Iasi - Chisinau - Tiraspol

As promised, I am changing the language to English, so more of my friends will be able to read this. And I have my own card reader now so I can download the photos from my camera! Woohoo! It only took me 15 months to get it! 😀

I also finally figured out how to turn the photos on my tablet… still haven’t found out if I could do it directly in OneDrive, please let me know if someone knows how to do it there!

I had five days off at Easter, so of course it was time to hit the road again! First destination was Iasi. I booked a ride from BlaBlaCar, haven’t used that in a while for some reason. Luckily the driver spoke some english and understood a lot more, so we managed. No one else in the car spoke english and because I don’t speak romanian, it was a quiet trip for me. Which, as you know, I really don’t mind! The trip took about 6 hours and I was just smiling like an idiot most of the time. Why? Because I was at my happy place, on the road. That’s why I live this life, for that feeling that I am going somewhere, I am about to see something new, meet new people, experience something I haven’t experienced before. It is the feeling nothing else than travelling gives me.

The scenery was beautiful and we arrived in Iasi in the afternoon. Found my hotel (hotel Continental) and explored the city centre. Since I stayed there only one night, didn’t get the chance to see it a lot. I definitely saw more street dogs and homeless people and beggars than in Brasov! But we do have all of those in Brasov as well.

Photos of Iasi

Again I booked a ride from BlaBlaCar to go from Iasi to Chisinau, and this driver spoke english! It’s been awhile since I’ve been in real border control, but they didn’t check our bags or ask any questions.  The ride took a few hours and we arrived to Chisinau around 19. And Moldova is country number 37 on my list! But who's counting. I have said that it was number 36 but I actually had forgotten one country (Finland, believe it or not). I stayed there two nights at hotel Bella Donna, I can recommend that! At the reception it says single room is 70 € a night but I paid 49 € for two nights. I guess it’s fair to say I found a pretty good deal.  I tried to find money exchange in Iasi that has Moldovan leu, but I found only one that had a few of them. So I did the money exchange in Chisinau, which is easy because every other place seem to have money exchange 😀.

After checking in to my hotel I went to see the city before it got too dark, got lost as always because ignored the instructions the receptionist gave me. On Saturday sun was shining so I was out all day in Chisinau and Tiraspol looking around and taking some photos. I was really exhausted when arriving back to the hotel so I didn’t go out any more that evening. And the amount of homeless people and beggars beat even Vancouver! That has been the leading city in my book so far, but now it is Chisinau.

Photos of Chisinau

At the border

No, that is not a real guy.

I also visited Tiraspol, Transnistria, the country that doesn’t exist as it is called. Looked pretty existing to me though, as I wrote on Facebook. But I am still thinking if it is country number 38 or not. Well, who cares! The bus from Chisinau took about 1.5 hours and border control was quick. I just showed my passport and received a piece of paper that allowed me to stay there for 10 hours. If you want to stay longer, you have to register at the police station. When leaving the country, you give that piece of paper back at the border. On the bus there was also a couple from India who did not speak romanian or russian, but luckily next to us there was a guy who spoke english and he told us what to do. Sometimes people are really friendly and helpful when you are just a stupid clueless tourist 😁. Tiraspol is interesting place, but the city centre is seen quite fast. Would’ve been even faster but I got lost… (duh). That just a couple of hours was ok because I didn’t even have more time, but it would be interesting to spend some days in Transnistria. At least Tiraspol was very green and I was surprised that at the bus station they spoke english because I have read that english is not that widely spoken there. At Chisinau bus station they spoke english too by the way!

Photos of Transnistria

That has to be the emptiest train station I have ever seen.

First I was planinng on bying a bottle of that stuff... But because I wouldn't drink it, I passed! 

I didn’t find a ride on BlaBlaCar to get back home so on Sunday I went to the bus station only to realize there are no busses to Brasov that day, despite the fact that on their website it showed several busses. The lady there spoke no english but somehow we managed to understand each other. So, bought the ticket for Monday, went back to centre to McDonald’s to use the wifi (tip: McDonalds everywhere has open wifi to customers, very useful when travelling and need to book transportation and accommodation), booked a hotel and walked there. Decided to treat myself with a very nice hotel indeed (fancy as fuck!). Hotel was Thomas Albert and the night was about 45 €, it was -50% last minute deal. And also treated myself with a very nice dinner and a bottle of red wine because I deserve it. ☺ I was told to book the bus tickets in advance,  but, as usually, I ignored the advice 😁. Should I start to take into consideration what people actually tell me? Obviously it might be a good idea sometimes.

On the bus ride to Brasov, at the moldovan side of the border we had to take all our bags with us and go through control. They collected our passports and we got them back after the border. I was just laughing when they called the names, and suddenly the guy looked at one passport and was just quiet. I just knew it was my passport 😂. Bags back to the bus and to next control, the romanian one and entering EU. Again, bags out and first to passport check. Of course there was only one guy checking them, and also only one guy checking the bags. At the passport control they REALLY checked the passport, and for some reason he asked me to wait and didn’t give me my passport back. Then he kept checking other passports, also one man was asked to wait, then they took him to another room. And then suddenly he just gave me my passport. I have no idea what happened, maybe the passport reader didn’t first read my passport, because I was not asked any questions or anything. First I thought Finnish passport is not so common that they wanted to know what the hell am I doing there. Finally after 10 hours on the bus (25 minutes late) we arrived to Brasov… my lower back was already killing me, those 4 hours on moldovan roads in an old bus did not help!

Otherwise… still haven’t been in Codlea, the small town near Brasov, because first the weather was bad, then others who wanted to join, were out of town. And of course the weather forecast for next weekend is rain! I also booked my next trip, a road trip from Malaga to Stockholm! My former neighbour is moving back to Finland and asked me to join, just as almost a year ago when we drove his stuff from Finland to Malaga. 😀 In June we took the Via Baltica, then Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, France and Spain, but this time we chose the western route to Stockholm where I will fly back to Bucharest. First I will spend a couple of days in Malaga and then 5 days on the road. Will be nice to see my former neighbors again, and hopefully have a barbeque! And visit El Churro!! 

Hopefully next post about Codlea, but if the weather on weekends continues to suck, then the next post will be about Malaga and the ride to Stockholm.