Wednesday 8 May, Day 5
We packed up and were out by 8:45 for a walk to the local
Ciuflea Monastery. There was a service in
progress, with the monks chanting as I had heard on a you-tube video, so I
taped them too.
Then Roxy came, and we
squashed our bags into the taxi for our trip to the Unrecognised Republic of
Transnistria.
After the break-up of USSR, the Moldavian SSR was granted
independence in 1992. Most of the population had connections with Romania, and
wanted their new country to head in Europe’s direction. But the slice on the other side of the
Dniester River, close to Ukraine, wanted
to be more like Russia. So they had a
civil war, about 500 were killed, and nothing was resolved, except the Republic
of Transnistria declared itself independent of Moldova, although they are not
recognised by anyone in the whole world except for 3 other unrecognised
states. Its capital is Tiraspol, and it
has its own police, currency and strict border formalities. They have pictures and busts of Lenin, tanks
and Russian soldiers, and tomorrow will celebrate Victory (of Russia in WW2)
Day with a grand military parade.
We visited the C15 fort at Tinghina (now Bender) that has
been reconstructed ...
Next door to the fort is the Russian military base.
The torture chamber, with some replica equipment.
... and had lunch at a ‘canteen’ above the bus station – a 2
course meal for about $2.50 each.
In the canteen
The Soviet mural on the wall of the bus waiting room.
Then
it was into the city for a tour of monuments, and a look at the preparations
for tomorrow’s event. I had seen on
Googlemaps that they had a ‘Church of the Presentation of the Child Jesus’, and
I was hoping to get something special from there, but Roxy couldn’t find it on
her Google.
Tanks, special seating and lots of flags getting ready for tomorrow.
3 photos lifted from a local newspaper the following day.
In the fruit and vege market.
We got back to Chisinau station in plenty of time for the
overnight train to Bucharest, which was quite the experience we had been warned
about. We had had to settle for a 4-bed
cabin, hoping to have it on our own, but the train was quite crowded. At the border at Ungheni the couple in our
cabin left (relief) but not for long.
The
train lines are a different gauge in Romania, so at the border they actually
disconnect the carriages from the bogies and elevate the train about 2 metres, then
slide the old bogies out and the new ones in.
This takes about 45mins.
Then the
train is shunted into a siding and the Moldovan security check you out of their
country. They wanted to see our
medications, and our bags got upended in the process. Then we tidied up and settled back, and ate
cold pastries that we’d got the day before. Then the Romanian security came through, and
took our word that we had no contraband.
They had very heated discussions with our new roommate, and for a while
we were hopeful that he’d be deported, but he stayed, and after a total of 3 ½
hours, we finally got underway. Vasillie
had complained the whole time about corruption in high places, and drank very
potent liquor. How much simpler would it
be to have a long platform like they used to at Albury, and only have the
sleeper train for the Romanian part that needs it. Walk through a big shed along the way, with
one customs desk at one end, and the other at the other end. As it was, the train we reached Bucharest on
was very much longer than the one we left Chisinau on, so things happened while
we were sleeping. David managed a very
good sleep, but I was up and down, my antics including juggling a toilet roll
at about 3:30, and having to retrieve it from the loo, soggy on one side. “Passengers should please refrain….”
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