Way back in Month 5, I wrote a blog about my team’s day trip to Tanzania. I was excited to be able to say that I was going to 12 countries in 11 months. This weekend, however, that number was changed.
My teammate, Bethany, was turning 25, and when we asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday she said, “I want soft-serve and a trip to Moldova.” Okay. That’s exactly what we did. 🙂
We left on a Thursday evening, took a 5 hour train to Chisinau, Moldova, spent all day Friday in the city, and took the 5 hour train back to Odessa Saturday morning.
Our stay in Moldova was not quite a typical day on the Race… or maybe it was? Since I love making lists, I think I will just give a quick recap of some of the things we did & include some pictures. Hope you enjoy. 🙂
- Rode a train to Moldova. Sat on wooden benches. Danced down the train aisle. Stopped in Transnistria to get passports checked. I jumped off the [stopped] train to take pictures in Transnistria. [hence 13 countries in 10 months].
- Met an extremely ugly dog — named it Feo.
- Arrived in Chisinau. Found a taxi to take us to our hostel. Arrived in hostel. Went to sleep for the night.
- Woke up early to begin exploring the city.
- Found a cute crepe café for breakfast.
- Searched the city for a place to get our passports stamped [apparently because of the Moldova-Transnistria conflict in the early ‘90s, an entrance stamp isn’t given on the train]
- Took pictures with things that said “Moldova.”
- Took pictures with American things as well — while singing “My Country ‘tis of Thee.”
- Walked a total of 12.5+ hours throughout the city.
- Ate soft serve for Bethany.
- Ran through a sprinkler in a random lawn.
- Walked through beautiful parks.
- Found some military monuments & machines & such.
- Saw 13 wedding parties.
- Took a picture with one of the bridal parties.
- Danced in a fountain.
- Saw a man in a tiger costume.
- Danced to a Josh Groban impersonator.
- Exercised in an adult exercise park.
- Obtained a bag of free cherries from that park.
- Ate a tasty pastry…that happened to be filled with veggies instead of fruit. Fail.
- Walked through a market. Bought Moldova stuff.
- Walked into a random English school for children. Taught them the Banana Dance.
- Chewed banana flavored bubble gum [just in case I couldn’t find a banana to eat].
- Found a real banana. Bought it. Ate it. [I have done the Banana Dance & eaten a banana in every country thus far].
- Took a picture by the tree. [Just for you ILSers 🙂 ]
- Left extremely early to get to train station to head back to Ukraine.
- Rode 5 hours back to Odessa.
- Whined enough to the Transnistrian passport checker that he returned our Moldovan-stamped papers to us.
- Listened to Jenny perform Bethany’s birthday rap.
At the end of our Moldovan getaway, we were all extremely exhausted, but it was definitely well worth the trip. I can now say I have been to 13 countries in 10 months. mmm. Yep. That’s good.
