"Just a Story" a Moldova Travel Page by maxovna

<b>Unfortunately I can not give you any useful tips on Moldova here, since my trip to <font color=teal>Kishinev, the capital of Moldova</font>, was not a sightseeing tour. I came to visit my friend - we talked, visited friends and watched video instead of sightseeing and exploring the city. Here I wanted to tell you a sad story connected with the Moldavians that I <b><font color=red> eye-witnessed </b></font> being <font color=teal>on a Mediterranean cruise</font> in 1999. For the majority of citizens of Moldova life has become very tough lately, and plenty of them try to find seasonal or permanent jobs abroad. Some come to work to Moscow illegally and are paid very little, being used as cheap labour force. Great masses of Moldavians try to find a job in such countries as Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, and others. But recently embassies of these countries started to refuse visas to them knowing that they won't come back soon. So, about 200 Moldavians bought cheap cabins on lower decks of the ship, what was a way out for them, since the cruise was visa free - at each port we were given a pass to leave the ship for several hours. Some of them managed to leave the ship in Sicily. But what we observed later, was really national discrimination, because on arriving in Portugal the Russian and Ukranian tourists were allowed to go off-board, but not the Moldavians. And in one of the ports two or three of them decided to jump off board, what was very dangerous. Thank God, nobody was seriously injured. The situation was really depressing. By the way, after this accident the authorities of Gibraltar refused the scheduled stop of our ship. Besides, on board a ship there were Moldavians who did not aim at emigrating. They were just tourists, and the impression was badly spoilt for them.</b>