Blogs from Moldova, Europe - page 4

I visited Moscow and St Petersburg first in 1991, than came back to Moscow in 1994. That's a long time ago, and since than many new countries have re-gained their independence. Moldova is part of them. The country is stuck between Romania and Ukraine. Moldovian is the official language, but it's nothing else than Romanian. You will hear everywhere Russian, or it could be Ukrainian, but I still cannot make the difference. So the link to Russia is still pretty strong there. Once you ask to a Romanian if they have visited Chisinau...general answer was no...and it seems to them, there is actually nothing to see in Chisinau. Well, I'll come back to this....but before, I had to board my train in Bucharest. Another night train...clean train, way older...and the ventilation didn't work...good news that the ... read more

Off-beat travel destinations tend to have enough in the way of plus points to warrant a visit, and the landlocked nation of Moldova slots firmly into this category. While it might still be disputed as to whether this small nation does actually qualify as the poorest in Europe, the challenge in this case was to determine whether this country had enough substance to make a European city break seem like a wholly viable option. Upon arrival in the Moldovan capital city of Chisinau, it appeared, at first glance, that the urban fabric would make for interesting exploration, and as the 'Chisinau in a day' venture developed, it seemed reasonable to deem this more of a city of experiences rather than individual tourist sights. This was no negative reflection on the whole package, and the prospect of ... read more

We were woken up at half past four by the train conductor, we were approaching the Moldovan border and had to get ready for the border control. It had been really hot in the train, so we had been sleeping with the door open without any blanket, and we had lots of mosquito bites when we woke up. The Swiss guy we were sharing cabin with suspected the mattresses, but we saw some mosquitos so it was probably not bed bugs. The border control went smoothly, we denied having drugs with us and weren't in need of a doctor, and that was basically all asked. So after two hours the train started to move again and we went back to sleep again for two more hours. At nine we arrived in Chisinau, capital of Moldova, not ... read more

From Moscow i managed to hitch a fast car all the way to Kiev in only 12 hours. i payed a 20p English coin to get through customs quicker - my smallest bribe ever! i felt slightly uncomfortable getting into Kiev when the driver started negotiating with street hookers whilst i was still in the car. i quickly left. Although almost completely destroyed in WWII, Kiev is an incredible city, with plenty of magnificent churches and a huge park at its center. Its strange how all the girls look like beautiful models and all the guys seem to be punching above their weight. As it worked out cheaper to get the train than to hitchhike (as the night train was cheaper than a night at a hostel), i got the train to Ivano Frankivsk then onto ... read more

So I’m in this nightclub ‘BoozeTime’ in the Moldovan capital Chisinau. I see this girl on the dance floor but wasn’t sure if I should go up and dance with her so I didn’t. Later on I see her sitting by herself for the past 15 minutes and I’m thinking ‘You know what. A good looking girl like that should not be sitting by herself’ so I went over and had a chat with her. We start chatting and she speaks really good English. She’s a uni student from Chisinau but just got back home after a year in America studying. So we get along pretty good, a few jokes here and a few jokes there and we are both laughing. She’s at a table, which I’m now sitting at and we’ve talked for about 15 ... read more