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… it’s going to be a bumpy night.

The bar closed soon after midnight, so I walked back to the train station, with less than two more hours to wait. But finally, the train pulled in Iași station.

Wow, talk about going back in time! As soon as I climb on board, I am greeted by an unwelcoming Moldovan controller who wasn’t wearing any uniform. He asked for my ticket, and then for my passport. Like an idiot, I didn’t do what I told myself to do in that case: hand out the copy. But anyway he just had a quick look and gave it back, but still, I should be more careful in that kind of situations.

He took me to my four-bed cabin, which I seemingly had for my own. Yay! The carriage is so old school, it’s lovely. I wonder how old it is actually. Everything from the couch to the linen and the window curtains look like coming straight from a long past era. Really fun stuff.

I made my bed, used Bob the backpack as a pillow and immediately fell into Morpheus’ arms.

When I woke up, the light was up and the door was open with a Romanian border guard standing there asking for my passport. I handed it, he added it to his impressive collection and went off. It was 3 AM and I had only slept for half an hour, however with little Passy not in my pocket, I preferred to stay wide awake. It came back later, and an hour after stopping, we advance over the river and the border.

Buna Republica Moldova!

A few minutes later, we stopped at Ungheni station, for another passport control. I noticed that the first thing she did was quickly running through the visa pages. I wonder which one she was after. Russian maybe? This control was quicker and I soon got the passport back with a fresh new Moldovan stamp in it.

But we were not remotely close to get on our way, oh no! There was one more major thing to do before, and that was… to change the train’s wheels.

Yes. You see, Moldova only broke free from U.S.S.R. in 1991, and was under soviet occupation for a long time. Back then, Russia wanted to control what entered in its country, or even slow down invading armies train supplies, by simply building railways that uses a different gauge (meaning a different length between the two rails). This is called the Russian broad gauge, and I think it’s also the reason why there’s no direct rail connection between Sweden and Finland.

Anyway, now to go from Romania to Moldova, they need to change the wheels, and that process takes over an hour. With all passengers still aboard, they lift the carriage two or three meters in the air. This had the side effect to excite the shit out of me, and I went strolling through the train’s corridor until the end of operations at 6 AM. Why they don’t just make passengers all change train instead is beyond me.

We just pulled in Chișinău station. By now, it’s not even 9 AM and I have already made you read a novel.

I have now leave, in addition to the EuroZone and Schengen Area, he European Union. It’s also a country said to not be as safe as the rest of Europe, but that is left to be seen. It’s also one of the four countries of this trip where I don’t have free roaming. I need to be cautious with data!

I started by walking quite a bit to find an ATM. Then I went on the impossible task of finding a coffee where I could sit. After half an hour of walking around, I had found none! So I went back to the station, had to pay to use the disgusting squat toilets, and finally sat with coffee and wifi, waiting for my airbnb availability. My host Victor was super nice though, and I could put all my stuff and even stay in the bedroom by 11 AM.

But I didn’t come all the way to the easternmost point of the Great European Train Tour to sleep all day! Off I went into the streets of Chișinău!

Which is downright ugly. Sorry, but brutalist soviet architecture is really not a synonym of beauty in my book. Of course, as with a lot of cities, it gets much better when you’re near the center and the official buildings, and I found some decent ones. But the city is very limited in terms of interesting monuments to be honest. Ah! I should have prepared better and go for Orhei this afternoon.

I went to a restaurant, used my data to quickly check the menu and… received a SMS from Free, my phone provider, that I had exceeded 60 € off my roaming plan, and that they immediately shut the service down.

Oh, fuck!

Without wifi, I had no idea by how much I had exceeded it. It really killed my mood. Lunch took ages to arrive too, not helping the matter. When it finally arrived, I gulped it, paid without waiting and went off to find some internet. I was feeling, tired, sick and worried now, and kinda wanted to get out of here. But then I thought that if only this simple annoyance was enough to put me off, I was quite a loser and not nearly close a traveller as I pretend I am.

Fortunately, it was « only » 60 €. But lesson learned.

So on I went, first finding a Moldova keychain (not easy), and then walk through the streets toward a large public park. I think I walked in front of the Presidential home ni a random street.

Moldova didn’t scored much point yet to be honest, but this park… Wow! It’s actually very vast, spreading over several hills, with a big lake in its center,j and covered in forest all around. It was a pleasant surprise, and the best sight I had in Chișinău yet. I had a beer in a bar there, and then started the long walk back home.

I felt totally safe in Chișinău, but still, I would prefer not to be out at night, even though I don’t think Moldova is a bad seed as often implied in the West. And after walking 19 km today (a new record!) and only about two hours of sleep last night, I fell asleep pretty fast.