THE CHISINAU DIARY
It was July 2013. I stood at Bucharest Central Station. I had just spent the night at a horrible hotel across the road for £24 with plastic sheets and a remote that wouldn't work!
My choice for today was: 1) Wait till the evening and get the train to Chisinau, Moldova at night
2) Get the morning train to Sofia and arrive in the evening.
So i went from Bucharest to Sofia!
I opted to visit Sofia mainly because the currency didn't have an extra digit on the end of it. I knew Sofia was going to be cheaper and I had no idea it was going to be a great city
3 years later I waited for a bus to Tallinn, Estonia at Moscow. I saw a bus with Moldovan number plates. I could have gotten that bus to Chisinau, but I was far more interested in the Baltic and Scandinavia than going back to the Warsaw Pact
5 years passed on. Every time I wanted to get out to Moldova, it was always going to be expensive. I was delaying a trip to Moldova until the flights to Iasi, Romania was cheap.
Its much cheaper to fly from London to Bucharest and get a bus to Moldova than it is to fly from London to Chisinau!
With all my short burst of vacations in 2018, I couldn't really see myself going to Moldova. It would either take too long to travel between Bucharest and Chisinau or too expensive to fly to Iasi. On all my flights out of London, I got a budget of £50 and I will pay no more than that to go somewhere and come back
While residing in Stockholm and recovering from being overworked in London, I discovered there were cheap flights to Iasi from Malmo. Flight to a city I have wanted to visit for a long time was just the golden egg I was looking for.
On the last day in July, I took a cheap £12 bus to Malmo and waited for my flight. I was supposed to leave at 11.30pm at night, but I didn't end up leaving Stockholm till the next day!
I landed at Iasi at 5 am in the morning, after a 6-hour walk around town I got on a minibus (Across the road from the train station) that went out to Chisinau.
The bus ride to the border took less than 50 minutes. Passports were collected on both sides. As I was stamped into Moldova I realized that I only got 1 nation left on mainland Europe (PORTUGAL)
As the bus drove through Moldova I saw plenty of green and allot of Train tracks. I'm kinda glad I didn't take the train to Moldova as it works out to be VERY SLOW.
I got to Chisnau around 3 pm in the afternoon. There wasn't a bus station to get dropped off at as I decided to get off the bus near this big War Memorial.
My choice for today was: 1) Wait till the evening and get the train to Chisinau, Moldova at night
2) Get the morning train to Sofia and arrive in the evening.
So i went from Bucharest to Sofia!
I opted to visit Sofia mainly because the currency didn't have an extra digit on the end of it. I knew Sofia was going to be cheaper and I had no idea it was going to be a great city
3 years later I waited for a bus to Tallinn, Estonia at Moscow. I saw a bus with Moldovan number plates. I could have gotten that bus to Chisinau, but I was far more interested in the Baltic and Scandinavia than going back to the Warsaw Pact
5 years passed on. Every time I wanted to get out to Moldova, it was always going to be expensive. I was delaying a trip to Moldova until the flights to Iasi, Romania was cheap.
Its much cheaper to fly from London to Bucharest and get a bus to Moldova than it is to fly from London to Chisinau!
With all my short burst of vacations in 2018, I couldn't really see myself going to Moldova. It would either take too long to travel between Bucharest and Chisinau or too expensive to fly to Iasi. On all my flights out of London, I got a budget of £50 and I will pay no more than that to go somewhere and come back
While residing in Stockholm and recovering from being overworked in London, I discovered there were cheap flights to Iasi from Malmo. Flight to a city I have wanted to visit for a long time was just the golden egg I was looking for.
On the last day in July, I took a cheap £12 bus to Malmo and waited for my flight. I was supposed to leave at 11.30pm at night, but I didn't end up leaving Stockholm till the next day!
I landed at Iasi at 5 am in the morning, after a 6-hour walk around town I got on a minibus (Across the road from the train station) that went out to Chisinau.
The bus ride to the border took less than 50 minutes. Passports were collected on both sides. As I was stamped into Moldova I realized that I only got 1 nation left on mainland Europe (PORTUGAL)
As the bus drove through Moldova I saw plenty of green and allot of Train tracks. I'm kinda glad I didn't take the train to Moldova as it works out to be VERY SLOW.
I got to Chisnau around 3 pm in the afternoon. There wasn't a bus station to get dropped off at as I decided to get off the bus near this big War Memorial.
Down the path is a cemetery for all those Moldovan who died in the Red Army during WWII
IQ hostel wasn't far from this war memorial. For £10 I stayed there for 2 nights, comparing what that Bicycle hostel in Ias would have charged me £9 a night!
I went into the Hostel, paid 400 Moldovan Lei and just went to bed. I had only slept 2 hours on Tuesday morning and I was just so damn restless!
2nd August 2018
I got up at 9 am to have some bread, drink some tea and take my medicine. Normally in my Swedish life, I didn't go to bed till 5 am so I'd sleep in until Noon!
I got out of bed at Noon as I realized the sun won't go down till later!
I went to the Moldovan History Museum and was charged double the entrance fee of 10 MDL plus 15MDL for camera usage! It's a pretty good museum if you want to learn some history of Moldova.
I went into the Hostel, paid 400 Moldovan Lei and just went to bed. I had only slept 2 hours on Tuesday morning and I was just so damn restless!
2nd August 2018
I got up at 9 am to have some bread, drink some tea and take my medicine. Normally in my Swedish life, I didn't go to bed till 5 am so I'd sleep in until Noon!
I got out of bed at Noon as I realized the sun won't go down till later!
I went to the Moldovan History Museum and was charged double the entrance fee of 10 MDL plus 15MDL for camera usage! It's a pretty good museum if you want to learn some history of Moldova.
There are 2 main parks in Chisinau that are side by side. One of them is called "City Park". It has a Church on its ground. The other one is called Park and Garden. is full of busts of famous Moldova's. As a man who has spent 30 years in Australia and 3 years within the UK, I just stand and look at these bust and think, what kind of good things did they do to become famous amongst the history books.
Paris has an Arch du Tripuh, Bucharest has an Arch as well and so does Moldova. Its twice as small as the one in Bucharest but its got a nice big Moldovan flag flying in the middle!
.Chisinau Train Station is very lovely, They have a few Aquarium inside the waiting room. Trains run from Chisinau to Moscow every day of the week. I was thinking of going to Odesa the next day but I changed my mind to get to KIEV where I would stay there for a couple of days
Outside of the Train Station is a memorial to all those Moldovans who were deported from Moldova in the Soviet Union days and sent off to camps in Siberia. What a way to travel OVERLAND!
Outside of the Train Station is a memorial to all those Moldovans who were deported from Moldova in the Soviet Union days and sent off to camps in Siberia. What a way to travel OVERLAND!
I may have waited over 5 years to get to Modova, but theres not much to see in the capital. I could have gone to Trisapol in the east, but I wasn't going to deal with Transnistrian Ruble and have to register. I could have gone to Triapsol,stayed the 24 hours im allowed and then gone back to Chinisau and got the bus to Kiev. But untill other UN members start recognising this break away area, then I'm not going to count it as a stupid country!
You can spent all day arguring with me about adding Kosovo, Vatican City and Soverign Military Order of Malta to my list. Turns out S.M.O.O.M and Vatican City have far more embassies than Kosovo.
The next day I walked to the North Bus station, got a ticket to Kiev and waited from Lunch time to 8.30pm for the bus to Kiev. It was time to get Ukraine in my passport. I was in Ukraine in 2016 when I changed planes in KIev, but I still count it as I did with my first visit to Vietnam and Saudi Arabian layover
I feel that I am nearly done with Europe and all whats left of it is to work in London and Sweden to save up and get across to Africa, back to Asia or even to Americas!
You can spent all day arguring with me about adding Kosovo, Vatican City and Soverign Military Order of Malta to my list. Turns out S.M.O.O.M and Vatican City have far more embassies than Kosovo.
The next day I walked to the North Bus station, got a ticket to Kiev and waited from Lunch time to 8.30pm for the bus to Kiev. It was time to get Ukraine in my passport. I was in Ukraine in 2016 when I changed planes in KIev, but I still count it as I did with my first visit to Vietnam and Saudi Arabian layover
I feel that I am nearly done with Europe and all whats left of it is to work in London and Sweden to save up and get across to Africa, back to Asia or even to Americas!
