MOLDOVA 
chisinau
(2016)
In 2016 I did the Erasmus program in Romania for 6 months. I was studying Mechanical Engineering and it was one of the best experiences of my life.
Why? Because I worked in a hostel in Macedonia; I was alone in Kosovo and an AK-47 shooting happened next the restaurant I had dinner in; I went through 3 countries in a row in less than 24 hours, with no money and no phone battery, just to surprise a special friend; I visited a Soviet country that doesn't exist and more...
I had really crazy moments in Romania... I didn't go to classes even once because the teachers didn't speak English... instead I took the opportunity to travel through the Eastern European countries... I have almost 100 handwritten sheets full of stories from 12 countries I visited during Erasmus.
My trip through Moldova, one of the poorest countries in Europe, gave me at least a handful of these stories...
I was robbed by Police while traveling alone on a 3rd class Night Train from Ukraine to Moldova
kiev, ukraine | Ungheni, moldova
F*ck! This was one of the most unexpected experiences that I ever had... I will be very brief:
After my friend Paulo took a plane back to Sweden where he was doing Erasmus, I was alone and decided to come back to Romania by train. To do that, I needed to take a night train from Kiev to Moldova and then another one to Romania. This first trip took 18 hours; I was alone on a 3rd class night train and I was the only foreigner there...
It was midnight when I boarded the train; the person in charge of the carriage took me to my bed, I prepared my sleeping bag and fell asleep. In the morning when I woke up, I realized that I was surrounded by middle-aged/ old people from Moldova, Ukraine, Romania and elsewhere... a lot of old women were constantly entering into the carriage and selling random things there... Candies, fruit, SIM cards, Alcohol and so on.
A middle-aged couple that was sleeping in front of me bought a painting of the Jesus Last Supper, coffee, 2 SIM cards, toys and
3 bottles of whiskey...
The sellers sat on my bed every time they were negotiating with the couple.
Then the train stopped at the Ukraine/Moldova border and the police officers entered the train and checked the passengers ID. One of them asked for my passport, I gave it to him. He looked at the passport then looked at me and said- "later" and left the train with my passport...
I thought that he probably needed to check something in the computer's data or something like that but then... a couple of minutes later the train started moving and I didn't have my passport!
I started to panic and quickly approached the youngest guy (Alex) in the carriage (
probably the only person who spoke English there) and I told him about the situation. He approached the person in charge of the carriage and a few minutes later he told me that the police officer will give me the passport in the next station.
I was relieved but why did it happen? Why did the police officer take my passport and didn't give it back to me?
Alex told me that the police officer probably expected that I would give him some money to get the passport back when he was leaving the carriage...
"Are you sure about that bro?"- I asked him.
"Yes, because when I talked with the carriage's guy, he made a phone call and said to the police officer- "Don't do that, you need to give it back to him"".
Yeah that's f*cked up, what a shitty corrupt vibe...
So I just waited in my bed until the next stop. I was very nervous and the train was as slow as every train in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile the couple in front of me just bought fireworks... yes, they bought fireworks inside the train!
After 20/30 minutes the train stopped, the police officer showed up and gave me the passport saying some "you're a stupid foreigner" excuse.
"No worries"- I said.
After that, I talked with Alex for a while... and then the train stopped again at a station... A very old woman left the carriage and 10 minutes later she came back and gave me a big Moldavan sandwich! I was very confused because I thought she was selling me the sandwich and I wasn't hungry at all. Alex told me to accept the offer and explained to me that she probably has a son/daughter and she would like for someone to do the same thing if they were in the same situation as me, a student traveling alone... I remember the surprised face of the old woman when I said "mulțumesc" (thank you very much in Romanian/Moldovan).
That was my breakfast (the Moldovan Sandwich on the left).
At the end of the trip, I was writing about this experience in my travel book (image below) when an Orthodox priest entered the carriage and started blessing random people for money.
What a bizarre journey.
Night Train from Iași to Chișinău
Iasi, romania | chisinau, moldova
My friend Paulo and I took this peculiar night train from Iași, a town from Romania, to Chișinău, the capital city of Moldova...
These kinds of trains have small private compartments where there are 2 bunk beds with two beds each.
This is like a little ambulant soviet home right?
We were sleeping and we woke up, we felt the train grising... "What is going on?!".
We looked outside and a lot of guys were changing the wheels of the trains.
That's because the train lines in Romania are different from the Moldovan train lines... so they must change the wheels every time a train enters or leaves Moldova to or from Romania...
King Stephen
chisinau, moldova
Did you know that every single note of Moldova currency has this guy's face printed on?
bus station
chisinau, moldova
bus tickets
chisinau, moldova
Handwritten train ticket
ungheni, moldova | bucharest, romania
This is a handwritten train ticket from Ungheni (Moldova) to Bucharest (Romania)... That's so old school right?
Awesome!
the picture
chisinau, moldova
For me, this is the picture that summarizes my view of Moldova.
This picture was taken in a restaurant where I paid fro the most expensive meal during my entire 6 months traveling through Eastern European countries. 14€ for a meal... and this was in the poorest country in Europe.
I saw this photo on the walls of the restaurant, probably this is some famous guy smoking inside the restaurant like "I don´t give a fuck" and next to the photo you have a "no smoking" sign...
You kinda feel that money and mafia rule this country...
Andy's pizza- "the mafia chain"
moldova
Why did I mention "mafia" in the post above?
Being one of the poorest countries in Europe and the strict connection with Russia there is a huge probability of "dark businesses" existing there...
One example of that is the Andy's Pizza chain that is well known locally for being owned by the local branch of the Russian mafia.
stores schedule
chisinau, moldova
random picture from the city
chisinau, moldova
MOLDOVA cricova
(2016)
cricova underground winery
cricova, moldova
The underground wine cellars of Cricova have 120 kilometers of labyrinthine roadways.
The wine cellars of Cricova are the second largest wine cellar in Moldova, after Milestii Mici (the largest in the world). It boasts 120 kilometers of labyrinthine roadways, versus Milesti Mici's 200 kilometers.
Half of the roadways are used for wine storage. The roads are named by the wines they store. This "wine city" has its warehouses, tasting rooms, and other facilities underground. It goes down to 100 meters below ground and holds 1.25 million bottles of rare wine. The oldest wine dates back to 1902. The temperature is maintained at about 12 °C all year round (which is perfect for wine).
