Advertisement
Published: October 14th 2007
Edit Blog Post
We woke up rather early and left the room as discretely as possible. The girl on the desk rang and ordered us a taxi and we thought told them where we were going. The driver was lovely, but it was only when he gave us a map as a gift that we realised we were heading to the wrong bus station. When we did get to the right station he asked around till he found the right bus for us.
The driver of the bus wasn't as nice and when we went to put our bags in the storage section he charged us ten UAH which is only £1 but still cheeky. We would have argued, but it was our leftover Ukrainian currency and we would have just left it on the bus anyway.
The journey to Moldova was pleasant but we were only just over the border when the bad quality of roads became quickly obvious. The border crossing was relatively painless although it did take a long time.
We arrived in Chisinau (kish-ee-now) around half two-ish and I worried slightly. A guy at our hostel in Odessa told us that Moldova in particular Chisinau had nothing
to do and was in the middle of nowhere. Unbeknown to us we had arrived in the south-west bus station, but we thought we were going to be stuck in the world's smallest capital city. After consulting the oracle that is Lonely Planet we figured out where we were and attempted to find a cash machine. There weren't any in the general vicinity of the station and as usual the woman in the western union booth was a stony faced bitch. (Appears to be a universal norm.) We did find a cash machine but it wouldn't accept a single one of the seven different cards we tried. Luckily I remembered the Euros that were hidden inside my sock from the border guards (Trandiniestr, i'll explain later) and fished out a twenty to exchange to Moldovan Lei. There are currently 22.30 - £1 which basically meant that Rob had a nice wad of money in his wallet. The guy who served us was amazingly nice and helped us figure out which bus we needed.
The minibus driver was really friendly and gestured that he'd let us know when to jump off. Rob stood up to let a woman sit down
and she sat next to me and tried to chat until the driver told her we were English. From then on she tapped my arm a lot and grinned away. At the least we left a good impression of the English.
We got off the bus and a glance at the map showed us that it was easy to navigate our way to the hostel despite it being a bit of a distance. Even though I made it clear I knew where we were going, two guys really wanted to help out. In the space of half an hour we'd met three groups of Moldovian people who were so friendly and helpful, it is a world of difference from the Ukraine.
The hostel was about as appealing as the roads we had to walk down to get there. We had been warned that stray dogs are a problem in Moldova / Romania but we weren't expecting so many of them. They bark and howl a lot, but as yet they haven't gone for us. The Central Hostel Chisinau was not exactly what we were expecting. It consists of two tiny bedrooms and a bathroom. It said in the
advert that they had internet, what they really meant was that there was an internet café a few blocks away that is impossible to find. They said cosy, what they meant was too small for two people to be awake and moving around at the same time. English speaking meant we could use the phone to call the daughter of the owner who could speak a bit of English. There is a kitchen but it is inside a bedroom so you can't use it in the morning or evening. I could go on, but it isn't really necessary.
After being in the hostel for a few minutes we decided there was little point hanging around so we decided to catch the last bit of daylight and then stay out for the evening. We quickly discovered that Chisinau is a lively and busy place full of bars, restaurants, cafes etc. We walked around till darkness fell and then found a little bar where we managed to sit outside and have a bottle of draught (?) Chisinau. Not bad.
We walked around for a while and attempted to find a cash machine that worked which was a bit of a
mamoth task. There was plenty to see and look at whilst strolling around, and what made it more pleasant were people who smiled when you made eye contact. Moldovians appear to be really friendly, happy, welcoming people.
We followed the directions of Lonely Planet to a restaurant called La Taifa. It served Moldovian cuisine which surprisingly appears to be vegetarian friendly. I had to order a garnish as a main but there was so much choice. The best thing about the restaurant was that they had a Moldovian folk group playing as you ate which wasn't as cheesey as you would think. One guy was playing what I swear was a Yangchin, but they told me it was something different. There was a group of people our age sitting at the table opposite us and they were definitely celebrating something. They went through at least five bottles of vodka that we saw. Hilariously there was a guy who everytime a round was poured took a sip and then chucked the shot into the wicker behind him. Rob decided that it was how one should drink vodka.
We walked to find a non existent internet café which seemed like
a good idea until we had to navigate our way back to the hostel in the dark and were surrounded by evil, rabid dogs. I was so glad of my torch even though Rob mocked me for using it, but better safe than sorry.
Back at the hostel everyone was in bed so we climbed into bed as quietly as possible and attempted to sleep. Our beds are right next to the window where a pack of stray dogs are howling and fighting right outside the window, so needless to say it is not going to be the best nights sleep.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.035s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0119s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
irene
non-member comment
er, how,exactly, ......
Quote - "I was so glad of my torch even though Rob mocked me for using it, but better safe than sorry." Er, from a dog - lover how did you use your torch Steph? I do hope you used it to light up the way for the poor little homeless darlings. I would hate to think you might have wacked them with it.......