MoldovAnn

Igor joined me for my trip to Moldova. We hired a friend to drive us here, since there are no direct flights from Kyiv and the train takes 16+ hours to travel 500 km (~320 miles). Within 5 hours we were on the border, then a good hour and a half spent passing through endless control points. We went through Transdniestra, this crazy little strip of land that thinks it’s an independent country while everyone else in the world thinks it’s a crazy little strip of land that belongs to Moldova. They take their craziness seriously, though, and have even introduced immigration forms at the border (new since we passed through last August).

The Moldovans have also introduced some new scams, namely an “ecology fee” which must be paid in local currency at the border. i could hardly bite my tongue hard enough to stop myself from endless commentary on the utter lack of an ecological conscience in the country.

We finally got to Chisniau about 7:30, checked into the hotel, and headed out for an absolutely fantastic dinner. For some reason, nearly all restaurants in Chisinau are in basements. I commented on this as we descended into the one we picked, and Sasha (friend/driver) said it probably had something to do with a positive association with wine cellars, which are extreme points of pride in Moldova. I think he’s onto something.

After a fabulous dinner, a delicious bottle of wine, an unncessary amount of vodka and a nightcap of a local brew akin to paint thinner, we stumbled on our way. Igor and I walked Sasha to his hotel, only to find it dark and locked up. The three of us took turns banging on the door and trying to explain to the stubborn guard on the other side that he should let in their paying customer. He was really stubborn, though, and probably could hear as little of what we said as we could hear of what he said, which wasn’t pretty much nothing. Finally Igor noticed the intercom.

“What do you want?”, the voice asked.
“To check in, get a room for the night.”
“This is the National Bank of Moldova” said the voice.

Oops. The hotel’s on the next corner. Double oops.

Today we went on a tour of the Cricova winery. Needless to say, none of us took particular advantage of the wine tasting at the end of the tour. We learned about the famous champagne process they use there, which is pretty dang cool, and saw what seemed to me at least a million and a half bottles of wine. Also pretty dang cool. So much wine, so little time….

Chisinau looks really good (and not just because of the wine). The city seems a lot nicer, cleaner, than when I lived in Moldova (gosh, is it really 4 years ago now?).