New year, new places, new adventures

Random, exciting, exhausting, fun, Romanian, you can choose out of a lot of adjectives to describe our one week trip in the beginning of January. What shall I write down? What sticks is rather the  general experience than certain places or happenings.

My travel experiences I gained depend highly on our choice of transport devices, people we met and – even more important – the attitude (during) this trip.

As I noticed during my short trip to Transylvania, travelling in Romania is a real adventure and the process itself is often even more interesting than the destination which is weird because normally it’s different. Especially the start of our trip looked promising. We wanted to travel to Iași , because a bunch of people recommended this place. Unfortunately, there were no seats for in the bus to Iasi, so we ended up on the bus’ stairs. For four hours. Actually, it was very funny and surprisingly cozy. This place offered me a lot of possibilities seats never offer. I could lay down in the bus’ corridor and sleep.

At latest in 2016 I got rid of my German attitude. I don’t plan a lot, I let things happen and don’t worry anymore about all the surprises Romania offers its inhabitants and travelers. As part of this new attitude Henri developed a before then unknown kind of spontaneity. Henri noticed that during our stay in Iași as we spontaneousely decided to go further, to Moldova, Chișinău to be precise. Never thought before EVS that I’d end up there without being kidnapped.

“Go to Chisinau. It’s very cool there.”

With these words, our couchsurfing host Tudor suggested us a visit of Moldova. Should become awesome, but be patient, you’ll read more about it below. First let me write some lines about Iasi:

Before and after our trip I heard really interesting stuff about this city. Unfortunately, and almost inevitably by taking in consideration that we had in fact, only a couple of hours in the city, we saw nearly nothing. In the evening we had our first and last walk through to the city center (to 30% is consisted walking to the bus station to ask for tickets to Chișinău ). We saw the palace, which was rather nicer to see than to visit, because – by chance – it was under construction. Moreover, we discovered a mall in order to flee away from the cold and get some proper winter clothes.

As evening program, we spent the time at Tudor’s place. It was a very interesting and funny experience. He told me a lot about Romania and its culture. Moreover, I almost died in his bathroom (smart advice: Never enter a bathroom without light).

The next morning I hoped to escape the cold (by going to Moldova). Basically, I jumped from the frying pan into the fire, but a fucking cold one.  Moreover surprisingly for me was the fact that I could enter only by an ID card. I enjoyed my good luck during our bus trip to Chișinău , because my seat neighbor was a Moldovan guy, working in Romania for a German association. Therefore he spoke German. Contrary the German guy, living in Romania and going Moldova didn’t speak a proper Romanian. It was a perfect combination, because in the end, we were teaching other our languages (mostly he taught) and talked about carnival in Cologne and the current situation in Moldova for instance.

Even in hindsight, it’s hard for me to describe my time in Moldova and Chișinău . To (try to) put it in a nutshell, this country attracts me in a way I can’t really explain (omg it’s love!). Somehow it’s very similar to Romania. As I left the bus at the central autogara I felt like at Piata Sudului. In some regards it’s obvious that you’re in Moldova. The massive police presence, also because of some kind of protests or sit-in illustrates the domestic tensions and division. Although it’s not everywhere, so obvious, you notice in the city’s face the Soviet past. Overall because of the experience I can definetly recommend a visit of Moldova. I’m still curious and plan to come back to this country oscillating between West and East. Hopefully I’ll manage to arrive with more time and a  life insurance good enough to explore the rural areas as well. 🙂

Sometimes you get the feeling that destiny isn’t on good terms with you. I got this feeling as we couldn’t take our bus back to Romania. By chance is was also the last bus of the day. It dorve us crazy and we were very desperate. We thought we had to face another night in Chișinău. Good luck for us, it was only the last bus until we asked at the information. Fortunately, they had space for us to come back to Iasi. Unfortunately, in different buses. So I took the first one alone. Alone in the bus where I noticed every little hole in the streets. My beloved body received a proper shake. For hours.  Not enough of the good luck in the middle of the outback my bus stopped. A very strange situation occourred: We had to change buses. Even the Moldovans and Romanians wore questionsmarks on their faces. As I saw then the Moldovan landscape passing by occupied by my thoughts and questions with no answer.

What are you doing here? How did you end up here, in Moldova!? What the fuck…

Contrary to my travel to Moldova, was way back not so talkintensive which was a pity. Finally, I discovered why my neighbor acted like a silent monk: He supposed that I’m Russian. Inevitably, he didn’t like them. As I said then that I’m a kind of German he became more open and we talked a lot. Moreover – and a welcome trait of Romanians – he was very helpful and helped me to organize our further travel to Suceava. Arrived then in Iași , I had an awesome meal in a very nice American fast-food restaurant meanwhile waiting for the girls. Despite all problems and difficulties we managed to meet alive, so we were able to travel further to Suceava where we arrived at half past midnight. #survivorsoftheday 🙂

These were only three days of our amazing travels… Still curious how it went on? Read more about Suceava, incredible walking tours to monasteries, why I like orthodox churches more than other christian and our visit of Cluj… Worth a visit, worth to read my next post 😉