Thursday, June 29, 2006

First Impressions of Moldova

First experience of Moldova was getting off a bus at 5am outside the central market at Chisinau bus station. A couple of friendly locals pestered me to change money and take a taxi, but I was still half asleep, didn't know what the exchange rate should be (should always do your research first!!) and didn't have anywhere to goto anyway. Sat down for a while and ate my breakfast while watching the market vendors unloading huge carcasses from a van in front of me.. Urrgghhhh.

Got to my flat in a large communist style residential block, 20 minutes from the centre on one of the superb but often overcrowded minibusses that is the hub of the city's public transport system.

Back in town I tried to find what there was to visit there, nothing much to be honest so I tried some musems, something I haven't done on this trip so far. The National Archeology and Ethonography Museum was first, I got my student discount with my fake student card - which made it around 60 Euro cents instead of 1 Euro. She asked where i studied, so I answered Amsterdam (which is says on my fake student id card) and she then took great pleasure in telling all the other ladies there, i was a student from Amsterdam. I suspect they don't have that many foreigners there. Skeleton of a large mammoth like creature was quite impressive, much of the rest was just broken, pots, jugs, coins, spearheads, etc as seen in most history museums.

The Chisinau History Museum was next, I felt guilty using my student card now as they were so cheap anyway so didn't try it this time. The lady at the desk turned to her colleage and said "How much is it, 10 Lei ?", "No 15, her colleague answered". Either it was a very long long time since anybody else visited, or they had some special foreigner price, not sure which. Some nice woven rugs here in interesting colorful patterns that resembled incan design.

Final one for the day was the National History Museum, open from 0900 - 1800 according to the sign outside. I arrived around 16:50, but while purchasing my ticket from the cashier, another lady arrived and (insisting on speaking French for some reason, despite the first lady understanding my Russian attempts ok) explained that it closed at 16:30. Confused and hot from the steamy and humid 40 degrees outside I just asked when they opened tomorrow and went for a walk.

Next I came across parks, churches, statues of famous Moldovans and the Moldovan attempt at a "L'Arc de Triomphe". All around here it was very surprisingly pleasant, loads of cafes to sit out at and a good restaurant to eat at. A huge lamb saute with rice and a seperate plate of 'vegetables in foil' plus 2 large beers for about 7 Euros plus Brazil v Ghana on two TVs; can't argue with that !



Left: Central Park in Chisinau
Right: Orthodox church in Chisinau

Chisinau, despite the poor condition of many roads has plenty of nice places to see and wander around, big streets and building like many ex-Soviet cities, but also seems to be quite an arty city and overall better than expected. Also very, very busy at night, lots going on, which is what I'm about to do more research on., bye for now.

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