Berlin to Odessa Day 19: Tiraspol (Тирасполь)
Yesterday, we spent the day in Chisinau to get a better picture of Moldova. We got to wake up on the 15th floor of our host's apartment building.
The horseshoe turns in the pipes are for district heating. This view looks out over the industrial sector.
We first had a walk in the "historical center" whose layout predates the Soviet Union, but whose architecture is a direct product.
Housing from after the second world war. Chisinau was heavily hit by American warplanes, not because it was a heavily contested zone, but because planes could not return to the base with a full payload from other campaigns in the region (Ukraine, etc) so they dropped them on Urban areas in occupied zones.
We then walked to the center which, in that it is the capital, is filled with 4-5 star hotels and embassies. Moldova isn't particularly equipped for tourism however, I got the impression that most of the activity was business or politically related.
We met up with some other couch surfers from the city and they showed us around to the best Moldovan candy stores (incredible chocolates and truffles), and one of the divey-est bars I could imagine. The cost of everything here is about one-fifth of that in Berlin - a glass of beer is about $0.75, a fully loaded large pizza runs about $2, and a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of fine chocolates for $3-5.
A full glass of wine at this place (which was about the equivalent of two and a half normal glasses of wine) cost about $0.30. But included in the cost was the half-assed hand-washing of the glass before hand, and wine poured from a 2-liter plastic bottle. It was home made and while it didn't scream classy, it did scream home-grown.
The ambiance in front of this place was quite unique, set off a bit from the center and featured a revolving door of colorful regulars coming in and out and downing their mug of extremely sweet wine before heading back out.
Perhaps it was the wine, but I was coerced back to one of the couchsurfer's houses for a haircut. The guy on the far right of the picture, who went by the name Versace, was a stylist for the national TV station, but is currently unemployed and was eager to cut my hair, in another couchsurfer's living room.
I was wary but he is a pro, it turned out well.
I stopped by the American embassy to get some information about going to Transnitria. Instead of being let in, I was directed to an outside telephone box. Through the terrible connection some lady simply informed me that while there is no travel advisory against going there, shakedowns at the border are frequent, they might not let me in, and since there is no American presence there, they can't do anything to help me if something happens. Therefore, it is not recommended to go to Transnitria.
I decided to get a second opinion. While asking around I heard many rumors...yes shakedowns, yes bribe solicitation, you can only stay for 10 hours, you can stay for 3 days, they won't let you in, don't go there, go there. With so much conflicting information I simply had to see it for myself. Furthermore, going through Tiraspol is on the most direct route to Odessa.
Transnitria is politically part of Moldova, but is seen internally as a separate, communist police state that wishes to either be part of Russia, or its own independent country. It has its own currency and universities but, according to our host, Ramin, a diploma from Transnistria is not valid anywhere in the world because it is not a "real" country. The same goes for the currency (at an ATM you have to either withdraw Russian rupees or US dollars and then go into the bank to physically exchange the currency (11 Transnistrian rubles to the dollar). And also for the passports - you can have a Transnitrian passport, but since it is not recognized anywhere, you must also have either a Moldovan, Russian, or Ukrainian passport to accompany it.
Maybe it was the fact that we rolled up to the border on bikes, but after a brief (very brief) conversation in Russian with the border officer in which he incredulously looked at our bikes after I told him "Berlin...[biking motion] Odessa" and waved us past (we did have to fill out a transit document but we got stamped and ushered past the line of cars without so much as a baggage check).
The zone/country itself is about 20 kilometers wide and 200 kilometers long and houses a large portion of Moldovan heavy and food industry.
We met up with our host, Susanna, who took us on a city tour by bike.
The city is very clean and orderly, some stuff I read about it says it is sort of a time warp back to the 1950's Soviet era. There are the standard war memorials, and more than one prominent statue of Vladimir Lenin.
There are even some errant pictures of Putin posted in some areas around the city.
Our host is very kind and patient with all of our ignorant questions (i.e. this place exists?) and even shared her personal thoughts on their relationship with Moldova (a little unfavorable considering they fought in a war from 1990-1992, she is fairly pro-independence). Despite its proximity, a lot of people there do not speak Moldovan (which, as a language, is almost identical to Romanian). Her English is very good and she speaks Russian (as a first language) and Ukrainian.
People on the streets tend to be a little more subdued it seems, as in Germany or France or the US, you might here some groups of people speaking or laughing loudly or doing something silly, we did not observe anything like that in either the day or the night.
Tomorrow, we will try to keep an equally low profile (and adhere to the 24-hour transit limit) when leaving. Odessa is about 100 kilometers from here.
The horseshoe turns in the pipes are for district heating. This view looks out over the industrial sector.
We first had a walk in the "historical center" whose layout predates the Soviet Union, but whose architecture is a direct product.
Housing from after the second world war. Chisinau was heavily hit by American warplanes, not because it was a heavily contested zone, but because planes could not return to the base with a full payload from other campaigns in the region (Ukraine, etc) so they dropped them on Urban areas in occupied zones.
We then walked to the center which, in that it is the capital, is filled with 4-5 star hotels and embassies. Moldova isn't particularly equipped for tourism however, I got the impression that most of the activity was business or politically related.
We met up with some other couch surfers from the city and they showed us around to the best Moldovan candy stores (incredible chocolates and truffles), and one of the divey-est bars I could imagine. The cost of everything here is about one-fifth of that in Berlin - a glass of beer is about $0.75, a fully loaded large pizza runs about $2, and a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of fine chocolates for $3-5.
A full glass of wine at this place (which was about the equivalent of two and a half normal glasses of wine) cost about $0.30. But included in the cost was the half-assed hand-washing of the glass before hand, and wine poured from a 2-liter plastic bottle. It was home made and while it didn't scream classy, it did scream home-grown.
The ambiance in front of this place was quite unique, set off a bit from the center and featured a revolving door of colorful regulars coming in and out and downing their mug of extremely sweet wine before heading back out.
Perhaps it was the wine, but I was coerced back to one of the couchsurfer's houses for a haircut. The guy on the far right of the picture, who went by the name Versace, was a stylist for the national TV station, but is currently unemployed and was eager to cut my hair, in another couchsurfer's living room.
I was wary but he is a pro, it turned out well.
I stopped by the American embassy to get some information about going to Transnitria. Instead of being let in, I was directed to an outside telephone box. Through the terrible connection some lady simply informed me that while there is no travel advisory against going there, shakedowns at the border are frequent, they might not let me in, and since there is no American presence there, they can't do anything to help me if something happens. Therefore, it is not recommended to go to Transnitria.
I decided to get a second opinion. While asking around I heard many rumors...yes shakedowns, yes bribe solicitation, you can only stay for 10 hours, you can stay for 3 days, they won't let you in, don't go there, go there. With so much conflicting information I simply had to see it for myself. Furthermore, going through Tiraspol is on the most direct route to Odessa.
Transnitria is politically part of Moldova, but is seen internally as a separate, communist police state that wishes to either be part of Russia, or its own independent country. It has its own currency and universities but, according to our host, Ramin, a diploma from Transnistria is not valid anywhere in the world because it is not a "real" country. The same goes for the currency (at an ATM you have to either withdraw Russian rupees or US dollars and then go into the bank to physically exchange the currency (11 Transnistrian rubles to the dollar). And also for the passports - you can have a Transnitrian passport, but since it is not recognized anywhere, you must also have either a Moldovan, Russian, or Ukrainian passport to accompany it.
Maybe it was the fact that we rolled up to the border on bikes, but after a brief (very brief) conversation in Russian with the border officer in which he incredulously looked at our bikes after I told him "Berlin...[biking motion] Odessa" and waved us past (we did have to fill out a transit document but we got stamped and ushered past the line of cars without so much as a baggage check).
The zone/country itself is about 20 kilometers wide and 200 kilometers long and houses a large portion of Moldovan heavy and food industry.
We met up with our host, Susanna, who took us on a city tour by bike.
The city is very clean and orderly, some stuff I read about it says it is sort of a time warp back to the 1950's Soviet era. There are the standard war memorials, and more than one prominent statue of Vladimir Lenin.
 |
| Me and my homie Vlad. |
 |
| The parliament building with an enormous Lenin statue in front (I am underneath the statue but this picture was taken across the street from where I was standing). |
There are even some errant pictures of Putin posted in some areas around the city.
Our host is very kind and patient with all of our ignorant questions (i.e. this place exists?) and even shared her personal thoughts on their relationship with Moldova (a little unfavorable considering they fought in a war from 1990-1992, she is fairly pro-independence). Despite its proximity, a lot of people there do not speak Moldovan (which, as a language, is almost identical to Romanian). Her English is very good and she speaks Russian (as a first language) and Ukrainian.
People on the streets tend to be a little more subdued it seems, as in Germany or France or the US, you might here some groups of people speaking or laughing loudly or doing something silly, we did not observe anything like that in either the day or the night.
Tomorrow, we will try to keep an equally low profile (and adhere to the 24-hour transit limit) when leaving. Odessa is about 100 kilometers from here.
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