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Airport-bucharest
Where Taxi-Drivers swim with SharksWe take a bus to the train station and then a train to the Airport, we are travelling light. We both have a rucksack each and the buggy with Lisa in. No big suitcase this time.
We are arrive at the airport with plenty of time to spare, we drink a coffee while we are waiting for check and we find out that the morning flight to Prague had been cancelled due to bad weather. We commiserate with the people who were suppose to on that flight and now are rebooked on this one, I tell them that last time we flew to Prague the same thing happened to us and we had to be rebooked on the later flight and it was an absolute nightmare ( see previous story)
Travel light and you can sing in the robber’s face. The airport was strangely quiet and we cleared security checks and I got a beer in the bar, and I did what I always do when I have an afternoon flight, I rang up Chaddy and Doggler and told I was sitting in departures lounge bar,
drinking an ice cold beer waiting for my exit from the U.K. I told Doggler to text me the score of Man u V Blackburn as I would be hopefully on a Train bound for Bucharest while the game was being played.
I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move. We arrived in Prague on time (amazingly) and made way to gate B11 for our connecting flight to Bucharest and waited, I sat on the floor and Marina was walking around with Lisa when everyone got up and started exiting the gate. I checked the big screen and saw that they had changed the flight to Bucharest to Gate A7, the bastards now we had to walk to the other side of the airport and go through security again. Of course when we got to the gate there was a massive queue. I was sweating and fuming, “why did they change the gate?” “Why could they not bring the plane around to gate B11” f**king Czech airlines!
Our plane was delayed one hour, which meant we had to phone the Hostel in Bucharest and tell them we was gonna be late as we had a car booked
to pick up us up. We would not be landing until 1am now. They said it was too late for car to come and we would have to take a taxi to the hostel.
Travelling in the company of those we love is home in motion In the guide book “In your pocket guide to Bucharest” it says:
Arriving at Bucharest.
After getting through customs and stepping into the Arrival hall you will set upon by taxi drivers offering you ride into the city centre.
Ignore them, they are crooks; swear at them if you have to, they will eventually get the message. The book was right they were on us like sharks circling a shipwrecked man. Marina made a deal with one of them and off we went.
The driver was strangely chatty for a Romanian taxi driver,he tried talking to me in English but I was not in the mood for small talk and I kept my answers to a minimum, I think he got the message “shut the f**k up you ripping of taxi bastard and just drive”
He had some difficulty finding the hostel; he charged us 28 euros when we eventually got there.
Travel teaches toleration
Hostel Helga is a decent place and our room was good with big wide bunk beds and on suite bath (no plug) toilet and washing machine. It was not the room I booked on the internet all those weeks ago. They changed us 45 euros and I gave him a 100 euro note and he gave me 180 lei in change. I had no idea if this was the correct exchange rate, as if was 2.30 am I was feeling very tired, I could not bothered to argue I just wanted to sleep. The good thing was that Lisa had fallen asleep on the plane and slept in the taxi did not even wake up when we took her out and in to our room.
A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to fine it. The next day I woke up bright and breezy, Marina and Lisa were still sleeping, so I went looking for breakfast. In the kitchen was a few middle aged Goths all looking worse for wear, when we arrived last night they had been drinking strong brew at the picnic tables outside our room, I
think they was German.
Every time I stay in hostel in Bucharest they are always full of Goths, I wondered is it because of Dracula, are they making annual pilgrimage to Vlad the Inpalers castle? Who the legend is based on which is located in Bran near Brasov. I have been to the Castle and it’s not worth the journey, below the very average looking castle is loads of market stalls selling tacky Dracula merchandise. The inside is also very average and nothing like you expect after seeing all the Hammer House of Horror movies, I think the movies may have lied to me.
The heaviest baggage for a traveller is an empty purse After the basic breakfast of jam and bread we set off to train station to buy our tickets for tonight’s journey to Moldova. We were instructed to take tram 5 or trolleybus 10 or bus 4 or something like that. We let the first one that go, it was too crowed, and then we let the next one go, it was the same with the next one. It was just impossible to use public transport with Lisa in the buggy; the people were packed in
like tin sardines. We caught a cab there and got our tickets from the Wassell shop. It was there that we picked up the “In your pocket guide to Bucharest” this is best guide for city and an invaluable asset for getting around the city, it is so well written with wit and wisdom and best of all its free.
The only way to be sure of cathing a train is to miss the one before it. Bucharest train Station “Garda Nord” is full of the usual suspects i.e. Gypsies, tramps and thieves as Cher once sung back in the sixties. I did some filming with my new camcorder and I did feel a little paranoid but as it was daytime I was confident that I was not going to get mugged, will I am not called the “EdgeMan for nothing!
We then went to McDonalds for a coffee; our train was not until 8pm so we had quite a bit of time to kill. We took the metro to Piata Victoria, and I soon realised why you don’t see any buggies or pushchairs on the underground, there are no escalators or lifts, we was constantly going up and
Train
Waiting for a train down long flights of stairs and was lifting the buggy over barriers. When we emerged into the daylight, sweating, I thought to myself that it would be easy to walk the short distant.
The choice of our holidays is more perhaps than anything in our lives an expression of ourselves. We had a nice slow walk back to the hostel down Bulevad Dacia. Marina and I wanted to have an afternoon nap but our little angel had other plans and did want to sleep. So I let her run around outside our room on the grassy courtyard, it was a sunny and she seemed very happy.
We had to leave the room at 3pm so we had 5 hours to kill so we made a plan: taxi to station and leave our bags in the left luggage room and then find a restaurant and have a long lunch.
The great and recurrent question about abroad is, is it worth getting there? At the back of the station is a small park and we stayed in there and waited until it was time to catch our train. Marina and Lisa played in the knee high grass together while I sat
on a bench. It felt good sitting in the sun for the first time since last summer enjoying the rays on my face.
Our sleeping compartment was right next door to the toilet and Marina was cursing the shopping assistant for selling us these one, she had a word with train guard and small amount money change hands and we got moved to better compartment. So now we were on way to Chisinau. Sleeping is quite difficult on the train as the first set of border guards enter the carriage at 3.15am then the next set enter at 6am and in between this time they have to change the wells on the train. This involved much banging and lifting. This is because Moldova was once part of the USSR and they have a different track gauge. They have a different size of track because it was to ward invasion by rail during the cold war.
The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that is difficult. Waiting at the station was Marina’s parents who whisked us away to “Ivancea” a sleepy little village located 45kms outside of Chisinau where her Parents farm is located. Ah peace and
quiet.
So the plan was to leave Lisa on the farm while Marina and I do some travelling in the Ukraine.
We headed off early the next morning, we were going to Chernintsi first and then to Lviv.
Every change of scene is a delight. We arrive at the bus station at 7.30am I was eager and ready to get some travelling under my belt, the coach we was to be taking our trip on was the old type with no air con, no suspension, no toilet, no television. It was impossible to read as the bus vibrated so much on the bumpy roads and it seemed to stop at every 45 minutes but I did not care about any of this discomfort I was just glad to be back on the road again. Looking out the window I kept on seeing a sign at road junctions which said “Drum bun” which is sounded quite amusing to me, I asked Marina what it meant and she told me that it meant “Good Trip”. Well this Journey so far was not “Drum Bun” it was more like “Numb Bum”.
I should like to spend the whole of my life travelling, Off the Bus
Arrival after 10 hours of numb bum if i could anywhere borrow another life to spend at home
10 hours later we arrived at Chernivtsi bus station and we got a taxi to the Hostel, which was on a side street down an alley way.
The owner was ex-pat called Markus and he was a very affable guy, the hostel was clean and neat. After checking in we went to station to buy tickets for the over night to train to Lviv, but there was big queues for tickets and we decided to come back tomorrow to buy them, I was staving so we walked into the centre to find EFEs Pizza Restaurant which was recommend to us by Markus, I of course got us lost and it started to rain. We found it eventually hidden behind scaffolding and it was well worth if it, the food was excellent and the beer too. When we emerged out the restaurant, it was dark and I mean dark, there was no streets lights on, it was lucky that Marina had a good sense of direction because in my less than sober state we would have been wondering around the streets of the city all night if I had be
T34
Near Chernivtsi Train Station guiding us home.
Our country is the world-our countrymen are all mankind When we got to the hostel we found out that there had been a power cut in town, which would explain why it was so dark. I didn’t ask if this was a regular thing, as I was tired and wanted to sleep. The name of Hostel was called “T.I.U.” which stood for “This is Ukraine”. The Hostel theme was Soviet and it had posters addorning the walls of Stalin and Lennin and proganda posters.
Early in the morning, Marina woke up and went down to the train station and bought the tickets which were nice as I had a nice lie in.
Vacations, no matter how long they last, always seem too short We then got a taxi to what the Brandt guide said was the worlds biggest outdoor market, the roads near the market were gridlocked so we got out and walked the rest of the way. I got my camcorder out and did some filming; Marina was worried about us being targeted as tourist. We had been twice warned that there are many pickpockets operate in the market, I then told her that
I had our passports in my front pocket of my jeans which upset my darling wife even more. I told her “I have been to the Grand bazaar in Istanbul and spent hours in there haggling over a fake Rolex watch and nothing happened to me, hey I am the EdgeMan remember so don’t worry”. As we crossed the bridge that spanned the Prut River it started raining, we entered the market in a gloomy moods. These big markets are all the same (like the one in Odessa) a lot of stalls selling the same things at the same price; I bought a Che Guevara hat and Marina a couple of tops and a pop up tent for Lisa and an umbrella. The Market was like a big maze and we had some trouble finding our way back out.
We took a mini bus to centre and idly walked around the main square it was still raining but we was determined to see all the sights.
A wise Traveller never despises his own country Now in the daylight we were really struck by the beauty of the city... the architecture of many of the buildings was quite striking. Streets
Chernivtsi
A blue Building of a blue day were narrow and winding. Road conditions are really horrible. Streets are full of potholes and I suspect car suspensions don't last very long! Some of the streets are being dug out around the centre and the traffic was a nightmare. The magnificent University is a must see, they would not let us go in side without a guide and we could not be bothered waiting an hour for the next one so we walked back to the centre.
2 Facts about Chernivtsi
Interesting Fact 1:
In 2005 the Austria government offered to buy the cobbles from the bumpy streets of the downtown for excess millions and promised to tarmac road and the millions could then pay for good infrastructure like broadband cable being laid etc.
The Major considered doing this but the people was in uproar when they heard about this plan and protested with such vigour that the Major had to turn down the offer.
Interesting Fact 2:
This September will be 600th anniversary of the city. But last year they celebrated the anniversary by mistake. I found this quite amusing when I heard this; I could just imagine the major at the ceremony when he gets a tap
Chernivtsi Street
Where the streets have no name( and no pavements) on his shoulder by his aide “sir there has a bit of a cock up on the date front”!
“Eh ok lets party like it’s the 599th then”. “Oh and your fired”
Travelling is almost like talking with those of other centuries. After trudging around in the rain we went back to hostel to dry off and got talking to Markus, he was very good company and full of tales. He had been in ducking and diving in the Ukraine for about 7 years and was courting a local girl and last year he decided to open this hostel.
He asked me how much I had paid for my flight to Bucharest and I told him about £200. He was shocked “How much! No no no no no no no no no this is far too expensive. You should go with RyanAir”. Then he told me how he gets back to UK . He buys a flight online with RyanAir for about £5 (or was it less?) for Budapest Airport. He has to take a train to Lviv , 5 hours on the express train then he takes an over night train to Budapest and then he flies to
East Midlands airport, simple hey? While he was telling me this I felt like I was on package holiday in Benidorm, and I was sitting by pool, where I become engaged in conversation with some boring couple from Tunbridge Wells. The second question they always ask you is “So how much did you pay for you holiday?” What ever I say they always seem to have paid a lot less. Here is a little tip if anyone asks you how much you paid for a flight or holiday: lie, just say half the price you really paid and that should shut them up.
To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true sucesss is the labour He told us about a guy he knew a few years back who while backpacking around Ukraine has lost his credit card and most of his money. He was stuck in Kiev with very little funds, he tried to get touch with parents but they were on holiday somewhere sensible like Cyprus and he had to wait a week until they got home so he could get them to send him some funds by Western Union.
So to save
Chernivtsi Train Station
They dont build them like this anyone..shame money on accommodation he would take the night train to Odessa, spend the day walking around the streets and then take the train back the same night he had to repeat this process for a week until his ma and pa came through with his dosh.
We got to the train station early, I drank a beer in the bar and preyed that we would have sleeping coupe to ourselves, it was a 4 berth one, so there was room for another 2 people.
The Train had 5 minutes left to go before leaving the station and all was going well when the sliding doors opened and in walked 2 soldiers “Dobre Vecher” .(good evening) some how I did not think it would be! The compartment was cold and noisy, with the 2 soldiers in and out of the compartment all night, drinking with friends in another part of the train. I had a thin blanket, which did nothing to keep me warm, I had to put my coat over me.
Travel an change of place impact new vigour to the mind I Woke up at 6.45am and I peeped out of the window and saw that is
Lviv
My new best friend was raining very hard, oh great I thought I came away from Manchester to get away from rain, oh well another day of walking with wet feet.
I had arranged accommodation with a woman who I wrote to from Hospitality Club (which is an organisation that people sign up with to offer a room for free in there house) http://www.hospitalityclub.org . The lady (Iryna Denys ) who I wrote to would not be home when we got there, she was on business in Poland and we had to get a key from one of her neighbours.
We walked to her apartment in the pissing rain, she said it was close to station but it was about a 2 mile walk. The good thing was that her apartment was close to the centre.
Her neighbour let her us in to the top floor apartment and it was fantastic; big double bed, big bath tub we had it all to ourselves as she would be back until tomorrow. I ran the bath (water was a greenish colour) immediately. Marina was a bit worried about staying in her apartment but I told not to worry and relax. I think she was worried that
Dire Straits
We making movies on location the lady would come home and say “What you doing sleeping in my bed” like in the 3 bears story. After my bath I climbed into the nice bed and had a nice sleep.
He travels best knows when to return. At dinnertime I was hungry and keen to see the city, but it was still raining but what the hell, a bit of rain won’t melt me.
We wandered around the streets and found our way to the old market square; all looked gloomy to me because of the rain. We went into a restaurant just off the main square “Kabter”. As soon as we sat down and the waitress came over in traditional dress, I realise it was in tourist trap but I was staving and our table was next to a radiator which came me the opportunity to dry my socks. After a very average steak, I got the bill (it wasn’t small time)
When we emerged from the restaurant, the sun was shining, Lviv looked a lot more beautiful now, we had a walk on the craft market and headed to the Opera house where they were suppose to a sports bar with big screens. We
needed to find this bar because tonight was night of the big game Barcelona verse Manchester United. Markus has told us that the bar was in a side street close to the opera house but we looked in every street but we had no luck, Marina had to find an internet café, even they were thin on the ground.
We decided to walk back to our room and see if we could find one near there. As we got close, Marina spotted a sign for internet, we followed the sign down an alley into a court yard and unbelievable there was an Irish pub (The Dubliner) right opposite the internet café. We both overjoyed, I got Marina to reserve us a table for tonight and then we went in the Internet cafe.
We went back to the room; I had another bath (well you got to get your moneys worth.lol.)
My favourite thing is to go where i've never been 9pm and we was back at the pub, sat at our table waiting for the big game to start, it had a big screen and our table had buzzer on it, which I was pressing constantly ordering beer, I
was so nervous because of tonight’s big game. Every time we ordered a Heineken two girls came over with scratch cards and you could win a prize, I won a baseball cap and Marina won a DVD of the goals of world cup or European cup.
United got off to great start, we won a penalty but Ronaldo missed it and after that we defended brilliantly and stopped Barcelona scoring so it was good result. I must admit I was very drunk and on the way the back home there were few choruses of “Glory Glory Man United”
The next day feeling some what hung over we ventured out looking for some where to get a breakfast; full English would have done nicely. After checking out a few places we went in the Grand Hotel on the main strip. It was a buffet style and I got Marina to order us ham and eggs and some toast. I made sandwiches from the meat and cheeses and wrapped them in serviettes, also I took a selection of fruit and bottles water basically I was just trying to get our monies worth.
All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.
It was a glorious sunny morning and we set about seeing all the sites the city had to offer. Lviv has many beautiful churches but the masterpiece, the small Boim Chapel is a delight to see. After visiting the ancient city walls and the Arsenal museum (no not the Football Club) which was a bit dark and gloomy, we walked east to Lviv's highest hill Zamkova Hora (Castle Hill). Polish King Casimir erected a castle here in the 14th. C., but, damaged by several sieges, it was torn down 200 years ago. Today it is a park with panoramic views of the whole city. We had a nice picnic on the top of the hill with the food I had librated from Breakfast and enjoyed the views of Lviv, I must admit I was starting to fall in love with the city.
We had a slow walk back to our apartment, Irnya (our host) was back from Poland, and she was a very nice lady. Marina chatted with her while I chilled in the room before our train Journey to Odessa. She told Marina about a place on Market square that was a secret restaurant, now this intrigued
me immensely. Irnaya gave Marina the secret password and the address (I won’t reveal the address because it’s a secret)
I'd rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth. Marina rapped on the door and a small hatch open and a face peered out and demanded a password, Marina had forgotten the password but they opened door anyway behind the door was a solider with a what like a Sten-gun (the WW2 machine gun) We were made to drink a shot of sweet wine called “Medovooka” and then we were lead downstairs. The Restaurant was a theme bar, the theme being a Ukrainian Partisan hideout from WW2, wooden beams crossed the ceiling with sandbags, and team photos of partisans decorated the walls. Now I understand why it was secret, we were now hiding out from the Nazis, after a successful mission of sabotage.
We had a splendid meal and we washed it down with a couple of beers and I mused on where we were. Here we was in the best restaurant in town and it was a hidden from tourists, which is jut great as far I am concerned, it was so
Downtown Monument
Lviv and let Lviv much better than the expensive; rip off place we went in yesterday.
It did feel great knowing that I was one of few foreigners to find this hidden treasure.
Now it was time to take our final over night journey to Odessa, I got Marina to purchase all 4 beds in the coupe, it would make journey a bit more expensive but still cheaper than one way ticket from Manchester to London. Now we would have peace and quiet.
Don't tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have traveled. The train arrived at 9am at the magnificent Odessa station, their were many babushkas
Offering cheap accommodation, I would have liked to staid a night in Odessa but Marina wanted to get back to home to help her mother with preparations for the coming Easter weekend. We headed to McDonalds across the road from the station and I had my usually Chicken Mcnugets and Marina had a big Mac. They had 3 big plasma screens showing tropical fish, and very efficient staff, there were 2 girls mopping floors and what looked about 5 staff waiting to serve you. In Ukraine and Moldova working at McDonalds
is looked upon as a good job where as in England is a job for spotty teenagers who don’t really give a f**k cos they know it’s a shit job.
I like McDonalds in Eastern Europe.
Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by We decide to take a quick route; we took a taxi to Tirspol (the capital Transdenstr (the breakaway republic of Moldova which is not official recognized by any of world governments) We filled out the transit visa form at the boarder but because I was a foreigner we had to bribe the guard $5 not to keep us hanging around for ages.
Marina’s cousin Lena lives in Tirspol and we thought we would surprise her but first we went to Andy’s Pizza for dinner. After we ordered the food we realised we had no Transdenstr currency and they did not accept credit cards. So my lovely wife nipped outside and luckily found somewhere to change money. Lena wasn’t home, so we caught a mini bus to the Train station and then another to Mini bus to Chisinau bus station. Then we caught a coach to Ivancea,
we had to sit in the coach for 2 hours before it departed, it got so crowed people were standing in aisle way.
Eventually we arrived in Ivancea at about 6pm it took us nine hours just to travel 150km.
The journey is my home. It was nice to relax for the next few days, see Lisa and enjoy the Easter festival; we travelled back to Chisinau a few days later in readiness for the Champions league semi-final deciding leg of Man U and Barcelona.
We went to Sports bar in the Botanican district, which is situated on the other side of town. We arranged to meet up with an ex -pat named Richard and his wife and a Belgium guy called Daniel who are regular contributors to Marina’s forum on her website. We arrived early and found our table we had booked and ordered some food. It was a big beer hall type place with Plasma screens on the walls, with flags of famous clubs hanging from the ceiling: Real Madrid, Bayen Munich, AC Milan etc but no Manchester United, I made a mental to buy one when I get home and bring one back with me. As
I looked around the bar, I notice that on certain tables was looked like the old bubble gum machine from my childhood but they turned out to beer Dispensers.
Basically they were a Beer Keg on a plastic platform; they held up to five litres of beer. These devices looked great, I was thinking about ordering one when our guests turned up, but our food hadn’t still arrived. I am afraid I was not very good company I was hungry and very nervous. Richard was a Newcastle fan but said he going to support United and Daniel was well pissed and wanted to talk all the time.
After one hour my food turned up and it was crap, not worth the wait, Marina had to wait another half hour for hers.
15 minutes before the game started and the room filled up with football fans, one side of us was the Barcelona fans and the other side was the Manchester Utd fans. The United fans with their fake replica shirts with Ronaldo on the back were a joy to behold and made feel like I was back home in my local. The atmosphere was terrific and both sets of fans
were singing songs and very noisy, another good thing was that I could smoke while I watch the game which I needed to do as United always seem to do the things the hard way and keep you on Tenterhooks right to the end of a game.
Scholes Scores a fantastic goal after 15 minutes and I up from my stool celebrating with rest of united fans, oh what joy. United then defend for the next 75 minutes and I must have smoked about 75 cigs, but we did it, and now we are going to Moscow for the Champions League final! Hurrah!
Hitler didn't travel. Stalin didn't travel. Saddam Hussein never traveled. They didn't want to have their orthodoxy challenged. The next day was the Chelsea and Liverpool semi-final, I was looking forward to this game because I would be able to relax and enjoy hopefully a good game of football. We booked a table at a local bar “BeerLand” (a land of beer wow, I think that my Mate Chaddy and Homer Simpson would be slavering at this prospect)
We arrived at our table at 9pm and waited for the game to begin, we order a keg
of beer, I mused about these devices and how great they are but I don’t think they would work in Manchester. They are made for sharing, I don’t think I would like to share one with my mate chaddy who I could just imagine would be lying on the table on his back with the tap open drinking as much as he could. They are great value for money and they cost only cost about £5 for 5 litres (about 9 pints). I think in England we would buy one each and mark the plastic with a felt tip when we go outside for a smoke or to take a piss, to make sure no one filled up their glass.
Moldova Channel one is not the best network, the bar was full and the game had kicked off but still they showed a concert of folk singing. The customers were getting angry and Marina kept on asking the waitress “Where is the football? She kept trying to find the football by flicking around the many channels but had no luck. The waitress moved us into the other room which had the game on and I was happy, so happy I
ordered another Keg of beer, we had missed only 20 minutes and I settled down to watch the game drink beer when 10 minutes later the screen went off completely!
Traveling tends to magnify all human emotions. I didn’t really care now as I was feeling quite pissed, Marina went to toilet and a guy from table in front turned to me and asked if they may join us.
They were 3 of them, Olya, Alex and Dimitri they were all English students in the final year and the so thrilled to meet an English person and try out their language skills.
Dimitri was a big guy who was going out with Olya, both had been in U.S.A the previous year; they loved it there and wanted to leave Moldova and live there. All 3 of them was asking me many questions, I was doing my best to give sensible answers as my brain was quite addled with all the alcohol I had consumed. I particular liked Alex because every question he asked me started with “Excuse me Sir” , he would lean forward and say “ Excuse me sir what do think of Americans” or something along this
lines. Marina overheard him calling me sir and later was making fun of me calling me “Sir Krissy” I must admit It did feel like I was a celebrity.
After 20 minutes of no football they got the football back on but it was the start of the first half of the game, they must not be only allowed to show the game until they had already played the first 45 minutes, so we had to sit though the first half again, it was surreal experience, I was just glad they we did not come here last night as I would be pulling my hair out, if I had any hair.
Our new friends left before the start of extra of time but we arranged to go out with them tomorrow night for a drink, they wanted to show us a great bar they knew in the centre. Tomorrow would be my last night in Moldova as the next day I had to take the train back to Bucharest and then a flight home.
When you look like your passport photo, its time to go home. We stumbled out of BeerLand at about 1am and decided to take a
taxi the short distance home, the driver had techno music turned up to the max, it was like being in a night club, the whole car was vibrating. Apparently a lot of taxi drivers take drugs to pass away the boredom of working nights; this driver was differently on Ecstasy.
Feeling somewhat worse for wear, the next day we went filming in the centre, we did a lot of walking and got some great shots of the main sights of Chisinau. We were near the Cinema and I noticed a poster for “Iron Man” so we bought for tickets for the 9.30pm performance.
We met up with Dimitre and Olya in the centre and they took us to the “Beer Platz” it was a German theme beer hall, with buxom waitresses in traditional dress, an oompar band was on stage, as we took our seats at the front of the stage they started playing it was as if they were waiting for us to arrive. It was a great place with cheep beer, lively crowd, fun music, it was a shame we had tickets to see Iron Man as I would have like to stay longer and got pissed in there. It always the same with me when I go somewhere on holiday, I always find a good bar on the last night. Next time when I come back to Moldova I will be having a good night out in here.
I found “Iron Man” enjoyable and easy to follow even if it was dubbed into Russian with no subtitles to help me, I did think it turned in to “Transformers” for the last 25 minutes.
So the next day with heavy heart I had to go home, Marina is staying on in Moldova for another couple of months so Lisa can spend time with her Granny.
Marina put me on the Train and waved to me at the window as the train pulled out from the station I felt so sad to be Leaving my wife and baby and also Moldova.
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Natalie
non-member comment
Return of the Edge............
Another epic journey made with another epic tale of adventure. Think next time you should take slightly less pictures because Marina looks less than impressed outside the University!!! You'll be able to sell your passport on Ebay when it expires because I doubt many other people will have as many different 'Eastern Bloc' stamps on as you Enjoy your next trip!