Chisinau

CHISINAU- THE TRAVEL BACK IN TIME

Stuck between two countries with strong influence (Romania and Ukraine), Moldova is basically living in their shadows. Too small to have enough local production, too dependent on its neighbouring countries (as the only way to get there is via one of them), no access to Black sea- these are some of the factors which define today’s Moldavian look- everywhere you can feel the socialist past. Moldova’s capital is Chisinau and here are our tips what to do for a weekend there.

Lili’s 5 good-to-know tips when travelling to Chisinau:

• It is not the most exciting town to visit in Europe (not many things you can do there)
• It is not very common that people there speak English (Russian though might be of help)
• The prices are still among the lowest in Europe
• Moldova is famous for its wines
• A weekend is enough to get a feeling about the city- there aren’t that many things to do in Chisinau

General info

Moldova was still one of the countries in Europe we haven’t visited and as we had a free weekend, we decided to book our flights. The fights from Vienna were quite expensive for this destination, but as there aren’t that many alternatives, we had no other choice (btw there are not many airlines flying to Chisinau). Plus the flight was extremely convenient just for the weekend- Friday evening to Sunday evening. Unfortunately the flight was delayed as most of the evening flights and this caused the hurdle in situations of this kind (we had specifically dedicate an article about whether it is better to flight Friday evening of Saturday morning- you can read more here).

Transportation

How to get from the airport to the city center in Chisinau?

We would advise you to organize the transportation with the hotel (we made the mistake not to do it and we regretted). Of course this is not the only option to get to and from the airport (there is a very cheap trolley bus which runs every half an hour and costs only 2 MDL∼ 0.1 EUR), but this is the fastest and still affordable one.

Taxi

The hotel offer was twice higher price than the one we saw as reference in different forums. We decided to take the taxi directly from the airport. Not only we lost some time until a taxi was available (I already mentioned that it was quite late during the night and there weren’t many cars), but also the driver did not know the hotel location. We were kind of privileged that we can understand a bit of their language (some of the words are the same), but for a western European it will be a tough situation.

We had downloaded an offline map (because Moldova is out of EU and both Internet and the phone calls are very expensive) and thanks to it we found the hotel. Which in the end was on a main street and not difficult to find at all; that’s why I would suggest you save this headache and organize the transfer with the hotel (it costs around 100-120 MDL ∼ 5EUR).

Accommodation

As we recommended in our article with tips for weekend trips, the most important thing when it comes to hotel choice during weekend trips is the location. We stayed in TipTop Hotel. It was a decent one, they also served very plain breakfast, but in the end this was what we were looking for. The good thing was that it was very close to the city center and we could walk to all the places we wanted to visit.

I named the article “travel back in time” as Chisinau reminded us of Bulgaria 15 years ago. They had renovated one main street, two parks and the area around the cathedral. All the rests is more or less ruins (a bit exaggerated, but most of the buildings in the city center look very old). As we had just two days, we visited only the central part of the city and a bit around it. Big square block of apartments is what you see in the living districts- similar to all countries in the region.

So here is what you can see/ do in Chisinau in a weekend:

• The Metropolitan Cathedral “Nativity of the Lord”

This is just a nice square with a cathedral with nicely decorated with flowers area (the whole area is called Nativity Cathedral park).

• Stephan the Great Park

Near the cathedral there is small park with a fountain called Stephan The Great Central Park (its former name is Pushkin Park and it is also known as the “The Park of the Lovers” due to its popularity as a meeting spot for couples).

There are benches and a fountain- definitely a place where you can escape the heat in the summer months. You will also find a monument of Alexander Pushkin in the park (the Russian poet went to Chisinau as he was committed to the social reform and he was not welcomed in his home country for some time).

• Valea Morilor Park.

If you continue your walk, you will get to a big lake which for me is the highlight of the town- Valea Morilor Park.

It has a nice promenade where people walk, run or ride bicycles.

The lake also serves as the urban beach (there is a place where there is even sand and you can definitely have a feeling that you are at the beach). In the park you can see a sculpture of a couple- Sculpture of Lovers (the girl being on a skateboard and her lover).

It was created by two students (Petru Glavan and Pavel Obreja) and is a sculpture of one of the boys and his girlfriend.

• Another sculpture of Lovers

This is a metal statue of a couple located on the main pedestrian street (I assume this is the same couple which you can see in Valea Morilor Park). The street is very short and besides a couple of restaurants there is nothing else, but the statue is worth taking a few pics. Actually the statue is quite new- it was installed end of 2017 together with some other statues as an attempt to make the city more exciting.

• Stefan cel Mare Boulevard

If you want to buy souvenirs, we can recommend the small market on the main boulevard Stefan cel Mare. The market is located in a small park next to the Mihai Eminescu National Drama Theater). It is a bit sad as the sellers are old ladies- you can read on their eyes that they didn’t have the best life and they did not live in luxury. However most of the things are handmade and they are a nice memory from Moldova. My favorite are female figures of wood which in Russia they call matryoshka. I know that maybe this is not only typical for Moldova, but for all the ex USSR countries. I like how they put them in one another starting from the biggest one and finishing with the tiniest figure.

Surprisingly (or maybe not surprising having in mind that there aren’t that many attractions) this time we finished our sightseeing tour quite early and the rest of the time we could spend either relaxing or exploring the gastronomy part of Moldavian culture.

Here is where to eat in Chisinau:

• Barber.

Totally by chance we found one of the fanciest hipster places in town- Barber. We enjoy visiting such places a lot and obviously we had developed some kind of instinct for spotting such places. We were just wandering the streets when behind a high fence I saw some kind of blankets serving as a tent. I went closer and I saw the garden of the place. On a Saturday afternoon it was very quiet and extremely pleasant to spend some time there. The place turned out to be very big and from the interior it looks as if it is also a party place (although they serve very delicious food as well).

• Polo House.

As we are rooftop bar lovers, we decided to visit one of those available in town- Polo House. As you might assume, there aren’t that many rooftop bars in Chisinau. In the end the one we went to was not that bad. It is located in a shopping center on one of its last floors. Polo House has an open part (a terrace) and also a tiny pool. The bar serves cocktails which were quite good with fair pricing. There is the shisha for the lovers. The bar serves  also food, but as we had just had our lunch, we did not try anything on the menu.

• La Placinte

This is a local chain of restaurants. A colleagues of mine recommended it as the must- visit place for typical Moldavian/ Romanian food. The service was a bit disappointing. I hope that this was the case only with the specific restaurant we went to. There was no spirit there- no music, no atmosphere, nothing special in terms of interior. It was more like a canteen. As to the food- it was definitely a delicious one. We tried some of the local specialties like polenta dumpling with cheese (mamaligi– very delicious). Something which reminds of the Bulgarian banitsa- Moldavian kind of pie was also among our choice. And of course we had to test the meat (something like kebapcici, but called Moldavian Mititei). The prices again were very affordable- for three dishes and some beers we paid around 10 Eur.

• Propaganda cafe

I made a small research about the new modern places in town. I was torn between two choices and I took Propaganda Cafe. The place had high score on Tripadvisor and I decided to give it a try. Yes, true, the interior was interesting. Maybe because I’m coming from a country where I can still find these communist furniture, I was not “wow”-ed. It is definitely nice, but I would not say “you have to go with your phone in the toilet to take photos”. By the way I followed this advice and it was nothing extraordinary. The food is delicious. They offer some of those things which we used to eat when we were children. To name a few- Russian salad, pickles, salty marinated herring, etc.. It is like blow in the past. The funny thing is that the restaurant is located on a street which is not in the city center and it looks a bit dodgy place. We were there during the day, but maybe at night it can look a bit strange.

• Others

We were looking for a place where to watch a football game. We found a pub with garden and a TV screen. It was World Football Championship final. Not many people wanted to watch the game. It was Saturday evening and we didn’t see many people in the streets- this was very surprising. So the pub was a family one and the owner was very kind with us. For a first time I tried cheese in tiny stripes as bites for the beer :). Unfortunately I do not remember the name of the place. It is on Strada Columna street, a couple streets away from the Nativity Cathedral park.

All in all Chisinau is a nice place for a weekend- something different from what you can see in the rest of Europe. More inspirations for weekend escapes you can find here.