Another new country, Moldova

Leaving Romania

With an 1100 hotel check-out and 1230 bus, I had some spare time in the morning to review my standby flight options from Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur.  All options were starting to get worse so I booked the most expensive standby option on Qatar Airways as a further backup.

I headed out to buy some lunch and water with the remainder of my Romanian money from the supermarket.  I had forgotten that the water bottle incurs a RON0.50 deposit and I was short of RON0.38 (EUR0.08) but they waived it.

I hopped on the tram to the bus station around 1130 and dutifully tapped my debit card to pay the fare, only to find that the tram in front had broken down.  I didn’t look like anyone was working on a fix.

With the clock ticking away, I ordered a Bolt car to take me to the station where I found the bus to Chisinau waiting.

The driver looked at my printout for the booking and accepted it at face value without any checks or scan of the barcode (as with previous rides; the ticket could have been cancelled or refunded).

The old bus, pre-loved in Germany, left on time and got us to the border at Sculeni about 30 mins later around 1300.

Exiting Romania, the immigration officers wanted to see my work or resident permit because they hadn’t thought that I would be a tourist, having spent a months in the Schengen zone.

Entering Moldova

On the Moldovan side, the officers were thorough but easy.  They wanted to know what I was doing, see my hotel booking and ticket out.

About 50 mins after arriving at the border area, we finished the processing for both countries and continued our drive towards Chisinau.  Moldova is a new country for me.  While I don’t “collect” countries (as evidenced with repeat visits to many countries), it is my second new country this trip.

The road on the Moldovan gave a bad first impression with lots of potholes.  But I soon realised it was a small road and the main roads were as good as the ones in Romania.

Arriving at the bus station around 1600, it was going to be a 30 min walk to the hotel.  I didn’t want to walk the whole distance but headed in the correct direction first, in search of an ATM.

When I realised the Yandex rideshare app was available, I gave up on the ATM and decided to order a ride.  But I wasn’t anywhere safe for a car to stop and continued walking.

When I saw the bus stop and realised that I could use my debit card to pay, I hopped on the bus instead.  Again, I dutifully tapped my card upon entry only to find that the procedure is to tap it in the presence of the conductor.  I had to show her my bank app to show that it had gone through already.

My selected bus route involved a backtrack by foot to get to the Hotel Villa Natali.  I was accommodated on the top floor of an annex building, with plenty of peace and quiet, and privacy.  With the heat, it was nice that the aircon had been left on to cool the top-floor room.

First taste of Chisinau

I wandered out around 1630 and walked through the nearby park, Stephen the Great Central Park.  I couldn’t believe how lovely the atmosphere was.  In this green urban space, people were dancing.  There was a café plus a coffee kiosk as well.

Crossing the road, there was another park called the Cathedral Park in which the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ’s Nativity was located.  Again, it was lovely with activity here including displays of art.

Text continues after this gallery.

I grabbed a dinner of salad in a pub.  It turned out to be disappointingly small but the fried chicken and blue cheese in it was gorgeous.  I had to supplement it with a small burger and a cherry pie at McDonald’s afterwards.

There’s not meant to be terribly much to do in Chisinau but to enjoy the atmosphere (which I already was), seeing life in a different country, living my day-to-day in a different environment and escaping the New Zealand winter.

Observations about Moldova

I found a gym for tomorrow, to help with living my day-to-day in a different country.  A little bit about Moldova, for thos who don’t know.  It is a small independent nation of largely Romanian people. It exists separately from Romania due to its history, having been part of the Russian Empire, briefly with Romania, and later the USSR.

A few observations here:

• There are a few Ukrainian beggars, or people begging who claimed to be Ukrainian.
• Russian is widely spoken by some both people who look Russian and otherwise (presumably of Romanian ethnicity). The reason is Russian was the language of importance during the period of the Russian Empire and USSR; Moldova was part of both.  Russian media and entertainment are still popular.  I guess it is like how English still pervades in Malaysia.
• Even though Moldova only has Moldovan (Romanian) as its only official language, I see items in the supermarket labelled exclusively in Russian (or Ukrainian) from Belarus and Ukraine. I guessed that Russian is a language still valid for trade.  ChatGPT suggests it isn’t but it is lack of enforcement.

I finished the day checking the flight loadings for my standby flight to Kuala Lumpur.  Things were looking progressively worse.