Mere hours after arriving in Moldova, I left the country. Only I really didn't. I signed up for a tour to visit the Transnistria, a self-declared "nation" that sits between the Dniester River and Ukraine. To get there, we had to go through a border crossing and get a piece of paper placed in our passports. The problem is as far as the UN and most of the world is concerned, we were still in Moldova. Only Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both unrecognized states themselves recognize this region's sovereignty.
Having taken a full day tour, I should be able to explain this situation with a semblance of coherence but the truth is, I left with so many more questions than I arrived with. What little I grasped was that after the dissolution of the USSR, this small (approx 1600 sq miles) area did not want to cut ties with Russia. Moldova, which was leaning more towards reuniting with Romania disagreed. Eventually Moldova became independent but Transnistria maintained their allegiance to Russia. In the 90's, there was a brief war between the separatists and Moldova, which Transnistria won (with some help from Russian soldiers) and now there are approximately 999 monuments to commemorate this.
If there is one thing that the region does not lack, it is monuments in general. On our tour, we saw plenty but I'm really not clear on the why. Take for example, this statue of Grigoriy Potymkin, a Russian military leader and lover of Empress Catherine II. He sits in front of the Bender Military Cemetery.
All around the grounds, there are multi-story apartment buildings, all of them abandoned. Nearby there are massive factories, also abandoned. As a result, the young people have fled to Moldova in search of work. Many older people have either left or died off. It is possible to drive through the main street and see only a handful of people. It is probable that this statue was erected before the city cleared out but it seems like an inordinate amount of their budget is going towards memorials of some sort.
One of the nicest places we visited was the Bendery (or Tighina) Fortress. Dating back to the Ottoman era, it was once an important defensive stronghold. Today, thanks to a 1.4 million euro donation from the EU to Moldova, it has recently been turned into an entire entertainment complex. There is the fortress itself, museums therein, carousel rides, perfectly manicured lawns, eateries...and no people. Why spend so much money to restore it? I get why the EU is doing all they can to keep Moldova happy and looking towards the west but why are they then turning around and giving all that money to aid tourism in an area that has a "We beat Moldova" square on every corner?
Next up was the Memorial to the Railway workers. It sits at was once an important railway junction as well as the site of a 1918 battle with Romanian troops. Today, no trains run through. Once the war in the Ukraine began, they closed off the border with Transnistria. The station is padlocked and will probably remain so for some time.
So why was there a team of restorers working on the either adding or removing gold leaf (I couldn't tell which one) from some carvings. With a declining population, they can't possibly be collecting enough in taxes to justify these expenses.
Picture of the station lobby taken through the window of the locked door.
Go a little way further and you find yourself at The Square of the Leninist Comsomol, the first of many Lenii we would see this day.
A stop at the port on the Dniester River revealed that it too was closed. What was once a steady Black Sea trade of goods, both legal and illegal, from Odessa has been brought to a halt.
Leaving the river, you immediately run into a couple more monuments.
The Monument to the Fighters for Soviet Power
The Memorial of Remembrance and Sorrow in Bender
Don't get me wrong. I know it sounds like I was not enjoying this tour. I honestly was. It was a living time capsule to a prior era. The guide and the company were great. It's just that I genuinely don't understand the end game here.
By all means, preserve your history. But clearly, this is designed to be a love letter to Russia and not even Russia is recognizing them as a country. This felt like unrequited love writ large.
We continued on to Tiraspol, the "capital" city, where the main square featured yet another tank monument, this one the T-34.
Lenin, again
Monument to Alexander Suvorov
Tiraspol City Hall...with another Lenin
We stopped for lunch at the USSR canteen, a Russian themed diner that truly committed to the theme.
Amongst the things promised in the tour listing was "Cross the River with old Sovietic Ferry (like in Central Africa...funny experience)". That was next on our agenda. The ferry was actually a platform attached to a rope that keeps it from floating away down the river. The docking mechanism can be best described as "Flintstone feet". I haven't actually encountered anything like it in Central Africa but it was indeed funny.
Oh look, another Lenin...
The Monument to the Jassy-Kishinev Offensive
Probably the greatest number of people we saw were at the Kitskany Monastery. Most of them were monks but that counts.
After hearing the church bells ring, it was time to "return" to Moldova. As I said from the outset, even after asking many questions and having the benefit of a knowledgeable guide, I was pretty confounded by this place. With young people fleeing and no one coming to replace them, I don't know how they survive. One thought that kept crossing my mind was that they have so so much available living space. You can get an apartment for pocket change, yet right across the border...walking distance for many...you have so many displaced Ukrainians that could greatly benefit and also bring life back to Transnistria. Obviously with their adoration for all things Russian, this isn't possible, but it doesn't look like Mother Russia is coming to their aid anytime soon. Perhaps they will get worn down and reunite with Moldova. Who knows? But whatever happens, I can assure you, someone will have a monument ready and waiting for the occasion.
It is well documented how much I hate the cold. I believe that anything below 65 degrees is just unnecessary. Anything below freezing, sheer lunacy. Yet, here I was in Bozeman, Montana for a long weekend in February. I was not exactly upset. This is an unspeakably beautiful state and one of the remaining four I'd yet to visit. I just wish they'd show a bit more self-control when it comes to Winter. Why does it have to snow so much, even during a year when locals were complaining that there was not enough snow? They don't even blink at 20 below zero, an actual temperature that we experienced. It's simply too much! Cold or no cold, I was not about to pass up the opportunity to visit the country's first national park, because of course I wasn't. The plot twist is that now that I have, I am firmly convinced this is the best possible time to visit. I can even give you five solid reasons why. 1. It's cheaper. The park, which covers almost 3,500 square miles a
Two things I learned mid-way through my tour of 'Nam: 1) Hoi An is probably one of the most beautiful cities in all of the country. 2) Getting there via a Camel line night-bus from Nha Trang is not such a great idea. Earlier, I wrote about how efficient and stress-free the Fula/ Pula buses were. On this journey, I met their bizarro world counterparts, the Camel bus line (or to use their full name, the "You'd wish you ridden a camel instead bus line"). Not to get into all the nasty details, because #1 is the memory I am taking away from all this, but the bus was filthy and smelled like feet. For 13 hours, the driver was reckless, even by regional standards. And they crowded the aisles with local villagers sleeping on the floor, making it impossible to reach the (possibly working) bathroom. Not that this mattered, I guess, since I woke up to find- first thing in the morning- a toddler with his penis in a water bottle and a group of women making "ssssss&qu
Our fourth stop, St. Martin, presented a question that I can only assume most people are not faced with on a regular basis. Did we want to go to the naked beach or to the airplane beach? Undoubtedly, there are other things to do on this half French, half Dutch island but with no tour guide, very little research and a rental car, those were the only real options available to us. We had maps, brochures, phone apps all within our disposal but try as we might, there were no museums, forts, historical sights or even largest balls of twine-type exhibits for us to visit. Not even trying to crib from the ship's own excursions booklet was of any help. In hopes of stumbling onto something, we played around with the car's pre-programmed GPS with its long list of other beaches we could choose from. We picked one at random, pulled in and saw that it was indeed a beach. Sand, water: check. One empty restaurant with a bored looking waitress: check.
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