Unveiling Chisinau: A Working Holiday in Moldova’s Capital, Chisinau, Moldova

When I couldn’t find a train from Bucharest to Brasov due to the festive season, not only did it give me a chance to extend my stay in Romania but also made me alter my plan slightly to fit another country to my list. Moldova - Europe’s least visited country. It felt like an unplanned adventure, going into a country I knew so little about, but so have been all of my solo travels around the world. It wasn’t anything new. I thought I’d cover Moldova along with Ukraine and Belarus probably in a couple of years, when the war had cooled off. But given that I had more time now, I decided to spend a few days in a new country before continuing on my planned path. So I booked an overnight GALtrans bus from Bucharest to Chișinău (pronounced Kishinev), the capital of Moldova!

The journey itself was a mix of curiosity and quiet contemplation. The bus rattled through snow-dusted villages and dark stretches of the countryside, with mandatory stops at border checkpoints. At the Leuşeni border checkpoint in Moldova, the officer had a few questions about me, my New Zealand passport and my intent. Considering I was the only brown guy in a bus full of mostly Eastern Europeans, I wasn’t surprised. Eventually though it was all smooth and easy going. When I finally arrived in Chișinău early in the morning, the icy air greeted me like an old friend, and the city, still waking up, felt peaceful and untouched. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).