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Published: January 30th 2008
MORNING GLORY
Friday 3:45 in the AM and my Mobile plays the tune “the Entertainer” it’s my wake up call for our (epic) Journey to Moldova. I wake up Marina and Lisa (our little 15 month old bundle of joy) and we start to get dress and wait for our Taxi. So it begins……
The Plan, like all good plans are worked out well in advance and are flexible if anything goes wrong, well the plan was to fly with Czech airlines to Bucharest (via) Prague. And then take a flight to Moldova (Chisinau) with Tarom Airlines.
We arrived at Manchester Airport at 5am, and waited in line for the check in to open. Marina’s suitcase was huge and weighed just under the 25kgs limit. It was full of gifts for all her family and probably the kitchen sink. I got talking to bob and his son who was going to Bulgaria, he was looking to buy property and take in some skiing. We cleared security and went in Costa coffee for a much needed caffeine injection.
Marina was so excited about seeing her family again and hopefully 10pm this evening this would happen.
We pushed Lisa in
her buggy to gate and boarded the plane, we had been flying for 15 minutes and noticed that we was still very low and I was getting worried then I heard the dreaded words “Due to a technical fault we are returning back to Manchester”..
Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit ….
DONT BUGGY ME
We disembark and are sent back to the gate, minus our buggy, and we herded in a waiting room. After about one hour waiting we hear a call out for us to exit the departures and we go to the arrivals hall and collect our baggage. (Marina’s huge Suitcase and the buggy). We get the case off but no buggy, we wait and wait and wait, but no buggy. We are the only passengers in the waiting area now; they get in touch the plane but the Buggy is lost, we fill out a form with lost luggage dept, I am fuming with them “How can you lose the f…king buggy? We haven’t even left Manchester airspace?” I shout rather loudly I turn into one of them angry customers you see on the Airport programmes
(who I often sniggered at) I gave the woman my mobile to contact me if it turns up I tell Marina loudly for all to hear “We wont be see our buggy again”. We are then led up to CSKA info ticket desk to be rebook our flight and connecting flight, of course when we get there is a massive queue. I am fuming again “I demand that Seeing as Czech Airlines has lost our buggy and little Lisa is very tired and needs to sleep that we go to the ahead of the queue. This of course falls on deaf ears. Lisa is crying, Marina is trying to make her sleep but not succeeding I am at the back of a long bloodly queue.
PLAN B FROM EMPTY SPACE
After one hour of waiting I get to the counter, I get the details of our flight, we are on the 2:45pm flight to Prague and we have a connection to Bucharest but we wont land there until 10pm.Our flight to Moldova was at 8pm.That meant I had to kiss goodbye the £200 I paid for the flight and now we was going to have to
stay in Bucharest overnight. Then I got a call they found our buggy. Hurrah…I collect the buggy and we check in (again) and spend our complementary vouchers in the restaurant and then we go back again though security. Lisa is now in her buggy and we find a quiet area and finally she gets some sleep, she is shattered, her eyes are all bloodshot.
My brain is addled with lack of sleep and stress but I can still think clear when I am in a crisis (see previous Journeys) we needed accommodation in Bucharest for the night as the plan was to take the overnight Train the following night to Moldova. I went in W.H. Smiths and leafed though a copy of Lonely Planet guide to Europe (Romania section) and got the number for Butterfly Villa which I knew was close to the train station and far the airport. Marina did the talking and booked a private room and even got them to collect us from the airport.
The flight is 30 minutes late I am now worried we may miss our connection to Bucharest, my seat is set at angle making leaning so far for forward, giving me maximum
discomfort. Then to put the icing on the misery cake, an announcement is made “Due to the cancellation of this Morning flight and we had to combine the customers with this flight there is not enough meals for everyone on this flight ( we are sat near the back) I am clapping and whooping, Marina is shushing me but I don’t care.” Soon as we get a back I am going to draft a letter of complaint to C.S.A”.
We rush to the transfer desk in Prague and get our boarding passes. We have only 30 minutes wait until we fly again. Marina is worried that her suitcase is not going to put on plane. We get on the plane and I relax, the plane is a modern one with good seats and attentive staff, Lisa even got a toy, we had a decent meal. I don’t think I will bother putting a complaint now. I thought to myself as I drifting off to a 10 minute sleep.
THE BUTTERFLY COLLECTOR
Touch down in Bucharest and its minus 9 decrees outside and there is lots of snow everywhere. Marina bag is first off the carousel...Hurrah but
some baggage handler has smashed the lock of and rooted in her suitcase..Boooo….
As we step out into the arrivals hall I spotted the sign for Butterfly Villa. There he was our Butterfly collector. Our room was on the top floor, more dragging of big suitcase. It was not long before the 3 of us were flat out asleep.
The next day we went to Waastells office to buy tickets (1st class) for the overnight train journey. The office is located in the train station, the train wasn’t while 8pm so we had a bit of time to kill, and it was too cold for walking outside. So we went to McDonalds for a lunch and then back to the hostel, they very understanding and let us stay until 6pm, Lisa enjoyed herself running in the dorms, much to amusement of the many Backpackers.
The train Journey to Moldova takes about 13 hours this because you spend about an hour at the border for passport control and another hour while they have to lift the train up in the air to move the train to fit the train tracks in Moldova, this is a very noisy procedure, luckily Lisa slept
though all this.
ARRIVAL
Sunday Morning 9 in the Am we eventually arrive in Chisinau, Moldova. Boris (Marina’s Father) picks up from the Station and we drive though Chisinau to Ivancea (where there farm is located) Ivancea is small village about 30 klms from Chisinau.
There is a nice thick blanket of snow and everything is like a Christmas card. After a hearty breakfast of cold meats and home made wine. I announce I am going to bed, I climbed in the nice white crisp clean sheets and fell into a deep sleep, and I was joined shortly by Marina and Lisa.
THE INTERNATIONAL
It’s New Years Eve and we had been inviting to her uncles Party they live about 100 metres away, we stepped outside and it is pitch-black, we needed a torch to guide our way, the path is very icy underfoot.
We all seated at table with a full spread of food put out, I was seated next her uncle who was “a few sheets to the wind” shall we say, he was determined to get me the same and was constantly filling my glass
with his home made wine. I ate a bit of meat and fish (they say don’t eat the fish because all the rivers are polluted) Uncle Sasha did not speak any English and Marina was translating for him. After several glasses of wine and eating fish and cold meat, he wanted to show me his wine cellar. It was quite small and compact and a few big Vats of wine and one had Champagne in it. Of course he wanted me to taste all them, with me being an ambassador of Manchester, how could I refuse?
I was acting the expert wine taster, rolling it around in my mouth, sniffing it (but not spitting it out) Soon we joined by the guys from the party upstairs and we all standing around drinking, smoking and talking (well I was doing my best with the little Russian I could remember) I remember Marina down the stairs to tell me she was going back cos Lisa was tired. I decided to stay and carry on drinking with my new pals. Fast forward a few hours later and I am absolutely Shit-faced (drunk) I have no clear memory of being taken back to the
farm house but I have been told that I slipped and fell many times (well it was very icy) and I woke up the whole village by singing at the top of my voice “Glory Glory Man United” and the “International”.
The next day I woke up fully clothed on the sofa in the kitchen, oh boy did my head hurt. Marina was angry and I got good telling off. I drank some tea and went to the bed for the rest of the day. I missed on the New years day meal and seeing all Marinas family and friends.
That evening I got diarrhoea (the shits to you and me) I was up and down all night going to the loo, oh boy did I feel rough.
CHISINAU
We were supposing to staying another day at the farm but I wanted to go back to Chisinau and get some medicine for my upset tummy.
The next day I felt better and I decided we should have a breakfast at “Andy’s Pizza” I was looking forward to the “English Breakfast” (well Egg and Chips Moldovan style) but much to my dismay they changed
the menu. I wanted to complain (as it is my right as a British Citizen!) “Hey get Andy out here now and tell him I want my Egg and chips and sliced tomatoes”. I ended up having chicken soup instead, the way serve it is amazing. They hollow a small loaf of bread and they put the soup inside and as you eat the soup you can break pieces of the bread and dip it in, you ever go to Moldova you should try for novelty value alone. I wonder out loud to Marina “do you think it is someone’s job to hollow the beard especially for my soup” no she replied “they probably have a machine that does it”. Oh right.
I did manage to get to “PaniPit” my favourite restaurant, we had a wonderful meal in fantastic settings and I had a nice juicy steak with chips and Marina had the veal.
BABYLON 5
Marina has about 30 channels on her T.V and a couple of stations showing programmes that are not dubbed over in Russian or Romanian. Each day they would show “Babylon 5” (back to back episodes) and being starved
With Uncle sasha
Before we went down to the cellerof good television I started watching them. Babylon 5 if you didn’t know is a poor man’s Star Trek and is very poor it is indeed but it is so bad its good and is the only English speaking thing on TV and it did pass a couple of hours away.
Internet cafes and very popular in the suburb of Chisinau where Marina’s apartment is situated, we went one evening to check our emails and for me to check up the BBC website to find out the English Premiership football scores. These places are frequented by many noisy kids, it is like a youth club at times and they can be annoying and it is difficult to concentrate of emailing and surfing the net.
RETURN TO THE WEST
Saturday came around all too quick and it was time to go home. This time we were travelling light, just a small rucksack each.
We caught the 5:15pm train to Bucharest and expected time of arrival was 6:30am, the great thing about travelling with little baby Lisa was when the border guards came aboard to search our compartment, Lisa would be asleep and they did bother
searching our baggage in order not to wake her up.
We had barely woke, when the train arrived in the Station and we were such a rush to get off the train that we did not really have to time to tidy our compartment.
As Marina was putting Lisa’s coat on the platform, the Woman who is in charge of our part of the train, got off the train and berated her for not tiding our things up.
This was not a good start to our Journey; Marina was fuming with this woman and put her in a bad mood.
We made a B-line to the 24 hour McDonalds which is located in the forecourt of Train station. We drank coffee and made a plan.
Our flight was not until 3:15pm, the time now was 7am.We had a lot of time to kill, we was both feeling very tired as it was very difficult to sleep on the train.
So the plan was to phone up Gabrilla -Villa Youth hostel (which is a stones throw away from the Airport) and book a room with for 5 or so hours and general chill out and sleep. Marina came back into McDonalds
with bad news; they told her that there was no room at the inn. Damn….
A freezing Sunday Morning in Bucharest with nothing to do and no where to go, I did not fancy sitting in McDonalds until 10am when maybe there is a mall open or restaurant. It was far too cold and icy outside for site seeing. What the hell were we going to do?
Looking around McDonalds I saw the same Babushka I saw the night we got the train to Chisinau (she had the same red hat) she was sat with another one. It is shame for these old ladies who sit in there all day long, probably just to keep warm (McDonalds of all places) I could not think of anything more soul destroying.
A Romanian guy had stayed at Marina’s apartment a few weeks ago and he left his cardigan there and Marina had arranged for him to come to meet us at the station and pick it up. Maybe he could help us, tell us somewhere to go for a few hours that was warm and interesting.
Well the guy turned up with girlfriend and they seemed a decent couple, they chatted
to Marina and she explained our predicament but they had confirmed our fears that there was nothing open until around 10am. I was sitting trying to look as forlorn and glum with my head in my hands.
Well they said there goodbyes and they was gone, I knew that I could not sit in for another 2 hours, I looked over and I saw that the Babushka had her head down on the table and looked like she was asleep. I told Marina to give her 10 lei (enough to keep in coffee for awhile) we got our stuff ready and the plan was to take the Metro to the centre and walk around in a vain hope to fine something to do.
When out of the blue in came the Romanian guy and girlfriend and offered us to stay at there apartment for a few hours, I nearly jumped for joy and hugged them but my English reserve took over and I beamed a big smile and said “Yes”
We drove to their apartment which was situated in the centre, it was so refreshing to drive though the empty streets of downtown Bucharest which are usually gridlock with traffic.
Valentin and Roxanna were the best of hosts and looked after us, they served us strong coffee, ham and eggs and I sat of the floor with Lisa (stopping her from rearranging all the ornaments and trinkets) I had a sleep on the fold out bed sofa and Marina slept on the other sofa with Lisa. There apartment was strangest I have been in, as you walked in the door a long corridor led to the living room/bedroom, in the corridor was the Kitchen. It was in very good location and Roxanna told Marina that these flats were selling for 100.000 Euros. Good money indeed for a one bedroom flat.
After our morning snooze it was time to go the airport and Valentin took us there, on the way we stopped off at the Ikea ( which is also a stone’s throw from the Airport) for a meal ( it seemed like the whole Bucharest inhabitants has gone crazy for flat pack furniture)
We had to change in Prague but this time we had a nearly 6 hour wait, the airport is pretty good and had a good children’s room with cot but of course Lisa was in no mood for a sleep. It was a long five hours wait; we walked around all the terminals, Marina was happy to find an internet café. They have a Hotel in-between A+B terminals “Hotel Tranzit” (29 euros per room) we only found it when we had one hour to wait, if I had known about this Hotel when we first landed I would have been tempted to book us in for the 5 hours or so.
Touch in Manchester and after clearing customers would get a taxi home (£30) we finally got home at 12:30am. All three of us was exhausted, what an epic journey!
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Marisha
non-member comment
Always travel lite!!!
With no my Big Suitcase full of presents for our Moldovan family and no baby the trip could be so much different, stressless?, but then your story would may not be so interesting and funny to read! Next time, don't drink with my Moldovan relatives in their wine cellars! Moldovans are much tougher than Brits at drinking! Don't upset your wifey :)