Green Hills Cafe in Chisinau, Moldova

It’s all very well having a couple of plants in the corner of the bar to add a natural feel, but Green Hills Café in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, takes things to excess. There are billowing pot plants all over the place and the entire outside of the building is painted bright green.
Oh yes, and there are four trees growing in the middle of the cafe, reaching up through a fabric roof, which looks to all intents and purposes as though a giant’s mattress has been flopped on top of the walls.
Aside from this rather Midsummer Night’s Dream-esque setting, the food’s pretty good (and reasonably cheap compared to some of the places clearly aimed at Russian oil oligarchs). More to the point, it’s one of the best places to hang out at, people-watching, on Moldova’s most upmarket street.

Getting to the Green Hills Cafe in Chisinau, Moldova
Nearest international Airport: Chisinau International Airport.
Address: 77 Stefan cel Mare si Sfint street – Look for Green Hills Nistru. It’s smack bang in the centre of the city, so walking distance for travellers staying in a relatively central location.

World's biggest wine collection

The biggest wine collection in the world can be found in the former Soviet Republic of Moldova. Just remember to bring some cash if you decide to go.

I had a bit of a disaster on my trip to Moldova in April 2008. I lost my Visa bank card in Lithuania beforehand, and couldn’t withdraw any cash on my credit card from the ATMs in Chisinau for some reason.
This meant I was down to approximately EUR100 for three days, including accommodation, train and taxi fares.
After a bit of shouting down the phone at my bank and a fair amount of despair in one of the grimmest Soviet-era hotels imaginable, I realised that I had absolutely no chance of getting to the one place I wanted to get to.
Milestii Mici is the world’s biggest winery. And that’s not just the promotional blurb from the people that run it – it’s recognised by Guinness World Records. Apparently, over 1.5 million (conservative estimate) bottles of wine are stored there in a 200km network of ‘streets’.
Unlike other wine tours where you are driven around a series of wineries, you need a car to get round just the one winery.
Alas, I was foiled, so if anyone has been to Milestii Mici, I’d be interested to hear from you. Apparently it’s not just quantity either – the wines are reportedly amongst the best in the old Soviet Union.

More information: Milestii Mici website

Train journey from Bucharest, Romania to Chisinau, Moldova

For the rail journey fan of a more masochistic bent, the Prietenia train from Bucharest in Romania to Chisinau in Moldova is a real treat.
For the rest of us, it’s a hideous trial of endurance on a slightly dirty train where the windows don’t open and the air conditioning doesn’t work. For approximately twelve-and-a-half hours.
Nearly half of that time is spent travelling the 100km-or-so from Iasi near the Romania-Moldova border to the Moldovan capital, Chisinau.
This is partly due to passport checks and customs officers overturning the train in the hunt for drugs and illegal immigrants, but it’s largely due to having to change the entire undercarriage of the train.
Popular myth has it that the old Soviet Union adopted a broad gauge system under Stalin in order to slow down any potential invasion from the west. This isn’t true – the Russians decided to go with the wider gap between the rails well before the Soviet Union existed.
Nonetheless, there is a slight problem when entering one of the former Soviet Socialist Republics (including Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus and the Ukraine) from the rest of Europe. Sometimes this is solved by getting off the train and getting on a new one, but going into Moldova, it’s the train that gets switched over.
So, in the middle of the night, while passengers are trying to sleep in their dirty sweatbox, all manner of clanking and lifting and shunting goes on outside. It’s a bit like a rubbish rollercoaster, only far more disturbing.

Getting on the Prietenia train

Nearest international airports: For Bucharest, it’s either Otopeni or Baneasa airport – the budget airlines tend to use Bucharest Baneasa, which is a filthy little hellhole. Visitors landing in Moldova will land at Chisinau’s airport, which is a short distance from the city centre.
By public transport: The train leaves from Bucharest’s Gara du Nord and arrives at Chisinau’s relatively modern (by Moldovan standards) station.

Transdniestr in Moldova – breakaway Soviet state

When the Soviet Union broke up, the Transdniestr region of Moldova didn’t want to know about the new order and set about keeping things exactly the way they were. Following a civil war in the early 1990s, Transdniester declared itself independent. Though it is not recognised by any government, unscrupulous border guards, different currencies and frightening bureaucracy mean that any visitors need to treat it as such.
Strangely, Transdniestr seems to be acquiring a must-do status amongst a certain breed of travellers. While I was in the Ukraine, I met a few people that were eager to get to Moldova just so that they could try their luck in Transdniestr. But then again, I did meet them on a tour of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, so that could explain things.
By all accounts, it’s a bit dodgy, and anyone speaking English or wielding cameras and notepads is liable to come in for some special attention from hugely corrupt police and security forces.
But what else should they expect? Well... lots and lots of Lenin statues, Soviet era buildings and monuments in the capital, Tiraspol. Plus bribe-hungry border guards, instant suspicion of anyone with a camera and a sneaking feeling that the Cold War never ended.