Blogs from Moldova, Europe - page 6

Since we have done very little in the last two days of our trip to Moldova (what with the first two being eventful enough) this posting will probably be more observational about Moldova.... Anyway, picking up where we left off: After a team doctor (Vicky) and nurse (Fiona) effort on the dutch boys - due to the shoddy quality of Chisinau hospital care - we dropped them off at the station late in the day. This was good for us because it meant we had a free taxi ride to get our train tickets for the following day and also we were fairly knackered due to the fact that we had got in at 6am and then spent most of the day fixing them up. We then walked back from the station, which was rather horrific ... read more

Moldova, once part of Romania, has the unhappy distinction of being Europe's poorest country. Historically, due to its strategic location on a route between Asia and Europe, Moldova was repeatedly invaded: Bastarns, Sarmatians, Goths, Huns, Avars, Magyars and the Mongols all fought over this small country. Recently, the 1998 financial crisis in Russia, (Moldova's main economic partner at the time) produced an economic crisis in the country. The standard of living plunged, with 75% of population living below the poverty line, while the economic disaster caused 600,000 people to eventually leave the country. The remaining population is mostly the very old and the very young, with few in between. Thus we find the country today: not only the defunct and crumbling Soviet structures often seen in Romania, but even entire apartment blocs abandoned and empty. With ... read more

Moldova was a destination we had decided on more out of curiosity than a desire to see anything specific. It's skipped over by most visitors to the region because the small nation of about 4.5million people has little to boast about historically or culturally compared with neighbouring Romania or Ukraine. We'd heard and read a few things about its celebrated wine industry as well as corruption and poverty, which are both supposedly rife. Continuing our tradition of arriving at rush hour, the three of us waded through the hordes of incessant taxi drivers hawking for business, changed up some dollars for Moldovan leu and set off up the hill to our hostel. Upon reaching the address at 69 b.dul Stefan Cel Mare, it took us about ten minutes to find the actual hostel. After trying to ... read more

Early morning we got ready to do a day trip to Tiraspol, capital of the self proclaimed republic of Transnistria, perhaps only Russia recognizes it, anyway you cant stay for longer than 6-8 hours in the area if you try to spend the night, will be lots of hassle, there is a border we need to cross and we heard bad things about the way customs deal with foreigners says our homestay host but we really wanted to get there so we wing it. took the minibus to the Central bus station, where we were supposed to meet Tuuka and Yarom our 2 Finnish friends we met on the bus from Brasov to Chisinau. Got there no sign of them so we looked up the terminal where the minibus leaves for Tiraspol, found it and bought ... read more

Groeten uit Chisinau in Moldavië! OK, wie had er al van dit land gehoord? Geef maar toe ;-) Het land ligt ingeklemd tussen Oekraïne en Roemenië, en is een van de armste (en corruptste) landen van Europa... Omdat ik weer eens geen bereik heb met mijn mobiel nu alweer een berichtje om te laten weten dat ik nog leef :) Eerst even terug naar Oekraïne. Ik had nog niet gemeld dat ik in het restaurant van mijn hotel in Kamyanets-Podilsky erg luxe gegeten had; de menukaart bevatte enerzijds Japanse en anderzijds Thaise gerechten. Dus ik bestel een sushi-selectie vooraf en een Thais gerecht met mie daarna. Die komen vervolgens uiteraard tegelijk :) De sushi was onverwacht lekker! Dat verwacht je hier niet :) Ook het Thaise eten was lekker. Nadat het was gelukt om de trein ... read more