This is Part 4 of our series, “Travel Don’ts“, archiving what you ‘Don’t’ want to do and ‘Dont’ want to miss in different countries
When someone says, “Don’t visit Moldova, Don’t listen to them!”
It is fair to say that Moldova, one of Europe’s most forgotten countries, is not defined by tourist destinations like many of its continental neighbours. It isn’t flashy. It doesn’t boast the canals of Venice or the cathedrals and museums of Paris. It doesn’t have a beautiful coastline like Almafi or Varna. It doesn’t possess the nightlife of Dublin or Berlin. But, what it does, it does as well as anyone, and that is wine, food and, above all else, hospitality!
It isn’t the first destination I would recommend for the novice traveller, but it is absolutely a place I would recommend to someone seeking a new adventure and desiring to experience unique and cherished customs. It is a place where tradition holds tangible value — you may come to Moldova as a visitor, but you will leave as family!
Don’t be afraid to hitch hike!
Disclaimer: I suggest this to tell you a story. Whether or not you hitch hike or not in Moldova is up to you…
My wife and I booked a room at the beautiful, countryside winery of Et Cetera, in the Stefan Vodă region of her native Moldova. We had taken a rutiera (public minivan) from Chisinau to a nearby village, but we were still quite a ways off from the winery. We preceded to jaunt across the rolling hills of Stefan Vodă on our way, hopefully, to the winery grounds. My wife, to my surprise, hailed down a passing car and asked if they could take us to the winery. He said that he was, indeed, going to the main road, but would be going the opposite direction once arriving there. He was kind enough to drop us at the crossroads and we volunteered a fee for his trouble. We started to walk, now on one of the main highways, in the direction of the winery. Not before long, another passer-by stopped to pick us up and took us the rest of the way!
Just a side note before continuing on… Don’t miss Moldovan wine and definitely Don’t miss Et Cetera!!!
I must make my pitch for Moldovan wine before getting back to this story…
Having been raised in Northern California and worked in the bar trade for a decade, I am familiar with wine. I’m no sommelier and I’m also not a snob. I can tell you a bit about different varietals and enthusiastically rave when a wine hits the spot. Et Cetera and Moldovan wine, in general, are out of this world!
The winery’s property is set in a region akin to many places I was familiar with in the San Joaquin Valley of California and its gorgeous foothills. I highly recommend you stay overnight there and try all of their amazing wines. There is no better place to truly “get away”!
If you are in this part of Europe and, if you are a wine enthusiast looking for a new adventure, then Moldova is your place! A quarter of the country are winemakers, making at least one member of every family familiar with the trade. Moldova is also home to the largest underground wine cellar in the world, that houses some of the most prominent world leaders’ wine collections. Just saying…
Anyways, back to hitch hiking. After a wonderful day of wining and dining and then partying with locals celebrating an engagement party at a rural night club nearby, let’s just say the next morning was a little rough, and we were aware of the long trek back to the bus stop that was before us.
While finishing up breakfast and attempting to pull ourselves together, we headed off from the winery in the late summer’s heat to find our way back to the village, in order to return to Chisinau. My wife, aware of our current state, had no time for this nonsense! Desiring to suffer no more, she, once again, waived down an approaching vehicle (she has good taste too, because it was an BMW SUV of some sort). The guy just so happened to be heading to Chisinau near where we needed to go. He drove us home, again, for another voluntary fee.
I have to say, if my wife wasn’t there to speak the native languages, I have no idea how this would have ended up. However, we weren’t the only ones out in this remote part of the country hailing rides that dy. Many of the locals were at it, too.
So, if you happen to be stranded somewhere in this most underrated of countries, just reach your arm out (palm to the ground) and see where it takes you!
If you find yourself, on a rutiera on the way to Soroca and the Gypsy woman sitting next to you offers you a glass of wine that she produced out of thin air, Don’t take it!
However, if you are looking for a place truly off the beaten path, Don’t miss Soroca!
The city is the cultural capital of the Roma people of the region, where the Baron of the Gypsies resides. Trust me when I say this, there is no place in the world like it!
Separated from Ukraine by the Dniester River, Soroca is set in a luscious green valley with rolling hills. At the top of those hills is where some of the wealthiest Roma people flaunt their mansions, often designed after architectural wonders throughout the world.
We booked an impromptu tour with a local taxi driver who took us through the village. There’s only one place in the world you can see the Vatican, the US Capitol Building and the Bolshoi Theatre in the same day – and that is Soroca! Many of the houses are unfinished and the families often live in a smaller house next to the property being worked on.
As we meandered through the streets, gazing in awe of the existence of such a place, we pulled up in front of Bolshoi Theatre. Two teenagers came out to greet us. The taxi driver seemed to be fine with this and our friend, who was native to Soroca, didn’t have any objections. The boys offered us a viewing of the home. I couldn’t resist!
They took us in – it was fabulous! Marble floors, big screen TV – clearly recently renovated. I looked up at the grand staircase, taking you to the second story, and it was blocked off by a large piece of plywood – still under construction! I would love to return and see the finished product!
Soroca, Moldova
These young men were very gracious. Often, Roma people get a bad rap, but I caution you to save your judgements until you visit a place like Soroca and can understand their culture a bit better. I cannot recommend a place enough for travellers truly looking for a unique experience. Sănătate Soroca!
Don’t ignore national holidays (or sound advice from your in-laws).
In most countries, including Moldova, things shut down around the holidays. This is especially true in villages. I also, rather ‘bone-headedly, underestimated how sacred the New Year’s holiday is in former Soviet Republics.
Here’s where I screwed up: Southern Moldova is home to the Gagauz people, a Turkic-Bulgarian ethnic enclave in the south of the country. I am fascinated by these things, which was to my detriment, and my wife’s, on this occasion. My much more intelligent better half and my sensible in-laws repeatedly suggested that we not visit there during the New Year’s holiday. Any other time of the year, especially if there was a festival on, they would have encouraged us to go, so don’t think they held any prejudices. It was me who was the ignorant one!
Of course, I didn’t listen and insisted that we go on this trip because, “I will regret being so close to such a remote place and culture and not going!” The romantic, travel-obsessed part of me just wouldn’t listen to reason on this occasion.
So we set off for Gagauzia’s capital, Comrat, a three-hour journey from Chisinau in one of Moldova’s signature minivans. Now, had we gone at any other time of the year, it would have had the activity of any other mid-sized city in Moldova. But, to say the place was a ghost town on this occasion would have been an understatement. NOTHING WAS OPEN! A whole day shot because of my stubbornness!
After touring the temporary “ghost town”, checking out a few monuments, the outside of a closed-for-the-holiday cultural museum and empty confines of the local university and Turkish embassy, trying to make the best of a day that I had completely botched up, we very defeatedly made our way back to the bus station to head home. It wasn’t quite the experience I was looking for. However, that, in itself, was an experience!
Comrat is not to fault for this in any way, by the way. I do recommend that you Don’t miss visiting Comrat during its annual wine festival, Gagauz Șarap Yortusu, where you can sample delicious Gagauzian food, culture and that most amazing of wine the region is famous for.
Don’t miss Moldovan food!
Seriously, if there is a more underrated cuisine in the world, I haven’t found it! Not only is Moldova home to some of the most distinct and delicious dishes on the planet, but the country has fresher and more organic ingredients than most of its neighbours in the European Union.
Don’t miss răcitură! Hold your reservations at the door! Though, perhaps not the most visibly charming, this holiday dish is exceptional and should be a staple in all cultures. However, for now, I’m happy its home is in Moldova!
Don’t miss mămăligă! Similar to polenta, mămăligă strikes deep into the soul of every Moldovan!
Don’t miss plăcintă! A trip to Moldova is not a ‘trip’ without them!
Don’t miss Sarmale!
Don’t miss Tony Hawks’ (not the skateboarder) book, Playing the Moldovans at Tennis
The eccentric author makes a wager to his friend that he will challenge every player on the Moldovan national football (soccer) team to a one-on-one match at tennis. Tony, who once travelled Round Ireland with a Fridge and carried A Piano in the Pyrenees, tells his tales of travelling through Moldova and tracking down the country’s footballers. You truly can’t make this stuff up!
Don’t miss Carla’s Dreams!
Though I Don’t understand Romanian or Russian, I am completely pre-pubescent for this band!
Don’t be surprised to hear two people speaking to each other, one in perfect Romanian and the other responding fluently in Russian for the entirety of the conversation and not a word goes awry. It happens more often than you think!
Don’t underestimate the ‘Curent’ (Romanian for draft or gust of wind inside of a building). If you are from Eastern Europe or have travelled there significantly, you know exactly what I am talking about…
Don’t overdress… but also, Don’t underdress!!!
By far the most peculiar of experiences I’ve had in Moldova, is the reaction of people when you are not “properly dressed”. Moldovans are obsessed with the cold (I have seen grown men stick cotton balls in their ears to prevent the awful horrors of the ‘curent’!). But, I do think this obsession borders on zealous dress code dogma or, perhaps, fascism.
I’ll give my personal account of this phenomenon:
I run hot. I’m always warm. So, to say that Moldova’s obsession with being prepared for the cold doesn’t suit someone of my natural body temperature visiting in late spring is an understatement! And, trust me, the locals are not afraid in displaying their displeasure with you violating their unwritten, though culturally embedded, ‘livery laws’. When I first met my in-laws, I was not allowed to the leave the house without a coat, even though the average temperature on that trip was 21 degrees Celsius (70F). They have since softened on this, after realising my pre-disposition to perspiration — but this took some major persuading!
However, you start to see where this comes from when you walk the streets of Chisinau in late spring in shorts and flip flops. PEOPLE NOTICE YOU! The reactions I got, you would have thought I had committed some egregious crime or was wearing a clown costume! I might as well had been walking around ‘in the nip’! The disgust, the amazement! “How could this thing go out and function in the world looking like that?!”
All the while, there’s not a cloud in sight and I’m sweating like a mad man!
I said in our first “Travel Don’ts” article, “If you are in rural China and everyone is staring at you because you are not ‘Asian looking’, Don’t be alarmed! They are just curious — That statement doesn’t apply in Moldova! Do be alarmed! You have committed a heinous crime!
It was explained to me like this, “Winter dress is for winter, spring dress is for spring and summer dress is for summer… and there are no exceptions!” Acceptable dress codes do not follow changes in weather, day to day, but are chastened eternally by the calendar, and there is no compromise! That is just the way it is!!!
My wife confirmed this with me, as when her and her sister were young, they recall laughing out of their window at a kid who was wearing shorts in spring, proof that it wasn’t just me being sensitive about my hyperactive sweat glands!
So, “Who wears short shorts?” Not Moldovans!!!
I guess the rule of thumb is, if it is May 31st at 11:59pm, Don’t wear shorts! But the minute the clock strikes midnight, you’re golden!
Though I may be warm-blooded, nothing is warmer than Moldovan hospitality! “Noroc, sănătate, fericire, la mulţi ani” to all of those “născuţi în Moldova!”
This concludes Part 4 of our series, “Travel Dont’s“. Stay tuned for more
articles!