The general reaction to my decision to go to Chisinau has been ‘’where’’ and ‘’why’?!’. Chisinau, pronounced locally as Kishinev, is the capital city of Moldova, a wee little country nestled between the Ukraine and Romania sitting on the Black Sea. Still classed as one of the poorest countries in the western world and boasting the highest populations of Peace Corps volunteers per capita in Europe it is no surprise that 70% of Moldovans live outside Moldova.
My reasons for going were simple; I needed to get from St Petersburg to South East Europe cheaply without spending days on a bus through Ukraine. Enter Air Baltic – Latvia’s answer to Ryan Air servicing Eastern Europe with tiny tiny planes!
Upon arriving at the airport I was instantly bombarded by people trying to bundle me up and throw me in their taxi. Luckily I knew to catch a mini bus, and a good thing too as the people I met on the bus became my Moldova buddies! Alex (German and studying medicine in Chisinau) and his girlfriend Kaorin (Japanese and volunteering at an orphanage) had come to the airport to meet two Estonian guys (Siim and Allan, two military men from Tallinn) who were doing a couch surfing stint at their place. We hit it off straight away and made plans to meet up later – always nice to know a local!
The drive into town was very humbling; I was immediately stunned by the poverty. Chisinau is paradoxical with a city full of gypsys and peasants and Hummers and Limousines cruising down the famous high street, Stefan Del Mar.On the main street everything is expensive but as soon as you go a block back the prices drop at least 2/3rds. I also couldn’t believe how many currency exchange offices there were. Without a word of a lie every second store had a currency conversion counter. According to Alex this may be because such a large percentage of the population live and work outside of Moldova so when they come back they need to exchange money. Still seems odd to me!
The first of March in Europe marks the first day of spring and in the Balkan countries I noticed that the locals wear and sell small little brooches or decorations with red and white baubles/hearts/flowers hanging off them. These represent the holiday Martenista and are worn from the first day of Spring until the first Stork is spotted, marking the official beginning of Spring.
The markets are amazing, here you can find everything from dry goods to toilet paper to chicken feet and woollen shoe inlays. The poverty was quite apparent as the prices are absurdly low.
Oh and I’ll have 3kg of chicken feet please! I liked how the salad containers had candles in them to prevent frost bite! I stood out like dog balls amongst the gypsys with my big camera out – TOURIST!
As interesting as Chisinau was I have to admit it would have been a bit of a morose trip if I hadn’t Alex and co. 
On the first night they took me to a funky underground bar that served yummy vodka and beer and was playing a documentary on ‘The Police’ which was interesting. On the 2nd day Alex led us to a cute underground wine bar where we had two 4litre jugs of wine and 6 plates of borek for a total of $12 Aus split amongst 5! Amazing!! 
We had such a fantastic time and I got to meet the most incredibly diverse range of people, really made me second guess the whole moving home thing.... The wine certainly didn’t help!!
Moldova is famous for its wine and even has a winery that houses the world’s largest collection of wine. I’ll have to come back in the summer to check that out for sure!
All in all Moldova was an unexpected delight on the whole Far Eastern Europe Extravaganza. The poverty was something I wasn’t quite expecting but a very small taste of what was to come as I ventured further south. The next stop on FEEE was an over night bus (dodgy dodgy dodgy) straight to Draculas Transylvanian hub, Brasov. Spoooooooooky! Good thing I was drunk for the bus ride or I may have freaked myself out..
Stay tuned!
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