Moldova is a small eastern European county, with neighbours Ukraine to the north and east and Romania to the south and west. I visited Moldova for real in 2017 as part of my quest to have a pint of Guinness in every European capital city. Revisiting it now, all be it virtually, Moldova appears to have become more openly western facing, no doubt hastened by the war in neighbouring Ukraine. It is not only openly applying for EU membership but also in the last month hosted a summit of European leaders.
Food and Drink
We dined Moldovan with delicious homemade Sarmale – cabbage leaves filled with rice, mince then wrapped in bacon and baked with tomatoes. All credit to my wife, not only for the cooking but also for finding the enormous jar of pickled cabbage leaves and carrying them home.
In Majestic Wines I found a bottle of white Moldovan wine – Carpe Diem, which was also delicious. I never knew you could buy single bottles in Majestic; I always thought it was for cases only.
Literature
The Good Life Elsewhere by Vladimir Lorchenkov is I think the only Moldovan novel translated into English. It’s a quirky work based on a group of villagers that will do anything to escape the drudgery of Moldovan life for a better one in Italy. I was worried when I read the synopsis that only a small part would be based in Moldova and the rest in Italy thereby defeating the purpose of me reading it which was to get an insight in to the Moldovan way of life. I needn’t have worried. They don’t succeed. A humorous read, almost fairy-tale in parts and well translated.
To add to the quirkiness, my copy that I picked up on eBay was an ex-library book from Stonnington Library which seems to be in Melbourne, Australia. How these books travel!
Railways
I have travelled by train in Moldova. I wasn’t planning to – it just worked out that way. When I was there in 2017 in search of a pint of Guinness I was travelling with Ian, a great train enthusiast whose mission is to travel by train in every country in Europe. There is a very limited choice of trains in Moldova but he managed to plan a day out for us from the capital Chișinău to the town of Călărași, and what a day it turned out to be. We travelled there in a smart Moldovan train and returned on a Russian sleeper train.
When we were in Călărași we were looking around for the museum when a gentleman came up to Ian and introduced himself as the Mayor. He kindly arranged for the museum to be opened especially for us as it was closed for repair. He also arranged for us to have a guided tour by Marianna and her friend Corina. They very kindly spent the day not only showing us the museum but also the fire station, the police station, the old synagogue, a church and a lot more.
Stamps
Some themes seen on stamps are quite common e.g. sport, transport, wildlife but rarely cakes! I like it. I wonder if the gum on the stamp tastes like the cake.
Film
The Unsaved. A short film about a young Moldovan man, lives with his mother and minor drugs dealer, trying to work out the right way in life. The IMDB summary is pretty accurate.
Geocache
I have found some geocaches in Moldova but never solved a puzzle cache there. In fact it seems there are only three puzzle caches there. I chose to have a go at ‘UTM’s outdoor technology museum Mystery Cache GCA9B27 . It wasn’t too much of a challenge. I just needed to find a binary to text converter. UTM’s outdoor technology museum is an outdoor park in which you can find old buses, trams, statues, tractors and even helicopters! I also have a ‘virtual’ look at the park as one does.
Highest Point
Moldova isn’t a mountainous country. In fact it doesn’t have a mountain at all if your definition of a mountain is something over 2000 feet. Their highest point is Balanesti Hill which stands at 1411ft / 430m. Wales is positively mountainous in comparison to this. I looked up the successful summiteers of and rather liked the account of Lee Humphries who got to the top of the field in March 2017. His ascent was more a battle with the train network than it was mountaineering.
Music
My search for Moldovan music took me down some rather strange avenues. I discovered the folk-punk band Zdob și Zdub and the jazz band Trigon who put together the Moldovan Wedding in Jazz in 1993 described as “a milestone in so-called world music”. I was however most at home with the Compilation of Moldivan Folk Music by Anatol Rudei.
Sport
Alexandru Borș has just won the gold medal in the U17 category up to 80 kilograms in the 2023 European Championship held in Albania. Moldovan wrestler won gold medal at European Championship
It has also been a month to keep an eye out for how Moldova do in footballs’ European Championship qualifiers. Things haven’t being going so well there with Moldova loosing to Albania 0-2 last weekend and loosing 2-0 to Poland at half-time tonight. But wait! Just as I published this blog the Moldova team come back and score three times in the second half to give themselves a 3-2 victory over Poland. Bet things are hopping tonight in Chișinău.
Cardiff Capers 