ROMANIA

Romania is always presented in a bad light in European media; the gypsies, poverty, crime etc.
But really, it is a beautiful country (landscape) with interesting history and many sights to see. I am glad I went here.

To my big surprise, there is a border control when entering Romania from other EU countries. I was in a sleeping car on the train, and woken up by border police to check my passport at 2 in the morning.

The people here are incredibly helpful and kind. The go out of their way to help a traveller and do not expect anything in return.

A lot of Romanians (like many Eastern Europeans) are very well-read, intellectual and interested in philosphy, politics, religion, good literature. They've been through crazy times in the 80s as the Ceaucescu regime failed the people, a violent revolt took place and crazy cowboy capitalism in the 1990s. Now they have the same split of newly rich people and really poor people as Russia etc. They do not trust politicians.

I was surprised to learn that most people in Romania are very suspicious against the EU. Nevertheless the EU flag is hung along the Romanian on many buildings.

Romanians are both nationalistic and quite religious. Some are Catholics, some Orthodox.

Today I just popped my head in a cathedral in a city called Iasu. But I ended up having a fantastic experience:
A nun (an Orthodox nun! They wear completely different habits than Catholic nuns) noticed that I was a foreigner; went and got an English speaking priest who gave me a private tour and taught me a lot of things I did not know about Christianity in general and Orthodox Christianity. He was an incredibly smart and inspiring person; chatting with him really strenghtened my faith.
It was the first time for me, visiting an Orthodox church.

All day today I have been stupendously tired because of a crazy mixup that happened yesterday as I was taking the train from Bucharest to Iasi. Romania's trains are very old and dated. The stations are not maintained to a European standard. There is no public announcement system on the train and the staff do not speak any foreign languages whatsoever. The train stations are very poorly lit in the evening. On the platforms, there are hardly no signs to say what station the train is at.

For this reason, I as a foreigner was sitting in the wrong carriage (the first class) which detached from the rest of the train and sent on a branch line which was near impossible to get back from. It cost 8 hours, in the evening and night.

In the poorest country in the EU - frankly I was just waiting to get robbed. But instead kind people on the train called friends who spoke English, rallied up a school boy on the train who could speak English and managed to explain the situation to me, and what I'd have to do.

The only foreign language that a few people can speak, is.... Italian! Which I do not really speak.
Of course, there are some similarities between all Euro languages, and many words you can guess if you know a few langauges...

I think it's the influence of Christianity and perhaps the experiences of communism that have made people rally together to sort out a problem and help someone. I don't think a stranger would have been so well treated in the UK for example. Whatever it is, it's a really nice thing. The language barrier has been really tricky while being in Romania and people have gone to extreme lengths to help.

The train I travelled on, when returning from the branch line, was so scruffy I was surprised that it was even running...
It was like a ghost train in the dark, hardly lit, with interior from the 50s.

In the end, 3 different people chatted with me during this branch line experience- keen to talk politics.
To sum up their views; Communism was good in many ways bad had some bad points. Capitalism is generally crap, but has a few good points. Their country has been screwed over and the people's property was stolen. The revolutions in Eastern Europe were staged by some mysterious force, particularly the one in Romania, and they offered some quite convincing "evidence". The EU should be treated with suspicion, Gorbachev was possibly a CIA spy and Russia has "stolen" Moldova from
Romania.

I arrived at my 4 star hotel in Iasi at 3 in the morning. Nice hotel - Grand Hotel Traian. At which point my wallet somehow went missing, just after I paid a taxi driver. I did not have my main cards or cash in the wallet so it was an inconvenience, rather than a serious risk. I only lost two cards, a Visa debit and an Amex which I never use anyway. The Visa replacement card can apparently be DHLd anywhere in the world. Amex "Platinum Service" is a joke - I will never use Amex in the future.


MOLDOVA

I decided to move on - to Moldova as planned.
I ended up in a taxi with 2 other girls and a guy. I am pretty sure I paid many times more than what the others paid for this journey. Still, 25 Euro is no big deal. The journey takes 3-4 hours and involves leaving the EU, and entering Moldova.

The driver was funny though; He was driving his car to Moldova, because some auto repairs could be done there for 1/3 of what they cost in Romania. He was in fact a doctor though, and told me his interesting story in a mix of French and Russian. He had been educated in Moscow (being Moldovan), then emigrated to Romania.

When he realised that I was staying at a hotel called "Cosmos" he got very nostalgic since it was the grand "hotel de ville" in his childhood. After we arrived, he bought me a drink in the hotel lobby, then I excused myself.

This hotel is actually very Soviet style so I can see his point. Not exactly a chic hotel, but it is as central as you can get in Chisinau, and has free wifi.
A totally crazy thing happened in this hotel:
I accidentally went to a room at the exact opposite end of a long corridor, to my actual room. I did not notice at first - put my key in the door and turned - and realised I was in the wrong room! How could the key work there too?
I had walked straight into someone elses room - luckily they were not there.

In Moldova, everyone can speak Russian, it seems. Great!

This is indeed the poorest country in all of Europe. There are no motorways, many people drive old horse carts.
Charming in a way, but of course, many people are no doubt suffering badly from poverty.

Both the men in the car started telling me that it had once been quite nice in Moldova - in the 70s and 80s.
- good roads and much better opportunities for people. They seemed a bit ashamed that I, a foreigner should see the problems in the country. I, on the other hand, felt embarrassed that I am better off - these are fellow Europeans, possibly both smarter and more hard working than me.

Everyone seems super-religious here, crossing themselves a lot, and every kilometer along the road, I saw little shrines, crosses etc. Is there an English or Russian words for this? I saw hundreds of them today.

Too tired to continue more soon!