Blogs from Moldova, Europe - page 3

The countries of the former Soviet Union hold a special appeal for your intrepid travel writer, partly due to the difficulties Australians face in obtaining a visa. The life of a traveller includes destinations that are more challenging to get to, which can add to the allure of travelling there. To be honest I knew next to nothing about Moldova before I began chatting with an online friend over the last few months, but once my interest was piqued I did some research into the country as a potential travel destination. To my surprise Australians don't require a visa in advance to visit Moldova, as opposed to the other countries of the former Soviet Union. This proved the catalyst for a visit to Moldova which shares a border with Ukraine and Romania, and pondering the dilemma ... read more

The attractive young girl beat enthusiastically on the drum. The assistant stood respectfully to one side. I made a mental note to email the Other Half to see if she wanted to apply for an apprentice role in drumming circles. We were watching the Red Eagles of Milsami Orhei set up their display of banners and warm up their musical reportoire. Seven hours earlier we had been walking the eerie streets of Tiraspol, before making the journey back to Chisinau from Transnistria. The Gara Central Bus Station was it's usual chaotic self, even at 8.30 am on a Sunday morning. The market was in full swing and the shared minibus drivers were touting their next journey. We were massively ahead of schedule and wandered through the mass of activity to the Cosmos Hotel to drop our ... read more

Transnistria. Trans-Dniestr. Transdniestria. Pridnestrovian Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic. The country that doesn’t exist! According the majority of the world, the enclave in the east of Moldova, isn’t there. It isn’t an East / West thing either in terms of recognition. Western Europe doesn’t recognise it as a country and neither does Russia. Moldova – who believes it is still their territory - certainly doesn’t, but has chosen to tolerate it in it’s own backyard since the brief but intense conflict in 1992. The rest of the world was looking the other way, when Transnistria separatists decided to take the fight to Moldova concerned about the new nation looking West when they wished to look east to Mother Russia. It is quoted that over 500 died in fighting, before an uneasy truce was made with the Russian ... read more

I've been putting this off for way too long. Procrastinating. However, today or this evening to be more precise, I will begin documenting my experiences while traveling abroad via this blog, recording history as it happens. Skipping over mundane, running errands types of stories (although they can be amusing and awkward at times), I will focus more on the "what the fuck?!" ridiculous situations I find myself in while living in a foreign country. In this journey, I will attempt to fill my curiosity for this wonderful uniqueness, we call our planet Earth and in the process discover new cultures and see different viewpoints, meet new people, and try the amazingly good food totally new to me. My coach, teacher, and mentor Bob Myers has always taught me to be "well-rounded". To understand the whole picture ... read more

Geo: 47.0167, 28.8497Nicolae Ceausescu was both a madman and a megalomaniac - perhaps his most infamous project was construction of the Palace of Parliament in Bucharest, the World's second-largest building trailing only the Pentagon. Construction started in 1984 and supposedly finished in 1997, though parts of the building remain unfinished, and the price tag for this monstrosity is somewhere over 3.3 billion Euros. There is no logic behind a building as grotesquely over-the-top as this one, and projects like this can only be blamed upon the massive egos of crazy bastards who wanted to leave behind some sort of a legacy. Unfortunately, Ceausescu's legacy is one of fear, control, and utter stupidity, as his policies essentially ruined the country - Google his brilliant ban on contraception, a move that was intended to drive up the population ... read more