One question that I get asked a lot by people in the US, is how I stay warm in Moldova. To answer the question of how I stay warm I always answer “my soba” and then I get blank stares or silence because not many people know what a soba is. It is a stove that is in almost every Moldovan house. Some use gas, but most are run on wood and/or coal. They are built with bricks and some also use ceramic tile. The heat is radiated from the bricks and it is able to heat the surrounding rooms in a house. My host mom takes care of the soba for me, she starts it around 4 pm and then keeps adding coal throughout the evening so it is nice and warm throughout most of the night. So the soba is my best friend all winter because it keeps me nice and warm on the cold winter nights.
Hopefully the soba won’t need to be used much more as tomorrow is the first day of Spring in Moldova!
O zi buna
March 1, 2013 at 5:16 am
So cool! That actually seems pretty efficient!
March 1, 2013 at 10:58 am
Soba hug! I kinda wish I had one but my radiators do the trick!