Blogs from Centre, Moldova, Europe - page 4

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 ... read more

We had decided to go to the cave monasteries today rather than risk being shot in transdnistr. We got up early with Chris and set off towards the central bus station. Lonely Planet suggested that getting to Orhei cave monasteries would be rather easy, so we left Chisinau with minimal research. It took us a while to find the right minibus to Orhei and when we did, the only three seats were right at the back of the bus. I got stuck next to some sleazy guy who kept on moving over till his hands were all over my legs. During a sharp turn my elbow happened to fall rather heavily into his crotch and from then he was rather better behaved. Once we got to Orhei we discovered that the 10km to the monastery that ... read more

Due to the room being full of guys and the fact we were awake most of the night we stayed in bed till everyone else had got up. We got up and sorted out some mundane necessities and left the hostel around twelve. We bought breakfast from the local supermarket which consisted of a danish pastry, fruit and juice. We sat and ate it on the steps of the cathedral watching people pass. At one point a Romany lady and her kid came up to us asking for money. We firmly told her no, but I gave the kid one of the pastries. I will never give money to them, but what is a bit of food when it is so cheap here. Our first and most time consuming task of the day was to find ... read more

I LOVE YOUTH HOSTELS.. it might be small, stuffy, hot, no internet. BUT, it saves me from my problems! at least some.... So, having a very difficult time getting around and actually travel within Moldova..the microbus system is kinda....all over the place..like Mini vans in HK but its hard to find the terminus.... Anyways, LUCKILY, there were these Estonians in my hostel, one of them spoke Russian so could get by pretty easily. They arranged this wine-tasting tour today. At first, I wasn't going, coz I wanted to go to this valley village with this cliff monastary, but..MONDAY! its closed...-___-" So they invited me to join! SO glad! coz it was a NICE one......even gave a bottle of red wine as a gift.......ahh...dunno what to do with it..." The tour was nice, walked through the cellar, ... read more

Ok, So, from Romania on to Moldova... Took the train to Iasi and then the bus to Chisinau....besides hot...nothing much. Met this Moldovian woman on the bus and she couldn't speak much English.. very interesting, still able to kinda communicate. She was trying to help me to my hostel but I guess she got it wrong...we got off way far from the city centre and no ATM around works!! She then paid for the taxi to the city centre and finally found an ATM that I can get money and pay her for the taxi ride.... Anyways, she brought me close enough to my hostel and I managed to walk there. Got there and guess what!? The owner of the hostel took a day off!!!!..i did book a bed....but there was no bed available!!! ahhh..gonna have ... read more