Blogs from Centre, Moldova, Europe - page 3

We have been teaching for about one month, and the theme of our cultural studies unit is Moldovan culture. Kelsey set up a field trip to the Monastery of Capriana, and I brought my Intensive English students along also. Our bus arrived at school at 9am and we loaded up the kids and headed to the Village of Capriana which is approximately 40km north of Chisinau. We were very fortunate to have clear blue skies. The ride was very pretty passing vineyard after vineyard and drove into the forest which used to have bears, wolves, and deer, but they are no longer around. I have yet to find out if it is from over-hunting or some other reason. Heading into the village is a narrow road with a steep grade I was hoping that our bus ... read more

So many 'private comments' to my entries! At least the log shows there are some readers. But I sense the problem may arise that now the people I know have heard my stories and I can't really tell them as fresh even once now, much less repeatedly. Breakfast was a rather maudlin affair. So mediocre as to not even warrant much comment to management. In (at least) East Europe the concept of hot coffee and food is catch as catch can, at best. I washed some socks and hung them with hopes they will dry before I leave. The rain came and went intermittently all day. RAIN IS THE ENEMY OF TOURISTS! I headed to the History Museum, but only made it as far as a park near it when I was attracted to a big ... read more

Since we have done very little in the last two days of our trip to Moldova (what with the first two being eventful enough) this posting will probably be more observational about Moldova.... Anyway, picking up where we left off: After a team doctor (Vicky) and nurse (Fiona) effort on the dutch boys - due to the shoddy quality of Chisinau hospital care - we dropped them off at the station late in the day. This was good for us because it meant we had a free taxi ride to get our train tickets for the following day and also we were fairly knackered due to the fact that we had got in at 6am and then spent most of the day fixing them up. We then walked back from the station, which was rather horrific ... read more

Moldova was a destination we had decided on more out of curiosity than a desire to see anything specific. It's skipped over by most visitors to the region because the small nation of about 4.5million people has little to boast about historically or culturally compared with neighbouring Romania or Ukraine. We'd heard and read a few things about its celebrated wine industry as well as corruption and poverty, which are both supposedly rife. Continuing our tradition of arriving at rush hour, the three of us waded through the hordes of incessant taxi drivers hawking for business, changed up some dollars for Moldovan leu and set off up the hill to our hostel. Upon reaching the address at 69 b.dul Stefan Cel Mare, it took us about ten minutes to find the actual hostel. After trying to ... read more

After much delay, the driver having to go to the police station for some traffic misdemeanor, we finally got to the border around 1 am, straight forward procedure and we bought some Moldovan lei so we have money for taxi when we get to Chisinau. 6am we are in Chisinau, and we negotiated taxi fare to the homestay we booked, Jarmo and Tuuka our Finnish friends we met on the bus wanted to come with us and check if there is room at the homestay, unfortunately it is full and they took a taxi to Larissas mom where it is also a homestay. Since there were still people in our room, we were made to sleep in Larissas bed! We did not argue as we are both very tired, she even tucked as in!! Larissa is ... read more