Hotel Luna Chisinau

... driver thinks that’s pretty hilarious, and so do I, as long as I’ve got plenty of time to spare. Turns out the bus station I came in to is the central staion, not north, so somebody told me wrong. Oh well, I guess a marshrutka ride to the outskirts of town is a cheap enough tour. But Chisinau is no great shakes, really, though pleasant enough. There are liquor booths in the market place like so much other produce ...

... of Chisinau's real estate where apartment prices grow at some 5% pro year and the demand for modern renovated city center located places is growing thanks to the increasing "pouvoir d'achat" "koopkracht" "Kaufkraft" (purchasing power?). <br> What we like to offer is : <br> 4 totally furnished apartments - Alex ...

... I was using was still correct. Most of this trip I discovered a lot of things mentioned in the guidebook had either moved or no longer existed. Not a big deal as I never expect the information in guidebooks to be fully up-to-date and I just use it as a guide but it was getting a bit ridiculous. I found the minibuses to Moldova and after dealing with the annoying guys around the minibus who were trying to get me to do what I don't know as they were speaking either Romanian or ...

... down to the socle level. During the post-war period The Assumption Monastery was neglected and the restoration was started in the 90's of our century. The Metropolitan of Moldova G. Banulescu-Bodoni was buried here. It has been a long Day, but the flexible program turned into a neverending series of pleasant surprises: A middle afternoon BBQ with all our hosts has been organized a Ian's house. Pictures will describe it better than words. Marco

... found in Europe. After visiting another central park we accompanied Alex to the last moments of his Rotaract meeting. Remaining in the same room we then joined the Rotary Club of Chisinau Centru (5 years old) well chaired by Radu Eremciuc a very welcoming meeting. They were planning their Cherry ball bring held on the river close to Chisinau later this month.. Adrian and I returned to Ion's "very small house" on the outskirts of Chisinau and were met by ...

... neatly filling the semi circle. Had we not been tired, sweaty, dirty, hungry, bewildered and cold we may have taken the camera out. A tautologically 100% unanimous decision to not bother. Which I now regret. Aleksander and Galena insisted on dropping us at our hostel - a gesture we massively appreciate. On first appearances, our "hostel" owner was a fearsomely gruff looking man. Wrong guess. With five words of each other's languages we managed to ...

... rural and thus pleasantly tranquil, with only the odd horse and cow or a flock of geese disturbing the quiet. Oh, and the flies. The flies are pretty damn annoying and they're far too bloody quick to smack as they obnoxiously swarm around and follow you along the footpaths. I've seen a more impressive cave city at Vardzia in Georgia, but Orheiul Vechi is quite a lovely place and probably the highlight of Moldova (other than weird and wacky Transdniester ...

... in book. Couldn't find hostel so went to hotel tourist to find way, security wouldn't let me bring bike into reception, but I'd had enough so played my face and was allowed to take it in. Found hostel with 3 Latvians outside and they were able to translate for me to find out it was full - wouldn't even let me sleep on floor. Owner recommended a hotel nearby but was a little expensive so walked out after no price movement, so back to hostel who then found ...

... recognizes them. They are seen as part of Moldova. So, on paper, they are just another part of Moldova, but in practice, they are their own country. We didn't go, b/c it can be a bit of a hassle getting out of the country. Spent much of our time here just chilling with Dave and Tania. Learned a new card game called Stupid. The actual name is Russian, but I don't know how to spell it. It was good to see a friendly face after being on the road for three weeks.

... the Russian Orthodox Easter and a week later Victory Day - 60 years after the 2 nd world war, where, like any reasonable developing country everything shuts down from Saturday afternoon until Tuesday morning including any scenic touristy things you may wish to visit. So the team spent a lot of time traipsing around in search of an open restaurant to sample Moldovan cuisine of course, as opposed to drowning our sorrows and we have a great index on Moldovan ...