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Published: July 28th 2006
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Moldovan Border
The former Soviet border guards were so impressed that they phoned the head of the border regiment to come out and see us! Day 48, 18th July.
Târgu Frumos - Iaşi - Sculeni (MOLDOVA) - Urgheni -Bahmut
I had a good sleep in the cabin called ‘Alice’ despite Rory’s tremendous snoring, do I also sound like this? I had a cold shower and a shave, then we hit the road… and what a road it was, perfectly smooth with no potholes and a bit busier than we were used to. The flat plains seemed to bring a kind of affluence to the people in this region.
Iasi was a big university town with some grand buildings, and trams. We cooked up food in the park and was joined by a Romanian girl who wanted to practice her English. Then we were off on a very quiet road to the Moldovan border. The landscape was sparse and very poor once again.
The border was the Prut river which was the border of the former Soviet Union. The Romanian border guards were cool, and fascinated about what we were doing. We had our passports stamped and then were on our way across the bridge that had a red line half way across to mark the actual border.
The sign on the
Moldovan train
The colourful Chisinau Express ambles through the Moldovan countryside. other side of the bridge said ‘Republic of Moldova’ in latin script, the Cyrillic alphabet seemed to have been abandoned. It took about one and a half hours to complete the border formalities. First we had to remove all our baggage and put it through an X-ray machine, then fill in a customs declaration form*, then secure our $30 transit visas valid for 2 days. I spoke in English to a customs lady who gave advice about Moldova and she told us that only 3 other cyclists had crossed this border this year. I changed $10 along with the rest of the guys, then we sped past a watchtower and an army guarded electric-fence - relics of the Soviet past still in place.
Just along the road we stopped for a beer at a bar among curious locals then carried on down empty roads with more curious locals. Children ran through fields just to see us go past. We stopped for water at a well and an ice-cream truck driver gave us free ice-creams, then we carried on again along the road that paralleled the border with good views of watchtowers and the electric fence.
Ugheni was a
Curious Police
In Chisinau the drunken police officers presented a bit of an awkward situation - so you just had to smile and show them what you were doing. dump of a town, then we headed inland. A train passed at one point, belching black diesel fumes because of the 23 loaded carriages it was pulling. There was a big climb to Cornesti and afterwards, the valley that would ultimately lead us to the capital - Chisinau. We were told about camping huts at Bahmut, which were difficult to negotiate a price on with the boss. Nobody seemed to know what was going on, the sun was setting, so we left to free-camp. Just out of the village we set up tent in a cornfield, made a cup of tea, then went to sleep.
Total Miles: 2301.28 Todays Miles: 84.83 Average speed: 12.2 Time on bike: 6:56
Day 49, 19th July.
Bahmut - Chişinau - Sângera
I’m wondering about the idea of discreetly putting Toby’s watch forward two hours over the last week has backfired? This morning he was awake before five as it was getting light and was ready to leave, and Scott was so tired too. But we packed and were riding as the sun rose above the hills. For breakfast we stopped at the defunct town of Calarasi to eat eggs
Free Camping - Moldova
Just outside Chisinau, Viktor showed us where to camp near a lake. He also showed us his swimming skills as former Moldovan Olympic swimmer. and bread at the foot of an old Lenin memorial. It was straight on then to the capital - Chisinau, with a melon stop en-route.
The capital was busy compared to what we’d seen, and quite a shock that it was so cosmopolitan in its appearance. There was a big police and army presence in town I noticed. We ended up at a shaded bar where we could drink ice-cold beer… lovely! We found out later why the police were en-mass in town _ it was because the Chinese president was visiting! After visiting the market and eating tasty potato snacks, we headed out of town. Toby was hungry, so we stopped - he had food, we had beer. A guy called Viktor turned up, he was old and bearded, and spoke some English. After buying us beers, he invited us to his flat to see his website - he was an ecologist specializing in water. He was that pleased to meet us and so overwhelmed that he had tears in his eyes!
Further along the road two Moldovan cyclists passed us - Rory caught them up and spoke to them. They were named Vladimir and Andrew, and
Roadside cross.
Ornate crosses abound in Moldova. were training for the Olympic triathlon. So they took us to a spot they knew where we could free-camp by a lake near Andrew’s parent’s house. Later, Andrew turned up with a bag of fresh fruit and veggies and prepared a salad for us after we’d had a lovely swim in the lake. We crashed out after midnight.
Total Miles: 2356.39 Todays Miles: 55.10 Average speed: 12.7 Time on bike: 4:20
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Tot: 0.358s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 28; qc: 102; dbt: 0.1582s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
vick
non-member comment
is the weed plant actualy in moldova cause hell i want to go there