I entered Moldova by road from Ukraine, and the Gates of Chisinau were my first real view of the capital. These massive apartment buildings line both sides of the highway entering the city, creating a pretty dramatic entrance. Chisinau is home to more than half a million people, but compared with many European capitals it never felt particularly crowded or overwhelming.
At night the center of Chisinau felt considerably livelier, although the city still had a relaxed atmosphere compared with larger capitals elsewhere in Europe. Moldova was one of the least touristy countries I had visited on the continent, and there were plenty of times when I felt like I had wandered somewhere few foreign travelers ever went.
Remnants of the Soviet Union
Some things in Moldova certainly weren’t up to the standards I was accustomed to in Western Europe, while others, like many of the roads, were surprisingly good. For some reason, though, the country’s elevators seemed to be universally terrifying. The elevator in my hotel dated from 1982, nearly a decade before the collapse of the Soviet Union, and somehow that wasn’t even the most questionable one I rode.
Shortly after arriving in Moldova, I found myself without access to money because my bank had shut off my credit card after I used it in Ukraine. Calling internationally from the hotel was expensive, so I wandered into Chisinau looking for an internet cafe or somewhere I could make a phone call.
I had absolutely no idea where I was going, so I eventually walked into a large building and tried asking a woman near the entrance for help. She didn’t speak a word of English, and I didn’t speak Romanian or Russian, so I made what I thought was the universal telephone gesture by holding my hand against my head like a phone.
She immediately seemed to understand.
Unfortunately, she did not understand.
Instead, she led me into possibly the most dangerous elevator I had ever seen and took me all the way to an upper floor. This already didn’t make much sense because I couldn’t imagine why a public telephone would be hidden somewhere upstairs. She eventually stopped at a random door, confidently flung it open, and revealed a dentist in the middle of operating on a patient.
Apparently my universal telephone gesture wasn’t quite as universal as I thought.
I never found a place to make my call. Even worse, I couldn’t find the stairs out of the building, which meant I had to get back inside the terrifying Soviet elevator and ride it down again.
Reminders of Moldova’s Soviet past were still easy to find around Chisinau. I repeatedly came across hammer and sickle symbols while walking and driving through the city. Coming from the United States, I had expected these symbols to mostly be historical relics, so seeing them still displayed around the capital caught my attention.
Politics in Chisinau
During my visit I also came across what appeared to be a political gathering involving supporters of Moldova’s Communist Party. With nobody around me speaking English, I couldn’t exactly ask what was happening, but the hammer and sickle flags made the political affiliation fairly obvious.
Seeing open support for communism was interesting to me because I had associated the Soviet Union almost entirely with history. Moldova had only become independent in 1991, however, so during my visit there were still plenty of people who had spent much of their lives living under the Soviet system. The country’s politics and relationship with Russia were considerably more complicated than I had understood before arriving.
Exploring Downtown Chisinau
For those who would rather explore the city than participate in political demonstrations or risk their lives in questionable elevators, Chisinau has several cultural attractions around the center. One of the buildings I visited was the city’s theater. I didn’t stay for a performance, but I walked inside and found an elegant interior filled with people who were considerably better dressed than I was in my casual tourist clothes.
I also tried visiting the national museum, but unfortunately it was closed that day. That’s one of the disadvantages of traveling without much of a schedule. Sometimes you simply show up at the wrong time.
Food and Nightlife
One restaurant I seemed to see everywhere in Moldova was Andy’s Pizza. I even found one while visiting Transnistria. A waiter summed up its popularity perfectly when he told me, “America has McDonald’s, Moldova has Andy’s Pizza.”
Chisinau was also an inexpensive place to go out compared with most European capitals. I eventually met some British travelers who were also passing through Moldova, and we spent an evening checking out some of the city’s bars after our wine tour.
Between the wine tour, some beer at a brewery, and his jet lag, one of the guys eventually reached the point photographed above. I’d say he got the full Chisinau nightlife experience.
Chisinau’s Parks
One of my favorite things about Chisinau was the number of parks scattered throughout the city. During the nice spring weather they were packed with families, couples, and people simply spending time outside.
The larger parks had plenty going on, especially for children. There were food and ice cream stands, small cars that kids could ride around in, fountains, and plenty of benches. The atmosphere made the parks feel like genuine gathering places rather than simply patches of green space in the middle of the city.
One thing that particularly caught my attention was how many people were sitting on park benches using laptops. Today that probably wouldn’t seem unusual, but at the time seeing an entire row of people working on computers outside in a Moldovan park was memorable enough that I photographed it.
Getting Around Chisinau
Chisinau is large enough to feel like a proper capital but small enough that getting around was easy. Traffic never seemed particularly bad, and taxis were inexpensive enough that I normally used them when traveling between different parts of the city. I even found one driver I liked and ended up using him several times.
He also happened to use a hammer and sickle pin to secure his money, giving me yet another unexpected encounter with Soviet imagery during the trip.
For a more local and even cheaper way to get around, Chisinau has an extensive trolleybus system. I mostly stuck with taxis, but public transportation makes getting around the capital inexpensive even for travelers on a tight budget.
Chisinau probably isn’t a city that will overwhelm you with famous landmarks, and that was part of what made it interesting to me. My memories of the capital are instead things like Soviet symbols, busy parks, cheap restaurants, confusing language barriers, and accidentally being escorted into a dentist’s office while searching for a telephone. It felt much less polished than the major tourist capitals of Europe, but also considerably more unpredictable—and those unexpected experiences are ultimately what I remember most about traveling there.
