Welcome to the Republic of Moldova!

On my last trip to Eastern Europe my second destination was the Republic of Moldova. It’s a small landlocked country bordering Romania to the west and the Ukraine to the east. Are you familiar with the country, and do you know what to visit in Moldova?

It has a population of around 5 million inhabitants and has been part of the Russian Empire, Romania and the Soviet Union.

The capital, Chisinau (pronounced Kishinaau), is the country’s largest city and also its economic and cultural centre. Moldovan is the oficial language and is exactly the same as Romanian (it’s like saying that in the US they speak American!). Russian is also very common and most locals I met spoke Russian as their first language and many of them couldn’t speak Moldovan, which to me was quite interesting!

Tiraspol, the country’s second largest city, is in the Transnistria region. This is a self-proclaimed “independent” state, which is not recognised by any other nation. One of the reasons for the separation is the fact the vast majority of the population are of Slavic origin (Russians and Ukrainians). There’s also a Russian military presence there for peacekeeping.

In fact, the country is a melting pot of different ethnies. 75% are Moldovans/Romanians, around 8% are Ukrainians, followed by Russians and Gagauzes. Gagauzes? Yes, it’s an ethny of Turkic origin, speaking Gagauz and Russian and practising the Christian Orthodox faith – the same religion of 93% of Moldova’s population.

ECONOMY

The local currency is the Moldovan Leu (plural lei) and in April 2013 the exchange rate for 100 Moldovan lei was roughly £5, €6 and USD8. The economy is based in agriculture and, consequently, the food industry is the largest. The country has Europe’s lowest per capita income, and the cost of living is low, compared to other European countries. Public transport and taxis are very cheap for travellers, but hotels tend to have similar prices to Western Europe.

WHAT TO SEE

The capital Chisinau is the country’s main tourist destination, with beautiful Orthodox churches, museums and parks offering free wi-fi – a real life saver to any traveller! The cities of Balti and Soroca are also popular tourist destinations. The latter is considered the country’s Gypsy capital and is home to Soroca Fortress, built by Stephen The Great in the end of the 15th century. His reign lasted almost 50 years and he led the country and many battles to guarantee its independence from its neighbours. Among them were the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary and the Kingdom of Poland.

HOW TO GET THERE
If you’re already in Europe, it’s easy to go to Moldova. Air Moldova, the country’s national airline, offers direct flights from Dublin, London, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Rome, among others. A return ticket from London to Chisinau starts at £300 (€350, USD465), for example. The best land connections are between Bucharest, Kiev, Odessa and Moscow.

If you are travelling by train from Bucharest to Chisinau, the journey takes 12 hours and a single ticket in second class (for berth compartments) costs around €25. An interesting detail about this trip is that, when the train arrives at Ungheni, the Moldovan side of the border, it changes tracks. So each carriage is lifted and the passangers feel a little shake. This was a Soviet strategy to avoid invasions and other unexpected issues on the border.

At the moment there are no direct trains from Cluj-Napoca (Romania) to Chisinau. You will have to take a train to Iasi, on the Romanian side of the border, and there continue your journey by bus (or pray for a good soul to take you on your onward journey, as it happened to me). Bear in mind the last bus leaves at Iasi at 5:30pm. A better option is taking the bus that departs from Cluj at 6pm and arrives at 8am the following day. The bus ticket costs €20.

A regional train operates the route Odessa-Chisinau, leaving at 5:11pm and arriving at 10:14pm. This train does not have separate compartments and all carriages, except carriage 5, have wooden benches. Hard for a 5-hour journey! If you prefer to travel by bus, the best option is to take one of the buses that avoid Transnistria, and depart from Odessa Privoz bus station at 8:50am and 10am. So, are you going to start planning your trip to Moldova? Oh, you definitely should!