TRANSNISTRIA - Tiraspol
(2016)
Transnistria is a country that doesn't exist and as you can understand from the Lenin Statue, this is a pro-Russia region linked by its Soviet roots.
Wtf Kevin, what are you saying?
Transnistria is a breakaway state in the narrow strip of land between the river Dniester and the Ukrainian border that is internationally recognized as part of Moldova.
There are only three other mostly unrecognized breakaway states, Abkhazia, Artsakh, and South Ossetia, that recognize Transnistria as an independent country.
This “country“ has his own passport and currency (they use plastic coins) but as you can imagine, outside this territory they are worthless.
Transnistria is a Soviet style territory that, like Ukraine, gives me anxiety every time I think or see something about it.
Tiraspol is the capital and the largest city.
Foreigners are only allowed to stay 8 hours inside Transnistria unless they ask for special permission to stay 48h.
These are the world's first plastic coins
TRANSNISTRIA
These are the official coins of Transnistria and are made with plastic...
These bank notes look like Monopoly notes, right?
The bus that took us to Tiraspol
chisinau, moldova | TRANSNISTRIA
I remember that it was so f*ckin cold inside the bus... My toes were complitely frozen.
The driver was a very old man that was smoking while driving and when we arrived at the border, a woman was caught dealing winter gloves... The police officers were very aggressive with her, screaming very loudly...
And this is what the entry border to Transnistria looks like.
They gave me Permission to stay only 8 hours inside Transnistria
TRANSNISTRIA
This was the paper with my information in Russian that they gave me at the border.
Foreigners only have permission to stay 10 hours inside Transnistria unless they ask for a special permission to stay 48h maximum.
On the bottom right corner, you can see the time before which I had to leave the territory.
Taxi drivers confirming the location of our destination
TRANSNISTRIA
go tiraspol- the only hostel here
TRANSNISTRIA
I took this trip with Paulo, who was traveling with me through Moldova and Ukraine, and Eric Weiberg, a guy from the USA that we met in the place we were staying in Chisinau, Moldova.
Eric wanted to sleep in Transnistria one night so we got the 48h permission through the Tiraspol Hostel owner.
This is the entrance of the hostel...
this guy is the hostel owner
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This is Dimitri, the owner of the hostel. After showing us his hostel, he took us to his work canteen to have lunch.
In the image below, Dimitri was translating the menu to us.
Dimitri was surprised when the women working in the cafeteria gave us forks and knives. He said they don't usually use knives to eat, but the women realized we were foreigners and gave us the knives.
1 Transnistrian Ruble (0.10€) to cross the river
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We just paid 1 Transnistrian Ruble (I think it is like 10 or 20 cents) to cross the river on this platform.
Kvint wine factory
TRANSNISTRIA
Kvint is a wine brand from Tiraspol.
Soviet style building
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look closely
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We were taking a picture when we realized that...
sunset time 🌇
TRANSNISTRIA
random photos from the trip
TRANSNISTRIA
