Overall though absolutely worth a quiick trip- perhaps not in winter or at the height of summer though. The only hassle for me was the slow speed at which visas were issued on entry at the airport (luckily only a small plane from Budapest) and the mega hassle at the Transdnestra border (thats another story) Maybe I was being naive here but I was certainly not hassled by dating agencies & personally saw no evidence at all of any red light activities- I guess if you go looking it could be a different story. Don't expect to visit the long term closed circus either.
Oh & the drains don't work anywhere so anything other than a light shower floods the city out. The less clever things to do are visits to the new town which looks fine in the sunlight but where there are clearly severe employment problems & where the line between an exciting trip & a voyeuritic experience begins to get thin. And the wine is, well, alcoholic and CHEAP Best done as an organised tour- don't turn up unannounced & certainly don't bankon public transport to get you there. The must do trip from Chisinau is to the Criccova Winery where they drive you around the underground roads & you can check out everything from the SMERSH style board room of the management to the remains of Herman Goerings wine collection. The University area has life too & again another large park with a lake- marvel (or not) at the plaza built to commererate Leonid Brezhnev at the top of some steps modelled as a smaller scale version of the Potemkin Steps.The 19th century cathedral was small but had real grace to it & coming from secular England it was nice to see & feel a Church that was alive. The markets are bustling & there is a rather splendid central park to wander round. Behind the main roads there are some traditional single storied structures including somewhat improbably a Syrian Embassy. Its a nice broad & leafy boulevard with lots of cafes & a couple of blocks worth of wedding cake style decorated early 20th century buildings (that would be the mayors house would it?). Definitely do walk the city centre- the main drag is called Stefan cel Mare named after the great Moldovan hero, erm, Stefan cel Mare (thats his statue by the park to which people bring flowers). There are definite dos & don'ts to see in Chisinau. There are lots of young people at the University but the middle classes have fled the country-My guides mother was a doctor who was reduced to working as a cleaner as an illegal alien in Italy which is truly sad. I do love a jaunt to somewhere off the beaten track & this year was Moldova, Transdnestra & the Ukrainian Black Sea coast.Ĭhisinau turns out to be really interesting but it is in a country with problems.
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