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Published: November 11th 2007
Hello, Hello,
I would like to guess at how many people in the world actually know that Moldova exists - or for that matter Transdneister that runs between the Ukraine and Moldova that has such political unrest that all trains have been suspended - but buses still run and as long as you have enough US dollars and cigarettes, anything is possible. But, back to Moldova - who knows about it? Well, statistically more than a few is what we learned. Yep, Moldova is a wine region that has more that a few vineyards... one being in the world book records for the largest winery and the tour actually uses a bus to transport you down the wine cellar halls and streets named Cabernet, Pinot, and so on.
Unfortunately, what we learned after plotting out our visit and winery tours is that Moldova is famous for sweet wine. Lovely, syrupy, sugary, sweet wine.... not my style. But, still a worthwhile sight... and Moldova being officially the poorest country in Europe it also so happened that we were able to afford a hotel here and even eat out every night! (What can I say, loosing the 50lbs pack and feeling
John...
in a chair madek for him ;0)respectable is overwhelmingly nice on occasion!)
Unfortunately, our trip did not come without bumps. You see, in Moldova there is the Soviet discontempt for any type of service industry, so booking a tour took two full days, and then there was the hotel without a phone and without luggage storage (we had to pay off a cleaning lady who lived in the hotel to stash the bags... but it wasn't easy... and she noticed a mark on one of my sheets after use and gave me the option to pay for it... so I grabbed the soap and scrubbed it out in front of her... ever stayed at a hotel where you hand wash your own sheets after use?!?!
But, after the cleaning lady saw that and that we were eating stale loaves of bread, she warmed up to us and brought us tea, soap, and toilet paper (again - the extras we didn't have the first night!) So, we decided to warm up to her (especially since our stale bread was left over and we had been eating out in rather nice places in Moldova, so we had a pang of guilt). We hit up the local
Ahhh...
such a wonderful country in it's own right! 24 hour flower market and bought some ridiculously expensive flowers to leave behind in the room. And went out for a real feast where we splurged from Rabbit and borscht, to palenta and cabbage rolls, and one of the best bottles of wine that I have ever enjoyed. A 1984 Cordu - wow.
Unfortunately, we were met with more excitement just as we were leaving the country. We had only a bit of the local currency left, as we had to pay off a few people on our way out of the hotel, so, hopeful, we flagged down a cab, showed him all the money we had left and asked if it would be enough for the bus station we needed. He agreed and I burst into a smile, called John over and he jumped it... big mistake. After feigning to go the right direction he pulled a wild u-turn and went off on deserted roads... our bags were in the trunk, he had our last local currency to the penny, and we were trapped. He whipped a u-turn drove up the wrong way, pulled over to the side of a deserted road and demanded more cash. We begged
and pleaded explaining we had nothing. In fact, I pulled out the only other currency I had which was some small Ukrainian bills I had forgotten to convert, and after taking them too, he continued to hold us hostage. About 25 minutes of panicked screaming and more pleading, he finally believed that we had no money and went on and on about how bad Moldovan people were and how poor they were. Very luckily for us, he did in fact drive us to the right bus station and after we crawled out, drained and overly wound up, we calmed ourselves, knowing we had budgeted two hours to get to the bus station and we still could make our night connection. Starring out of the window at the snowy overpasses and unmaneuverable highways that the bus magically and almost smoothly swerved around, we dozed off and made out way to Romania...
More to come...
Trish xxx
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