Exploring Chisinau

Saturday, Aug. 22, 2009--Chisinau (Continued)

I went exploring the downtown area when I left the cyber cafe. There is a huge market just behind where there, so I went through it watching all the people doing their weekend shopping. While walking through, I saw a restaurant with lots of business and decided to eat. It was a cafeteria-style place, so I grabbed a tray and went through pointing to what I wanted--mashed potatoes, meat balls in a pot roast-style sauce, and bread. It was so good. There is a different style of food here from the Balkan countries where I have been. Here, I would guess it is Russian-influenced.

Both the Internet and food are cheaper here than in the countries where I have been lately. That's partially due, I guess to this being Europe's poorest country (it's Mississippi) according to the guidebook. They say that 1/3 of the economy comes from money being sent to families from relatives living and working outside the country.

Unfortunately, TV is worse here than where I have been lately. Nothing is in English except for one movie channel and one sports channel. Everything else is dubbed into either the local language or Russian (which almost everyone here speaks, since Moldova was part of the USSR).

When I returned to the apartment and couldn't find anything on TV, I tried to read. That didn't work, because I kept trying to fall asleep after little sleep during last night. I forced myself to stay awake, however. I knew if I let myself fall asleep at 17:30, I would not be able to sleep through the night.

I had bought some supplies for breakfast and put them in the refrigerator. I decided that rather than going back out I would eat part of them for dinner, too. I had a loaf of bread that was filled and covered with lots of seeds. I sliced it, spread it with butter, and ate it with strawberry preserves. Ummmm! I also bought two bottles of wine--a cheaper one (less than $2) from an unknown winery and one from the famous Cricova winery ($3). I opened the cheaper bottle and drank about half of it while watching the news and trying to figure out what it was about even through I could not understand the language.

Sunday, Aug. 23, 2009--Chisinau

When I finally went to bed at 22:00 last night, I slept well and did not get up until 9:00 this morning. I was still dragging some, however, since the lack of sleep from the night before made my body feel like it had passed several time zones.

I decided to wander the back streets to the north where I am living. Just as I turned the corner, there was a beautiful blue chuch with golden onion domes and the most beautiful singing coming from it. I went to the courtyard and just stood there listening for several minutes. Eventually, I headed for the area around the university which is also where several of the museums are located.

I saw two of the museums--The Museum of Fine Arts and the Archaeological and Historical Museum. Both were interesting. The former had too many ikons for my interest. But there were some good European period paintings. I was surprised to notice how handsome Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria was as a young man; I don't think I had ever seen a portrait of him before. In the Archaeological and Historical Museum, they were having the grand opening of a diorama from World War II. It was fascinating. It went from a curved painting in the background to a 3-D ground area with trenches, weapons, soldiers, etc., on the ground in the foreground.

I stopped on the street and bought the local snack food--a big round, flat piece of stuffed fried bread. I bought the one the lady recommended. It was stuffed with cooked onions. One had meat, another had cheese, and the fourth had some other ingredient. People wander the streets eating them all the time here. It was tasty.

Moldova is one of those countries that is split by languages. Over the years, it has gone back and forth between Russia and Romania while seldom being independent. Even today, it has a bread-away province called Transdniestr which has developed its own army, police, currency, etc., and has elected its own president. Why? About 45%of the population of that province are ethnic Russians and only 14% of them are Moldovians (with most of the others being Ukrainians and Romanians).