Having travelled to Dublin Airport on a night bus, it was a pleasant surprise for our group of six people from the West of Ireland, to be greeted at the unearthly hour of 5a.m. by Fr. Ireneu of the Greek Orthodox Church, Arbour Hill, Dublin, who blessed us and sent us on our way.
Having missed our connecting flight at Frankfurt, it was nearly 11p.m. when we arrived in Bucharest, but our friends Mihai and Zsuzsanna, two young iconographers, were there to greet us and accompanied us to our hotel, in the courtyard of which royal weddings were once held.
The following morning, after a short walking tour of the city, we took the train to Braşov, where we were met by Fr. Ireneu’s sister Marie Ileana , who introduced us to the monastery driver.  We travelled the one and a half hour’s journey at break-neck speed, through rather flat, open country-side with the beautiful snow-capped Carpathian mountains in the distance.

A trip to the city of Sibiu in the monastery minibus, was the highlight of Monday.  We were surprised to find that it is the Cultural Capital of Europe for 2007.  Of special interest was a visit to the Theological University where the only lady on the staff showed us their library and little church.  Other important visits were to a ground-floor Primary School museum attached to a church, but upstairs was an invaluable collection of rare books and manuscripts, including the first book ever printed.

We concluded our day with a visit to a huge outdoor museum which, apart from a few wooden sculptures, contained many and varied examples of Romanian houses, all made of timber and stone, which had been brought from all over the country.
Our final morning at the monastery began with breakfast with the abbot, who was a professional rugby player before answering the Lord’s call.  After exchange of gifts, he accompanied us to a meeting with an elderly blind monk, who has written many books and is reputed for his sanctity.  He answered our many questions and ended with the advice ‘you don’t have to travel the world to find God!’

We had one more interview before departing for Braşov.  This was with the hermit iconographer who has a tiny studio in the monastery grounds.  We admired his many icons.

Our journey to Braşov saw us take the road to Bran Castle, famous home of Dracula!  It is more beautiful on the outside than the inside.  Somewhat later, we found ourselves driving up and up until we reached a fashionable ski resort.  In the little timber church there, we actually saw the end of a small wedding. Here beside the church, we were to dine in a stylish restaurant – a final gift from the abbot, who joined us half way through the meal.  I’m sure our driver was happy when he had deposited us at our hotel for the night.

Marie Ileana called to the hotel and was on hand again the next morning to see us off on the train for Bucharest.  After an afternoon stroll around that city, accompanied by Mihai and his sister Dana, we went to a restaurant where we were entertained by dancers in national costume.
Next morning Mihai arrived again to take us for a walk in the nearby park with its beautiful lake, before leaving for the airport and saying our final good-byes.

Our flights to Frankfurt and Dublin were a bumpy affair with plenty of turbulence, so we were glad when our plane landed safely on Irish soil.  We found that the West was very much awake on our return there next day!

Majella O'Keeffe

Finally landed in Brancoveanu Orthodox Monastery, we had a welcome meal in the monastery refectory – the walls and ceilings of which were covered with icons, and went straight to the Church for Night Prayer.  It was a strange experience really, repeated many times in the coming days – so different from our Catholic worship, with plenty of incense – offered from a bell-bedecked thurible which rattled noisily.

Saturday – the Feast of the Epiphany was a special day – one reason why this time of year was chosen for our trip.  There was no breakfast today or Sunday and we went to prayers at 8.30a.m. on both days.  This included Liturgy of the Eucharist, but Holy Communion wasn’t distributed to most of the monks nor the congregation, on the feast of the Epiphany, only on a spoon from the chalice, to a few babies in their mothers’ arms! (We weren’t present for communion on Sunday as we had Mass in the Guest House with our own two priests.  This was a truly moving experience with deep sharing between the group members.)
It was now 12.30p.m. so a welcome lunch followed.  It is customary for the monks to feed many poor people in their own refectory and there seemed to be a very large crowd of people on Saturday and Sunday.  After lunch  we visited the monastery museum and walked to a mineral spring up the mountain, where we shared, prayed and sang ‘Ag Chríost an Síol’.