Visiting the Countryside

After entering Moldova from Ukraine, these country roads gave me my first real look at the country before I ever reached Chisinau. Many of the roads were lined with trees, sometimes so densely that it felt like I was driving through a forest. Just beyond them, though, were huge stretches of farmland and open fields.

This long row of willows seemed to continue for miles and was one of the first things that caught my attention about the Moldovan countryside.

Villages and Farmland

Outside Chisinau, much of the country I saw consisted of rolling farmland and small villages. Some settlements were little more than a collection of homes built along one main road, while others had markets, churches, and small commercial areas.

This marker stood at the entrance to one of the villages I passed through. Driving instead of relying only on buses gave me a much better look at places I probably never would have visited otherwise.

Farming was an obvious part of everyday life in rural Moldova. I passed people working fields by hand and saw livestock throughout the countryside. At one point I drove past a field where a large group of people appeared to be working together with hand tools rather than machinery.

Life on the Rural Roads

One of the things I enjoyed most about driving through Moldova was seeing transportation that had largely disappeared from many of the places I normally traveled. Motorcycles with sidecars were surprisingly common, and horse-drawn carts still shared the roads with cars.

I hadn’t seen a motorcycle with a sidecar in years, yet in rural Moldova I seemed to come across them constantly. In one small town I even watched several kids ride horses right down the main street.

I only wish I had done a better job with my camera. There were plenty of scenes I saw for only a few seconds while driving that would have made great photographs.

Fields of Red Flowers

At least I remembered to stop for these fields of red flowers. They appeared repeatedly throughout the countryside and became one of the visual memories I most associate with Moldova.

I saw similar flowers again while continuing my backpacking trip through Romania, so they certainly weren’t unique to Moldova, but during this part of the journey they seemed to be everywhere.

Forests and Open Country

I regret not doing more hiking or camping while I was in Moldova. At one point I climbed to the top of a large hill and found wooded ridges stretching across the horizon. After spending much of my earlier European travel inside cities, it was nice to finally see more of the continent’s rural side.

The countryside wasn’t dramatic in the way that alpine mountains are, but the combination of forests, farmland, rolling hills, and quiet villages gave Moldova a peaceful character that I hadn’t expected before arriving.

Getting Lost

One of the best decisions I made was renting a car and driving farther away from Chisinau. I was a little intimidated at first, but once I got used to the roads I became comfortable enough to head farther north and explore places I hadn’t planned in advance.

At one point I wandered off the main road in this small town and got completely turned around. I pulled over and asked a group of older men for directions. They didn’t speak English, and I couldn’t speak Romanian or Russian, but after about ten minutes of gestures, pointing, and trying different words, we somehow figured each other out and I was back on my way.

Those kinds of encounters are some of my favorite parts of traveling. Neither side really understood what the other was saying, but everyone understood the problem well enough to solve it.

Wildlife

Until this trip, I hadn’t encountered much wildlife during my travels through Europe because most of my previous visits had focused on cities. This boar was well away from houses or obvious livestock enclosures, so it appeared to be wild.

I also came across this large shed snake skin. Whatever snake had left it behind was already long gone, which was probably for the best. Judging by the skin, it looked like a fairly substantial animal.

My drive through rural Moldova ended up being one of my favorite parts of the country. The villages, old motorcycles, horse carts, fields, forests, and completely unplanned encounters showed me a side of Moldova I never would have experienced if I had stayed only in Chisinau. If I return, I’d like to spend even more time outside the cities and finally add some proper hiking to the trip.