and spices, an onion, garlic (which somehow did not come home with us), 

fusilli pasta, and a bag of frozen spinach.

Later Mr Husband went out for more supplies - canned mushrooms

(having no idea that the Romanian can opener would be so hard to use), garlic, 

more pasta, a bottle of Rose wine, and I made a pasta sauce, 

first sauteing the onion and garlic in olive oil (that was already in the apartment),

then added the 2 cans of tomatoes (that had a pop-top lid easy to open),

and then spinach, the mushrooms, and simmered it. 

I boiled the box of fusilli pasta.

Mr Husband bought tea lights and a lighter and I had already called my friend A. who

agreed to come for dinner before the vigil for St Demetrios... 

while Mr Husband was out shopping for the above mentioned food,

I quickly cleaned up our apartment and set the table....

it was like old times,  A. over for dinner, icons already up in our apartment,

tea lights (since I had no long tapers or candlestick holders) lit...

we enjoyed a nice meal together... A.'s husband AR was working later and met us 

at the Patriarchal church later on... I dreamed of making another meal and having them 

all over, but that was not to be, but we did have every meal possible together at

various restaurants and every meal was a real gift to us all... 

I remember texting some friends back home with pictures of this meal...

Before Mr Husband and I flew to Romania we exchanged many emails

with our friends A and AR to plan everything and AR told us

how our visit coincided with one of the biggest feast days of the year for

Bucharest:  the feast of St. Demetrios on Saturday October 26th and 

St. Demetrios the New, patron Saint of Bucharest on Sunday October 27th.

The schedule for these feasts in Romania can be seen here.

THOUSANDS of people came from all over Romania.

I looked up more information when we returned home and did not even realize

that some new Romanian Saints were canonized during this weekend.

More pictures of this event are seen here.

Our friends said they had never seen so many people as this year.

We were sure the fact that the feast days landed on the weekend and

that it was fairly warm and sunny helped.  But we also prayed

that it was a sign of further religious conversion to Christ that is so needed

around the world today...

The above pictures are all of the outside of the Patriarchal Cathedral.

Unfortunately for me and perhaps you my readers, pictures were not allowed inside.

It was so beautiful. And there was a beautiful large fresco icon of St Katrina / Katherine that I 

would have loved to show my friends who have her name....  

We prayed in the church, being in the line for seeing 

and venerating various icons and Saints there...

It was my first time entering an older Orthodox church in an Orthodox country,

yet it felt so familiar as if I had been there before... 

Inside on a table was many large bottles of holy oil with many papers of people's names on 

the table and we realized that the service of Holy Unction was going to begin later that night,

at 10:30 PM... we were too tired to attend, but I put our Ottawa's Priest name for prayers

there as he had been unwell and by Sunday I learned that he had made a full recovery...

after this, we stood outside and listened to many prayers of vigil... with thousands of others...

This is the outdoor pavilion that was set up to have an altar and a place for

all the Bishops, priests and clergy with the Patriarch (the head of all the

Bishops of the country) presiding... 

This picture above is of the Bell Tower that we could hear so beautifully

from our apartment (that was about a 10 minute walk away)....

That afternoon, before making the meal and having A. over, we had

submitted the needed claim for my Chromebook to the TSA lost and found

and during this service we got an email saying that my Chromebook was found

and safe at the lost and found of the TSA near the EWR airport.

What I had sensed of God's peace and my Guardian Angel taking care of this

(even I think in a way taking it from me and putting it away as it would be

un-necessary for me to have while on Pilgrimage to Romania and Serbia) 

was clearly confirmed and we were happy and at peace....

In the above panoramic pictures I tried to capture how many people were there

and what it was like...

The huge blue containers with an icon of the Mother of God,

were full of Holy Water for Pilgrims to take...

I got some ourselves, that we have now at home with us as a blessing! 

We went to the bookstore and looked around,

there were various monastics around, including a nun who was there...

already when I had gone that morning to the Mega Image, I passed by nuns and priests... 

We did not buy anything then, but did later on...

After this, being tired and a bit cold I think, from being outside,

we walked back to our apartment...

We had packed light on clothes and did laundry every day

until Wednesday as once we flew on Friday, we would not 

have access to laundry... 

It was a wonderful first full day in Romania and one that will

remain with us for, I pray, many days and even years to come...