Blogs from 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

The country that does not exist was another of our planned trip highlights. This is my first time to go to an area of dispute, but I was not at all nervous. I honestly had no idea what to expect! We had a great guide and driver, and our group was pretty cool. We had to make sure to bring our passports, but were quickly through the border control point where Russian soldiers man the offices. The ride was about an hour from Chisinau to the east near the Ukrainian border (yeah, I did not tell my dad until I was back in Dubai). The official name is the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic and is called Transnistria mainly because it straddles or is along the Dniester River. Transnistria maintains more of a Soviet allegiance and ... read more

Why Moldova? This was a question we were asked repeatedly. For me, it was a last minute trip as my Christmas plans and backup plans were canceled. I had seen this trip listed and was curious: wine cave? Cycling? Trains? Yup! I knew a couple of people in this group of eleven women and one man. We flew to Bucharest where we quickly made it thru customs, were picked up and taken to the train station. We had about 5 hours to kill before our trip, so we just hung out in a coffee store inside the station, occasionally harassed by a territorial / homeless man. The station was fine and decorated a bit for Christmas, but aside from a couple places, you need cash to pay for things, especially the toilet. Our train came a ... 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

The previous morning, I hadn't really had a good look out of the hotel room and since it was nice and sunny, I stood on the balcony for a bit taking in the river view. It was lovely. Since there was no options for breakfast we had to do it DIY style with some fruit, coffee and ghetto pre-packaged baked goods. We left the main city of Tiraspol and headed to Bender. We stopped on the way at a Sheriff gas station that was across the road from another Sheriff gas station, no need to turn and cross the road to get petrol. The gas station was in front of Sheriff Stadium where FC Sheriff Tiraspol play. The stadium was opened in 2002 and renovated in 2011. It looked very impressive. if only I liked football ... read more