Moldova's Jesus Year
My first and only trip to Chisinau and Moldova prior to this was in the summer of 2008, and boy had it changed - it was barely recognisable. It seems the EU has really been pouring money into the place the past few years in order to sway the people (an estimated 40% of whom already hold Romanian citizenship) away from Moscow. Judging by the recent elections all of the development work has done the trick, so far. It was a short trip, but did leave a good impression.
Post Soviet Kids
First photo taken in Chișinău* proper yesterday was random and unexpected, but feels extremely apropos....
*It's a shame that Squarespace's font style can't be bothered to handle any non-English Latin letters, but I'm going to keep spelling Chișinău with the ș and the ă because that's how it's spelled (but mostly because they look cool).
#moldova33
Moldova's Jesus Year birthday celebrations were unsurprisingly much more festive than its neighbours'. And also lasted for multiple days. This shot was taken before the crowds arrived for the headlining acts the final night....
EU Fever
When you arrive (six years) early to the party, and then have to awkwardly hang out all alone until the other guests start arriving. Not naming any names, but someone seems super excited about their planned accession to the EU in 2030....
NB: Seeing this type of bright blue out in the wild will also apparently never not make me think of French artist Yves Klein.
You've Got Our Attention
Chișinău is cool, but coming here would have been totally worth it solely for getting to see this poster. Would love to get a drink with the artist. Or the model for that matter....
Translation:
"ATTENTION!!!
Thank you for your attention"
Caturday in Chișinău
It's gonna have to be an all Chișinău cat Saturday. Hope that's okay with everyone....
Supermarket Takeaway
Quick, cheap, tasty lunch (with leftovers for dinner) from the fancy supermarket. Around 330g each of sarma (cabbage rolls with minced meat and rice), roasted potatoes (with garlic and dill) and bulgur (with various veg).
Total cost: 74.94 lei, or around €3.89
Year of the Dragon
The city centre of Chișinău looks like it's been almost entirely renovated, rebuilt or restored by EU and US development funding in recent years (probably because it has, more or less), but that obviously hasn't stopped Chinese soft power from also creeping in....
Sleeping Lions
One gets the impression that Chișinău is a sleepy city, despite having some half a million inhabitants. Even the lions in the park can be found snoozing during weekday working hours....
In a perfect world, this statue would have tiny speakers that played its unofficial theme song around the clock:
Sister cities
Things learnt in Chișinău: Sacramento has at least one friend. Or at last one sister city, which is more or less the same thing....
Comment from Perias Pillay on Facebook:
Sacramento isn't as unloved as you seem to think. It has twelve sister cities, including Ashkelon in Israel and Bethlehem in Palestine. (California cities recognize more countries than the US State Department does. My city, Los Angeles, has sister cities in both "China" and "Taiwan.")
Checking out
Airbnb Kid in Chișinău: Just leave the keys in the postbox
The postbox:
