Berlin to Odessa Day 18: Chișinău
Another century (100 miles) today! Andrei, our host from Iași came with us partway because he had never been to Moldova even though he lives 20km from the border.
But first we were treated to an incredible breakfast of mămăligă, stuffed peppers with sour cream, hard-boiled eggs, and some of his mom's incredible eggplant-pepper spread. And some Țsuică, his grandmother's home-distiller plum brandy, to wash it all down (yes, we started drinking earlier than usual today, but I suppose it's the customary Sunday morning shot). As we were getting on our bikes to leave she brought us out a packed lunch - a seriously 5-star fare - filled with the eggplant spread, spiced pork loins, cucumbers, bread, and homemade vegetables. This was perfect fuel for biking and easily carried us all the way to Chisinau.
The road to Chisinau from Romania is not logical at all. A trusty Google search shows a border crossing at Ungheni into Moldova. From there, there is a large detour to the north which adds about 25km to the route. Except that, from discussing with our hosts, this is a train-only border crossing. The real border crossing is 25 miles north. Essentially, to arrive at the road going to Chișinău from Iasi, one must travel about 60 extra kilometers to the north, to the south, and back to the north before getting on the road.
At the Romanian border we posed for a picture, a disgruntled horse cart bombed the photo.
Crossing into Moldova was easy enough for me and Graham. However, the guard said that people from neighboring countries, i.e. Romania, are not allowed to enter by any means other than bus or car. Meaning Andrei could not come in with his bike, but I could. Graham and I offered to simply roll his bike across and have him get into one of the cars in line to cross the border and meet him on the other side. This would have worked, but fortunately the guard did have some sense of reason and since Andrei was going to spend a maximum of about 2 hours there, he finally let him pass (after some heated deliberation).
Fortunately, Moldovans are an extremely friendly people making the extra kilometers extra enjoyable. At Ungheni, we stopped to say goodbye to Andrei and no sooner had we stopped the bikes, we were surrounded by 5 guys shaking our hands and askig where we came from. After learning that we had just come from Iasi, they brought us to a bar to offer us some beer. I was a little wary since we still had over 100km left to bike, but in fact they just wanted to say "Welcome to Moldova, enjoy your ride!" and the beers were small enough to be finished in about a minute. And we all went our separate ways.
By the way, Andrei said that Moldova has (one of) the highest alcohol consumptions per capita in the world. While I haven't fact checked this statement, it might be because beer comes in giant bottles larger than a half gallon.
Beer comes in bottles like this! What?!?!
We had a record number of supporters today ranging from road side onlookers to honking cars to a load of people hanging out of a slowly moving train shouting encouragement.
Now we are with Ramin, a professional photographer and photojournalist with a nationally syndicated Moldovan newspaper (Tiempo). Tomorrow we will get to see Chișinău up close and personal.
But first we were treated to an incredible breakfast of mămăligă, stuffed peppers with sour cream, hard-boiled eggs, and some of his mom's incredible eggplant-pepper spread. And some Țsuică, his grandmother's home-distiller plum brandy, to wash it all down (yes, we started drinking earlier than usual today, but I suppose it's the customary Sunday morning shot). As we were getting on our bikes to leave she brought us out a packed lunch - a seriously 5-star fare - filled with the eggplant spread, spiced pork loins, cucumbers, bread, and homemade vegetables. This was perfect fuel for biking and easily carried us all the way to Chisinau.
The road to Chisinau from Romania is not logical at all. A trusty Google search shows a border crossing at Ungheni into Moldova. From there, there is a large detour to the north which adds about 25km to the route. Except that, from discussing with our hosts, this is a train-only border crossing. The real border crossing is 25 miles north. Essentially, to arrive at the road going to Chișinău from Iasi, one must travel about 60 extra kilometers to the north, to the south, and back to the north before getting on the road.
At the Romanian border we posed for a picture, a disgruntled horse cart bombed the photo.
Crossing into Moldova was easy enough for me and Graham. However, the guard said that people from neighboring countries, i.e. Romania, are not allowed to enter by any means other than bus or car. Meaning Andrei could not come in with his bike, but I could. Graham and I offered to simply roll his bike across and have him get into one of the cars in line to cross the border and meet him on the other side. This would have worked, but fortunately the guard did have some sense of reason and since Andrei was going to spend a maximum of about 2 hours there, he finally let him pass (after some heated deliberation).
Fortunately, Moldovans are an extremely friendly people making the extra kilometers extra enjoyable. At Ungheni, we stopped to say goodbye to Andrei and no sooner had we stopped the bikes, we were surrounded by 5 guys shaking our hands and askig where we came from. After learning that we had just come from Iasi, they brought us to a bar to offer us some beer. I was a little wary since we still had over 100km left to bike, but in fact they just wanted to say "Welcome to Moldova, enjoy your ride!" and the beers were small enough to be finished in about a minute. And we all went our separate ways.
By the way, Andrei said that Moldova has (one of) the highest alcohol consumptions per capita in the world. While I haven't fact checked this statement, it might be because beer comes in giant bottles larger than a half gallon.
Beer comes in bottles like this! What?!?!
We had a record number of supporters today ranging from road side onlookers to honking cars to a load of people hanging out of a slowly moving train shouting encouragement.
Now we are with Ramin, a professional photographer and photojournalist with a nationally syndicated Moldovan newspaper (Tiempo). Tomorrow we will get to see Chișinău up close and personal.
Position:Strada Albişoara,Chișinău,Moldawien
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