Chisinau (ki-shi-no), the capitol of Moldova, ascended to the top of my list of all time favourite cities within 24 hours of my arrival. Strangely, there are very few items of tourist appeal to indulge in here (even less now as they have closed one museum and merged two others), yet I deeply enjoyed myself.
To start, the people are just wonderful. Friendly, helpful and genuine. Ask directions from someone in Bucharest and you probably won’t get much more than a grunt and a head nod in a vague direction. In Chisinau, the person you’ve beseeched for help will come out of their store, take your arm (like the Romanians, Moldovans can be very tactile) lead you to the street and give you specific, careful instructions. This would have been endearing enough as a traveller, but as a guidebook researcher, this mentality saved me untold time and hardship. Merchants, hotel staff, museum directors, strangers at bus stops, whether there was something in it for them or not, they all dropped everything, offering me information, coffee, the use of their telephones, whatever. It was an absolute joy to work there.
Also, they have a restaurant and nightlife scene that is so grand and extensive that it’s going to kill me to have to cut those sections of the book down to a reasonable length. The downside is the hotels are absurdly expensive and not all that great. But there’s a number of ways around that, namely home stays, which brings me to yet another Chisinau rave.
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