Having a beer in McDonald's with our local guide Carolina from CouchSurfing (Chisinau, Moldova). Why? Just because we can! Gotta love a country that sells beer in McDonalds!
A beautiful pink pinp-my-car Nissan 200 SX (Chisinau, Moldova).
An ancient hieroglyph stating that this fountain was not always dry (Chisinau, Moldova).
Transnistria - if you ask in Chisinau, it is an autonomous part of Moldova. It is an unrecognized but independent republic with its own president, government, parliament, military, police, postal system, and currency. Its authorities have adopted a constitution, flag, national anthem, and coat of arms. It has declared independent 1990, and Russia has recognized them and has noticeable military presence in Transnistria.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (as most other countries) does not recommend travelling to Transnistria, so obviously we did. Twice.
We took a passenger minivan from Chisinau (Moldova) to Tiraspol (Transnistria) and the first visit went just fine - no problems at the border. We came back to Chisinau for the night.
Antti with a tank (Tiraspol, Transistria).
Downtown of Tiraspol.
A beach and a party boat with extremely loud music (Tiraspol, Transistria).
Lenin is still the man in Tiraspol.
Transnistria is said to be more Soviet country than Russia ever was.
We took a bus from Chisinau (Moldova) to Odessa (Ukraine). Unfortunately the bus went through Tiraspol and we accidentally visited Transnistria for the second time. This time it didn't go as smoothly and we had quite an adventure at the border between Transnistria and Ukraine. The border guards collected all the passports from the bus and asked us, the only "tourists", into a special interview into an interrogation room. The two officers in military uniforms (big Soviet-style hats and all) claimed we don't have a stamp from leaving Moldova in our passports, and asked all kinds of questions, including how much money we have, obviously trying to get a bribe from us. In the end, Antti took a print-out from his pocket (luckily he was prepared) with a telephone number of the Embassy (of Sweden, in Chisinau, Moldova), and when Pekka started dialing, they threw our passports on the table and pointed the door, and we got out without bribing. The other passengers gave us an applause in the bus when we told we didn't pay anything extra.
Beautiful old buildings in downtown of Odessa (Ukraine).
Pekka at the famous
Potemkin Stairs of Odessa (Ukraine).
The
Black Sea.
A crowded beach in Odessa (Ukraine).
Can you spot a Finnish guy from the picture?
We took a night train from Odessa to Kiev (Ukraine). We tried to get the cheapest "economy" tickets, but "unfortunately" it was full and we missed the "legendary" experience in a car full of locals and vodka.
While waiting for the train, we found a Norwegian guy waiting for the same train in a bar closest to the train station. We ended up changing into same train car and sharing some beers on the way.
The conductor of the train was impressed by Antti's fluent 2 words of Russian language.
Kiev (Ukraine). Although not seen in the picture, the city was full of soccer tourists due to the European Championship Tournament played in Ukraine during our trip.
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