Hotel Meridian Chisinau

... just tend to fleece tourists with spurious charges while passing through. I&#8217;m just not in the mood for such ********. If I want to get ripped off, I&#8217;ll go find four guys from Soweto, or maybe a Russian Mafioso with a Webley, a thief with some teeth, not some dilettantes in Sgt. Pepper uniforms shining their badges under the table. <br><br>My hostel happens to be located right behind Chisinau&#8217;s newest mall, for ...

... they locked the door and I was personal searched. Great, I was told that I have to leave the country, go back to Odessa and go via Palanca to Chisinau, UNLESS I pay 20 &euro; (they call it a little present). So did I. At the next border - Transnistria/Moldowa - the same problem occured again. I was told that I entered Transnistria illegaly and that I have to go back - after paying a fine, UNLESS I pay a littler higher fine / transit fee. So I had to pay 10 ...

... 8m2<br> &gt; fully equipped bathroom * 5m2<br> &gt; cozy sitting area with study / writing desk, air conditioning * 16m2<br> &gt; bedroom with large cupboard and 160x200cm bed and anti allergic mattresses * 16m2 <br> &gt; Pvc double glazed windows <br> &gt; wooden floors and high ceilings<br><br> &gt; connection ...

... most valuable items of this collection, worth &euro;480 a bottle, were produced in 1973-74; they are now exported only to Japan. The wines stored here are made from crops of various years, beginning with 1969: "Pinot", "Traminer", "Muscat", "Riesling", "Feteasca", "Dnestrovscoie", "Milestscoie", "Codru", "Negru de Purcari", "Trandafirul Moldovei", "Auriu", "Cahor-Ciumai", and others. All these wines are made according to the old ...

... many people are finding the transition from the comfort of the paternalistic style of government to the stresses and strains of a free market hard to cope with. There are approximately 3.5 million people in the Republic of Moldova and it is around 360 km long by 160 wide. As far as cars we still have Dacias (Romanian) but these have now been joined by Ladas together with every other make. Adrian and I left the hotel in a taxi, fun and games to get local ...

... out, while I chose to stand in the gangway between carriages to get some frosty relief. The train trip was still, surprisingly, quite a lot of fun. We shared our cabin with two Moldovans in their early 50's, Aleksander and Galena. Aleksander had learned English many years ago, and was keen to try it out. We had our Russian phrasebook out and tried to contribute, but really it was Aleksander's perseverance that took the conversation everywhere. Charades, as ...

... from hassling everyone that passes through. I bought a bus ticket, thinking I'd be in Odessa in a couple of hours. little did I know what hassles awaited me as our bus passed through Transdinistr. We were forced off the bus and had passports and luggage checked no less than FOUR times, and each time, everyone with a passport from a rich country (which on this bus was just me and a Japanese guy) was taken into a little room where they made us empty our wallets and then tried to ...

... impression that it's a rather boring place - not especially ******* the eye, but then not particularly engaging either. Chisinau is pleasant enough, but I think I understand why there's next to no tourism here. Anyhow, I'm going to hop off to different points of the country across the next few days. Most of today was dominated by grey, rainy, even stormy weather, so hopefully there will be some blue skies and sun on the others. I'd prefer not to carry an umbrella everywhere ...

... station. Hopped in a cab and for 20 U.S.D., headed off on the hour ride to find Dave. Got to town and were dropped off at the bus station. Wandered around the town for about an hour until going into the Moldovan consalate to ask for directions. Low and behold, a person there knew Dave and led us on the 15 minute walk to his center. Just happened to run into Dave's fiance on the way and then finally found Dave. He took us up to his lovely apartment (about as ...

... in Moldova, of course not it's on a much greater scale - breakfast! It has come to a point where three team members braved foul rainy weather at some ungodly hour in the morning to do a reconnaissance mission in search of the perfect breakfast. They came back defeated, deflated and wet to inform those of us that remained that the breakfast out there in the real world was worse than that in our hotel. I had already bought myself a packet of cornflakes at the ...