At the northern shore

My another short, one-day trip in Moldova was Soroca, a small city in the north of the country, just at the border with Ukraine. We left early in the morning with first marshrutka, at 7:30 from Gara de Nord and the ticket cost us 75 lei. The journey unfortunately is pretty long, lasts a bit less than 3 hours :( That's one of biggest problems of Moldova, the country is quite small, so you suppose to get everywhere faster, but because of bad roads it's not possible. 
But this time it wasn't that bad, somehow it passed fast and soon we were at the place. The bus station is situated just at the bank of Dniester river, at the other side is already Ukraine. 

Soroca is famous because of a fortress and that's what we hoped to see the most, but as there was no sign or anything we decided to go up to the view point from where we hoped to see it. Just like looking for a hidden treasure, only a bit bigger :) 

To get to view point you have to go left from the station, along the road you just came. Less than ten minutes from there you'll find a spot - very characteristic, a gate and behind it a number of stairs up the hill. 

Stairs are not generally the best idea to go up and soon I felt a bit of pain in my legs that lasted even two days after. Well, that's only a sign I should exercise some more :) But the way isn't that bad and the view up there is so amazing you easily forget about past. You can see the city of Soroca placed at the river and Ukrainian bank as well, and it all is so green it's hard to belive it. Moldova is generally very green country, even Chisinau is very nice and feel natural, but this view was a real big thing. 

Of course we tried to spot the fortress, but we failed. Eventually I asked a guard who keep eye on the little church up there and with his help we managed to find our "treasure". It is just in the middle of the city, among the grey buildings and doesn't mark out. That's what we have in our defence :) 

On the way to the fortress we went at the bank of the river, the weather was perfect, sunny and warm. In the city there's no single bridge that would let to get to the other side, they have small ferries instead. In front of it you would have to pass the border control, but there are no queues, everything seem so calm and easy-going. 

Border control point

When we got to the fortress it was closed, we have known about that, that's because of the renovation. But there is a funny thing, a board on the fence says that it should be finished exactly the day we've been there! Well, we didn't decide to wait for that, the work looks like it's still far from the end. 

Renovation in progress :)

We continue our walk along the river to find a place for lunch and we find absolutely perfect one! A few benches with umbrellas at the river, seems it's a sort of a beach, although pretty "grassy" one. 

Lunch place!

And that's basically all what is worth to see in Soroca, but it's not late enough to go back. So we continue our walk in the city. Up hill we see an interesting building with the gold dome and we decide to check it out. That's how we found ourselves in Roma neighbourhood. In Soroca lives a big Roma community and the city is often called "the Romani capital of Moldova". It was very interesting wandering around these specific houses, looking so differently from Moldovan ones. 

Romani neighborhood

After that we felt like we have seen everything in Soroca and we decided to go back to Chisinau. The buses leave every hour and the last one is at 6 pm. One day was absolutely enough to see it all and relax, not doing anything in a rush. Maybe if we would have a chance to visit a fortress it would be different, but it will be closed for a long time probably, so you can easily make such a one day trip. 

The church at the view point

Come to visit Moldova in the summer! It's totally worth it and this picture of green and nature will stay with you for a long time!

 

Crossing a border by ferry

Going to the province

I'm sure you want to read some more about Moldova and you gonna get it today, although I will write about not the most exciting part of it :/ Balti! The second largest city of the republic (excluding Transnistria, then Tiraspol would be on second place). 
I had a chance to spend there a nice weekend, although that's not the city which caused my good mood about it. When the friend who invited me there, had tried to describe to me her life in the city, she didn't stop repeating a word "boring". And that's how it is indeed, not many places to go out, very few restaurants or cafes, no tourist places, just a small, provincional city. Or rather town. There are some nice things though, they have a lake and some nice parks and forests very close with perfect place to have a barbecue, what many, many Moldovans did that weekend. 

That is actually all I can say about this city, here are some pictures, they would speak better than me :) 

Market - meat section

Market

Old Lenin fabric with Lenin's pic ;)

Resting area at the lake

Old part of Jewish cementery

For the people who are convinced to go ;)  To get to Balti you have to take minibus from Chisinau, Gara de Nord, cost 65 lei. To get back I took the minibus from the center of Balti, it was the unofficial one - very often thing in "the east", they go pretty fast (mostly because of the drivers-suiciders) and cost 60 lei. Quite an exciting drive :D

Favorite city

It's became a tradition already that every time I get first time to a Romanian city I end up  in the place that I have no idea where is and how to get from there to the place I want to be ;) This time instead of landing at Gara the Nord I arrived to Autogara Filaret - very small and not pleasently looking bus station where the buses from Chisinau go. But I happen to be very lucky and despite not having a map with me and only one, quick look on the map before arrival I managed to choose the right way to the center with the first try. Seems like my intuiton is never wrong ;) 

At first I spend some time in Lipscani - the old town district, with some really interesting old buildings, both renewed and not. It's also the place full of bars, pubs and restaurants, some of them are actually really cool, it's the perfect place for a pub crawl, which would take a couple of long nights. 
That's also the place where my hostel is - Old Town Vogue Hostel on Gabroveni street - a new, comfortable place with nice atmosphere, it's not possible to be bored there, you would surely met some interesting, opened people, what actually is very typical for Bucharest itself.  

Somewhere in Lipscani

The first day, beside wandering around, I visited National History Museum, where you can se for example a replic of Traian Column and a part of Romanian gold treasure which is one of the biggest in the world.

The second day started for me with Bucharest Free Tour - a must-do while you're in the city. It starts every day at 10:30 am and 6 pm. at Piata Unirii, next to the clock. It lasts about 3 hours and gives you really interesting information and as the guide said, you can have any kind of questions, even about some controversial and unplesant things. You will get to know sth about the People's Palace and why Michel Jackson is so important for it, about how to impale people (really interesting part with the visualisation ;D), why the oldest church in the city is not really oldest, on which balcony Ceausescu had his last speech and you can elaborate if Romanian revolution ever happend or not. Also other extremly interesting stories, but it's better to hear them on your own. 

People's palace interior

After the trip there was a time for lunch in Caru cu bere - the first beer garden in the city with really interesting interior and delicious food. After the time came to see the biggest (literally) attraction of the city - the People's Palace. Don't forget to have your ID with you, they won't let you in without it. At the entrance you will have to also pass the security gateway, just like on the airport ;) 
The tour is really nice and the interiors are amazing. They are not only big, but also pretty tasteful, ornaments are based on Romanian folklore, and it was a surprise for me that communism can ever look that good.

People's Palace interior

Then, I spend the evening in Cismigiu Gardens, lovely park, full of people on Saturday, sunny day - perfect place to relax. 

My last day unfortunately weather got bad, it rained pretty havily and I didn't realize my plan about going to Herastrau park in the north of the city which also is famous from its beauty. Instead I went to National Art Museum and I wasn't dissapointed. It is situated in old Royal Palace, the building is very impresive and the collection is very interesting, especially if it's about Romanian art. 

It all was really great, but what I liked the most about this trip and why it felt so nice to me are the people I met. It was unbelivable for me how really opened and easy-going they are, much more than in any Romanian city I've been to. The atmosphere is really special and it makes you go back there as fast as possible. I trully hope that one day I will manage to move there, at least for some time to feel it even better and also to see all the places I didn't visit yet. 

Maybe Bucharest is not the most beutiful city you can imagine and maybe not very touristic one, but if you want to simply relax and have lots of fun - go there!

The view from the main balcony in People's Palace

Back to the nature

On last Sunday (just after Orheiul Vechi – lovely, busy weekend) I made a trip to "Pădurea Domnească" (Royal Forest) – natural reserve at the border with Romania, about 150 km from Chisinau. Unfortunately there won’t be any tips how to get there, it was an organized trip by my generous hosting organization and we had a mini-bus on our disposal.

We left from Chisinau about 8 in the morning, the journey is long, lasts about 3 hours. Our first stop was in Glodeni, the biggest city of the area, where we met our guide, the scientist who told us lots of interesting stories about the reserve. The entrance to the forest, at least to some areas, is limited and you should contact the reserve administration. The ticket is 25 lei (about 1,5 euro) so money shouldn’t be any problem. 

 

The day was very cold, cloudy, with freezing wind and some rain drops appearing from time to time. In addition, because the reserve is pretty big and the most interesting places are far from each other we had to spent most of the time in the bus, getting out only to see something, listening to the guide's description and go back to the vehicle. It could be better but there is no reason to complain, the day was really nice anyway. 

 

The reserve, besides that it includes of one of the oldest forests in Europe, is also a geological treasure, with the coral reef (!) hills, remained after the Sarmat Sea that covered Europe long time ago. You can easily find shelves and rocks with the prints of prehistoric sea animals.

Another sensation of the region is area called “The hundred hills”. On the plain ground there are more than 3 thousand hills spread along the Prut River and no one knows how they really appeared there. There are several hypotheses (one of them is the Alien’ contribution ;)) but even after many researches there is no answer to that question. What’s more, the guide told us that in the area the electronic devices, like computers cannot work and get broken, like when last year they installed there equipment worth 1 million euro and it got destroyed. Is it true or not? I have no idea. And I’m not going to be a person who will check it ;)

Our next stop is a forest and a nesting area of local herons. And we have another curiosity. The bird that normally builds its nest in rushes, here built it at the threes! Seems like everything is not in the right way in here ;) The guide tells us to be quite and watch out on the “surprises” from above. Indeed, the threes the birds sit on are all white and it is not because of snow, or anything pleasant. 

Fortunately, no one gets hit by the “surprise” and we continue our journey to the place everyone were waiting for – Zimbru reserve! Zimbru (rom.) – European bison extinct in Moldova at the end of XVIII century and now they try to renew its population. The first 3 were brought from Poland and now they have 5 of them, 2 little ones which stay in a small, closed area and 3 big ones that have a possibility to wander in a bigger space. An adult male may reach up to one tone of weight, but despite walking around the park we didn’t manage to see one. Before our return journey we had a lunch break, like some local Moldovans who shared with us two bottles of their home-made wine. The true spirit of hospitality!

I’m very happy I managed to visit this place, which is another proof that the nature of Moldova is stunning and it’s truly the best what this country has. 

 

On the very tourist path

Finally the moment of visiting places in Moldova have came! It was a pretty intensive weekend, with hours spent  in the bus, no sun and terrible cold. But of course it was worth it! 

Saturday was a day of visiting the main Moldova's tourist attraction - Orheiul Vechi. We took the marshrutka from Central Station (strada Tighina, just next to Piata Centrala) to Butuceni at 10:20. The ticket cost 26 MDL one way. The journey takes about an hour, don't worry about where to get out, if the driver knows where are you going he will stop at the right place. 
The view is stunning from the first minutes - a high, rock cliff, what is not very common sight in Moldova (for how long I haven't seen a hill? since the moment I left Poland!). In the rocks there are several caves where we follow in the first place. They are in the middle of the hill, we need to go a bit up, but the way is pretty easy even for someone with fear of heights :D   

The caves arised naturally, but later they were secured by the rectangle blocks to not collapse. Even like this they give a great impression and the view from up there is very beautifull. We see the monastery on the distance, the river flowing below us and the sea of fields with some horses going around. The rocks themselves are also really interesting, there are plenty of shells as relics of the very old times when this area was covered with the sea.

We decide to go to the monastery up on the cliff  (there is also second option, along the river) but going straight up appears to be too difficults (at least for someone with the fear of hights :D). So we go a bit back to the village Trebujeni in order to get up on the cliff by the gentle slope. The village itself is also very interesting and I recommend to take this path. It is so traditional, with all the houses in Moldovan style, beautifully painted in different ornaments. 

As we go up the view is even better and we go straight to the monastery enjoing the nature. On the path, we are alone but when we get to the place we meet much more people, as the evidence that Orheiul Vechi is a truly tourist attraction. The church is renovated, looks nice and has a plesant garden around, but we cannot take a look to the interior because it's closed. 

Anyway, another church which is open seems much more interesting than the previous one could ever be, we go down into the cave made (dug) by the monks, the first monastery here that comes from XIII century. It's dark, he rock walls are full of icons and one old, stooping monk bustle around talking to himself. Beautiful impression.

  

After the monastery we go down to another village - Butuceni, which looks exactly like the previous one. Although is a bit more touristic, the group of children stops us offering to tell us something about the monastery for 1 leu :) Further we find a guesthouse with the outdoor swimming pool! And this image so characteristic for Moldova, on the road which doesn't have an asphalt surface are going super expensive cars (belonged to the pilgrimes from the capital city) getting so dirty and leaving a dense trial of dust behind. 

The village has two other interesting places - a museum with the exhibition of items found in the place coming from different time periods (situated at the end of the village) and an exhibitory traditional house. Both worth seeing. 
The trips (for someone who travels by bus) has to end at 4 pm when the last bus to Chisinau is going. You can catch it at the bridge in the village. But before is good to eat something in the only restaurant in the village (I think) which serves typical Moldovan food of course. Very recommended! 





It was a great trip, the place really suprised me in a positive way, it offers a lot of different attractions and surely would be interesting for many. Don't miss it while being in Moldova! 

The report from another day is coming soon! Don't miss the description of crazy herons and european bisons ;)


Some more pics:

The view from the cave

Trebujeni village

A car crossing by

The bad guys' land

I admit that the trip to Transnistria was high on my list of places to see while being in Moldova, but it eventually happend a bit unexpexted and sooner than I thought.  And that's right, it's better not to waste time in these tough, uncertain times, like the case of Crimea clearly proved. I even thought that the current political situation in the region could influence this excursion in a bad way, but nothing like this happend. It was very pleasant and enjoyable trip. Really, no arrest, no police threats, no bribes on the border, actually terrible boredom. Even the land not as communist as it should be, but let me start from the beginning.

Name of the street in 3 ofiical languages: Moldovan, Russian and Ukrainian

We left from Chisinau Central Bus Station (next to Piata Centrala) by mini-bus to Bender - the city on the "border". Bus cost us 30 lei what is 1.6 euro (really!). The journey was quite fast and soon we passed "the peacekeepers" (or rather Russian troops staying there since the end of war) checkpoint. Near at hand we got to the border control. First step is to give your passport to the guard with really grumpy and serious face, who will type your data to the computer in order to KGB (their Secret Service) knew who gets into the "country". After this procedure you have to cross the border on foot and you go to registration office, where you give a paper fullfiled earlier. You get back one piece of it and you have to keep it till you leave. If you lose it you may have a problem to leave ;) 

Sheriff Market

It all goes smooth, we get back to the bus and continue journey. Just after 3 minutes we get off to start sightseeing. Our first steps lead to the exchange where we get some transnistrian rubels - the first unrecognized currency in  our life! You cannot get them in any place in the world but Transnistria! It's a pretty exciting fact for me! Just after we step by Sheriff supermarket. It's also an interesting fact but this company is the most important brand in Transnistria and owns there almost everything, from shops to gas stations. We have to admit that it represents fairly decent level, they have even some captions in English, the floor shines (that's how clean it is). Only the people dissapoint - it's so few of them inside. 

Memorial Cementary - Bender

The first touristic place on our path is Memorial Cementary - place established not that long time ago which is meant to create kind of "national pride" and contains graves of soldiers killed in Bender in different battles over a long period time. The city itself has a really interesting history, it was a border of Turkish and Russian Empires over ages, important strategically place with a Turkish fortress just at the bank of Dniester. It's also worth to mention that we still didn't pass the river, Bender is situated in historical Moldova, being part of Romania before WWII, only after the war 1992-94 it joined Transnistria.

We walk around a city and on our way to the fortress we see a railway that comes to Moldova. It's another interesting point - the city Bender is divided in a pretty complicated way. For example there are two stations - Transnistrian and Moldovan one. The train to Chisinau would stop on both that are not that far from each other, first on left side, second on right). If you get in on Transnistrian one you will pass the border control, but you can pass on the other side through the tracks and get on Moldovan station where there is no control at all! That's basically the solution in case you lose the paper you got while entering the country ;) Of course if you're lucky and the guard won't catch you on the atempt of illegal border crossing :D

Eventually we reach the fortress where we are the only tourists at the time. The woman selling tickets seems happy about it and welcomes us with a smile and very pleasant chat. The ticket costs around 3 euro (payable only in rubels) and it's possible to have a guided tour, but only in Russian language. The fortress is very nice, there is a museum and souvenir shop inside (only that we weren't able to see it, it's normally closed and a woman forgot to open it for us). There is also a view point and the place is in quite a good condition. But trully it was nothing special. The most interestng were the surroundings, it used to be military buildings there and some abandonded fabric or garages. It looked pretty unusual and not very touristic. Yes! Later was even better, after seeing a church we decided to get out of the museum area another way that lead though the remained military objects, a military school. It's like "the extraterritorial road", it is a high wall on both sides of it. There were plenty of soldiers around that were cleaning the area and making some small reparations. On the wall there were plenty of fresh painted pictures in old, good communist style, so propagandic! One defenitely goes to Transnistria for such images! 

Just after the exit we passed the bridge on Dniester with a checkpoint of Russian troops.  Pictures forbidden! Such a pity! 

Bridge - Bender

Russian checkpoint

Just two minutes away a tank that is allowed to be photographed, next to it - a monument of gen. Lebed' - a head of Russian troops that took part in the Transnistrian war. With the words "You're always in our hearts. We will never forget"... The real hero of the country.

It's time to eat something. It is not such an easy thing as it can seem when you're in Bender. There're not many places to choose from. There is for example Andy's Pizza known from Moldova. In Tirapsol we will find even La Placinta! But so far we decide to go to the local restaurant. The outside impression - not very good, but inside is much better. One could say pleasantly. Food was decent only that we waited for it for ages! Very normal situation in this type of place. And an usual excuse -  "we're sorry, we have only one cook". 

Stalin's order to occupy Basarabia

The next part of our trip is the capital - Tiraspol. We take a trolley no. 19 to get there. Cost - 2,5 rubel = about 20 cents :)

Tiraspol

Tiraspol is not and old city, was founded at the end of XVIII century. Full of not high beton blocks, wide streets, clean. We get off the trolley next to Kvint factory - the pride of Transnistrian people producing alcohol, mostly famous coniacs and wines. Then we go to the center, where we walk at the Dniester bank a bit, pass another tank in form of the monument and the first Lenin's statue! We gonna see one more later.

With the time we start to realise that life can be really difficult in an unrecognized country. Think about these details that we don't even consider in our everyday life like letter stamps - you can use it only in Transnistria, in case of sending letter somewhere else you have to buy Moldovan ones. You have a car registred in Transnistria? You can go to Moldova, Russia and Ukraine where your plates are tolerated, but nowhere else! You are a student of University in Tiraspol? Well, no one cares, it officially doesn't exist.  Your money, your documents, it's all invalid! But the people are used to it. People always find the way to deal with any circumstances. 

In the center there is another interesting thing - the official representation of South Osetia and Abkhazia! All the unrecognized coutries in the world recognize themselves and of course one needs  to have "Embassy" in a partner state :) 

South Osetia and Abkhazia representation

This place is really full of surprises - we find even a message to "the working people of the Soviet Union" bricked up in the wall in 1967 that is supposed to be opened in 2017 with the 100th anniversary of October Revolution! That's the joke of history :) Are they going to open it? I really hope! I wish to hear it then :D 

Our trip is going to its end, we don't plan to spend a night in the city and we have to go back before 9 pm. This time we take the train Odessa - Chisinau that leaves at 7:20 pm, and it's the last option to get back to Moldova . It cost really nothing - 11 rubels what is like 60 cents. But it takes much more time than a bus, we gonna arrive to Chisinau at 10 pm. The "pass" the border control at the station, a guard just come and collect the paper. 

We go back chilling out and I think about unusual souvenirs I bring - some money including coins with hammer and sickle on its reverse, stamps, 2 postcards funny photoshoped and a newspaper in Moldovan (Romanian language written in cyrylic :)). Everything can be a souvenir in Transnistria. It's just such a n unsusual place.

My Factory - My Pride ;)

We are civilized people :D At the museum of the fortress

Nistru

Moldovan accent ;)

Great thanks to Krzysztof who was a great guide and showed us so many interesting places!