"Moldova - during national holidays" Moldova by lenoreva

Day 7 (see Romania page for days 1-6)

On the bus to Chisinau from Iasj, Romania, we met a really nice Moldovan girl, Inesa. Once in Chisinau, we checked into our hotel (the fancy "flowers" - we went all out, frightened a bit by all the soviet-era buildings). There we found out that we had arrived in the holiday period between August 27th and 31st where everything is closed. So no Cricova wine tour for us. We did get a good at the festival and Bucuria (chocolate shop) was open so we bought random chocolates. Then, through pure coincidence, we met Inesa and her cousin on the street outside Bucuria and we went in again so they could show us the good ones to buy. Back at the hotel, we told the receptionist that we needed to return to Bucharest the next day. He told us that the train left at 17:00 which didn't give us a lot of time for our planned monastery tour. He told us it would be better to take an overnight bus and arranged a taxi driver to take us to the bus station to buy tickets. At the bus station, they sold us tickets for the train leaving at 11. 11 at night they said -getting to Bucharest by 9 am. Which would give us a whole day to see Bucharest.

Day 8

The next morning, the driver and his English speaking grandson (aged 12) picked us up and we went to Orhei Vechi and Tipova. Both incredibly interesting places with not one tourist in sight. Also no postcards for sale anywhere in the country. In Tipova, there wasn't even a ticket stand. We did meet a pair of Moldovan Russians who gave us a tour (translated by the grandson). We had wanted to go to Transdinestria, but everyone told us not to go because of the current problems. From Tipova, we could see Transdinestra across the river. And we could see a steady stream of people rafting over, "escaping" if you will (according to the Russians, who apparently "camped" in Tipova most of the year, which is why they knew so much about it). I should mention the roads - not good, potholed and in some places unpaved. But the driver acted like he was in the Formula 1. 130 Km/hr was frighteningly fast for me.

We got back to Chisinau and had dinner in a nice place, Las Taifes, which was cozy and nearly as good at Roata in Cluj. Then we called a taxi to take us to the bus station. It was the same driver who had bought our bus tickets, and he said he was surprised to see us. Huh?? Yeah, didn't we know our bus left in the morning?? What?? He drove us out there to the south-west bus station and after a half hour, we found ourselves thinking he was taking us somewhere to sell our kidneys. But we finally arrived to see... nothing going on at the bus station. Apparently, the bus was for 11 in the morning, despite everyone assuring us that it went at night. Well, back to the bus station. No, they wouldn't exchange the ticket. We'd have to buy new ones, but there was no room left on the early bus so we'd have to go at 2 pm - getting us into Bucharest at midnight with no chance to see anything. Not having any Moldovan money left, we had to exchange some at the place around the corner which had bad rates and a high commission. The taxi driver drove us back to the hotel and for his part, only charged us 70 Lei. Thanks man. We had some strong words with the hotel, mostly about the fact that we were misled by their staff. We couldn't afford another night there, but they told us we could stay for a reduced price. In the end, we didn't end up paying anything. A small consolation for the fact that we entirely missed out on Bucharest.

Day 9
So this time, we were determined to catch the bus! Once at the bus station, we really had to ask many times which bus went to Bucharest - each person we asked gave us a different answer - but we finally found the right one by waving around our tickets.
The bus ride wasn't too bad. We were treated to a viewing of "Gladiator" which wasn't dubbed - there was just some guy speaking Russian over the English. The border was interesting. Only Moldovans on the bus (besides us) both ways. The guys checking the passports were interested in ours, and also were fascinated by our copy of Lonely Planet. Didn't give us any trouble though.

And then we were back in Bucharest. (see Romania page for continutation).

• Pros:not a tourist in sight
• Cons:not a postcard in sight either (sorry grandma!)
• In a nutshell:seriously off the beaten track