Blogs from Transnistria, Moldova, Europe

As with many things, it’s all Stalin’s fault. The historic region of Moldavia stretched from the Carpathian Mountains to the Dniester River. It unified with Wallachia in 1859 to form Romania then the eastern part was ceded to (or annexed by) the Soviet Union in 1940 to become the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. However, rather than put the eastern border along the Dniester River, Stalin put it about 20 km east into the territory of the Ukrainian SSR so that they would be too busy arguing with each other to jointly go against Moscow. It worked. In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and Moldova declared independence. The ethnic Russians living in the strip of land east of the Dniester River were against the independence and were afraid of a rise in Moldovan nationalism and a possible ... read more

Zuerst lernte ich die Mitbewohner kennen, da war Shuschu, ein kleines, mageres Hündchen, der als einziger ins Haus durfte. Hundefutter: Brot. Dann waren da recht viele Katzen, Katzenfutter Brot. Hunde, darunter so eine Art Hundekalb mit dem zärtlichsten Gemüt, er steckte vorsichtig den Kopf unter dem Tùrvorhang durch, durfte aber nicht herein, das durfte nur sein kleiner Sohn. Hundefutter Brot. Viele Hühner, Hühnerfutter Brot. Ein kleines, zames Schwein, Schweinefutter Brot und Melonenschalen. Ein Pferd, 6 Kühe, ich nehme an, dass sie was anderes bekamen als Brot. Hund, Katze, Hühner und Schwein waren gute Freunde. Zum Frühstück bekam ich Topfen mit Sahne drüber und Brot. Ich begann dann langsam die Lage zu sondieren. Wäsche hing auf der Leine, Flo war geputzt, Schuhe waren gewaschen und standen auf dem Dach zum Trocknen. Sergej war mit seinem Wunderauto weg, ... read more

30th Dec: We left Odessa and drove to the Trasnistrian/Moldovan border. The journey didn't take too long and I slept through most of it. The borders weren't too bad, just a bit tedious as the staff were too busy playing computer games to actually do any work. Also, because we were entering Moldova via Transnistria, our guide had to take all our passports to the Moldovan immigration booth to it stamped as we needed the proper Moldovan entry stamp or there would be problems when we leave Moldova. Transnistria, or Pridnestrovia as it is known in Russian, is an unrecognised, breakaway state. It is considered part of Moldova by the UN and only other breakaway states recognise it as its own country. The journey then took another hour or so to reach Tiraspol, the capital city. ... read more

My cycling trip from Kishinev (capital of Moldova) to Transnistria (conflict zone) was 70km and was easy to do. So after a good breakfast i started around 10:00 and I arrived about 2pm in Transnistria where border control is present. Even though you are still officially in Moldova, it is a conflict zone so they want to check and see your passport. Then they give you a ticket where it stands that you must leave within 12 or 24 hours. They give me a ticket of 24 hours. It is special to be here in transnistria. The conflict zone since the Soviet era did not want to reunite with Moldova and isolated remained surrounded by the red Soviet army. It is, Therefore, a zone-which you normally can entrance but need out again within 24 hours. It ... read more

A group of girls became rather loud. It was Friday night. They had consumed a few drinks. One in particular, had clearly had consumed one too many! The volume rose further. The scene was probably being repeated all over Europe. It wasn't unusual, but in Tiraspol, Transnistria it seemed to be so. We were sitting in 7 Fridays on 25th October Street. There were few people in the restaurant and few passing on the street outside. We are familiar with the term ..... quiet night in ......but perhaps not the quiet night out! In Tiraspol, you would use to the latter term - it seemed dead. We had dined on a very good pizza and were drinking Russian beer (at 15 Transnistrian Roubles a pint), whilst surveying the Tiraspol nightlife. The menu in 7 Fridays had ... read more