Sheep Guarding Llama

I think that we all slept pretty well last night.  No power outages all night which was good.  Today is our last half day in Chisinau, Moldova.  Dominica was hesitant to return to Bouchee for breakfast, we will have eaten there every day that we have been in Moldova and had every breakfast there but everyone loves it so she gave in and back we went.  They know us there by now.  Today everyone got breakfast except for me, I love their sandwiches so much that I went for a lunch meal instead.  It was on the late side, anyway, for breakfast.

After breakfast (or lunch) it was back to the apartment and time to get everything packed and out the door.  Both yesterday while the rain was coming down and today while waiting to go I was frantically working on getting media uploaded as we have been doing a ton of pictures and videos on this trip and it takes forever to get it all uploaded to the right places.

We checked out and got the housekeeper to call us a taxi to take us to the train station. This all went very smoothly and we were to the station long before we needed to be with plenty of time to buy our tickets and relax awaiting the train.  It’s always best when doing a major trip, especially an international one, to allow plenty of extra time so that you can deal with things that might go wrong.

We did a couple of new travel videos while waiting at the train station.

The train pulled up around four and we were able to load up long before it was time to leave.  Starting an overnight train journey from the head terminal is so much nicer than having to jump on at a midway point along the way so that you can get half an hour or more to board and get settled and comfortable instead of having just a minute to jump on and try to figure out where you need to go and what to do.  It really makes a huge difference.

We got loaded up and settled into our berth on the train.   We were very unhappy to discover that while there were power outlets, there was only one for about every other cabin and they were in the hallway, not in the berths themselves which is rather a problem when you have a CPAP that needs to be powered on all night.  Thank goodness we plan ahead and travel with a power strip that gives us several feet more distance.  We might need to consider a short extension cord too!

Dominica figured out how to set up a bit of a charging station out in the hallway and we got all of our devices charged up during the afternoon and evening portion of the journey.  Thankfully the train was not very full and there was probably only three cabins in use in our entire train car, so we had a whole section of the hallway to ourselves and we were not bothering anyone.

The first four hours of the trip was in Moldova and it was raining.  Mostly this train ride went back over nearly the identical route that we had taken on the bus just a few days ago.  Once we got to the border we had a long wait, a really long wait.

The border crossing itself took forever, hours on the Moldovan side and hours on the Romanian side.  No wonder they schedule this train route when they do, they need to do this early enough so that it is not happening in the middle of the night since you need to be awake for two sets of border controls and two sets of customs agents and the process is spread out over about three hours total!  It was a bit crazy.

Adding to the border craziness, the Moldovan side uses narrow gauge railroads and the Romanian side uses standard European Union rail gauge.  Riding on the train while it gets lifted up and the wheels (on the trucks) get switched out is really cool.  Dominica was loving that.

It was really late by the time that we were into Romania and underway.  We went down and investigated the dining car situation.  Romanian rails don’t have a dining car but Moldovan do.  They had very basic snacks (cookies, chips and peanuts) and a cook whipping up a breakfast-like meal of fried eggs, some odd salad and bread.  Very basic, but it was fine.  We ended up ordering four of them and everyone ate decently well.

Then it was time for bed.  We got the CPAP hooked up partially in the hallway and just hoped for the best and had the door open a sliver so that the power could run in.  It worked out all right but the door kept sliding open during the night and I needed to keep dealing with it and that caused me to basically not get any sleep.  So I rested and relaxed but slept very little.

Overall the train ride was good and we would definitely do this trip again.  With more info and better expectations we could make it very comfortable.  The train car that we were in was definitely an old, but well maintained Soviet-era rail car which was really cool to get to ride in.

Today is our final day in Chisinau, Moldova.  So far we really like this city.  It is green, easy to get around, low cost and very friendly with amazing food options and what appears to be awesome public transportation.  And one of the best things is that it is a wonderful city that is so liveable and is in Europe but has no tourists!

This morning the power went out and stayed out for a long time.  We eventually decided that it was not going to come back on so we walked down the thirteen flights of stairs and went back to Bouchee for another breakfast there.  Both girls really wanted croissants again and we really liked our breakfast food there as well.  We stayed for a while today, as we could see that the whole area including the underground “mall” in the middle of the city was without power.  Bouchee had emergency power only, so they could cook but their extra lighting was off.  When that came back on, we knew that the power was back.

On our walk back to the apartment, the power went out again.  This is going to be a long day.  We do not want to climb thirteen flights of stairs to our penthouse, so we decided to go to Andy’s Pizza, which is not far away, and sit outside there while we waited for the power to return.  We had a few drinks and the girls got some fruit desserts.

The power was finally back on around two and we went back to the apartment for a little bit, did some research and then set off a few hours later to walk down to the railway station to see about getting tickets back to Romania tomorrow.

The walk to the train station was rather long and downhill.  We decided that this would be way too much to walk with our luggage tomorrow and that we will be needing to get a taxi when we head out of the city.  The walk let us see a lot more of the city today and a lot of the shopping areas.  We found another underground mall area as well and I got a picture of this one with Liesl walking through it.

The train station was very nice and has a nice courtyard and a big fountain in it.  We talked to the ticket agent and found out that we need to buy our tickets tomorrow.  We have all of the details now, though, and know that we will be leaving Chisinau tomorrow afternoon at a quarter till five to take the overnight train to Bucharest where we will be staying for two days.  We asked if we needed reservations and they assured us that there would be plenty of room on the train for us to buy the tickets at the last minute.

We walked back and wanted to go to the Armenian Cemetery as Dominica wanted to see that but after going only the tiniest bit in that direction all three of them were just too hot and tired to keep walking today so back to the apartment we went.  We stayed there for a little bit and then I went out for a walk alone as I wanted to get some video footage at the cemetery for our Twitter Vine video feed which we have started doing.  I managed to get there and see the changing of the guard!  Perfect timing, I am very glad that I did the extra walk.

As I was walking back the wind was picking up and some rain began, but just a little bit.  I even managed to get a pretty good video with the iPhone in the playground of the wind whipping up the seed pods that are all over the place here.

While I was coming up the elevator it turned into a real storm with a ton of rain. I made it back just in time.  We spent the later afternoon just in the apartment waiting for the storm to pass.  It was a lot of rain.

Before going out to dinner we went to the creperia again as the girls have been asking for it.  Sometimes I’ve realized that it is better to go to two different places to eat if it keeps everyone happy.

This evening we returned to Andy’s Pizza and sat outside on the upstairs deck and got some awesome food.  No pizza for us tonight.  This was our first time really eating here.  It was really good, we enjoyed it a lot.

On the walk home I saw the same flower seller that I had gotten the roses for the girls from the other night so I introduced the girls to her and they each picked out some flowers for themselves.

Back to the penthouse and off to bed for us.  The power remained on and we are checking out tomorrow afternoon to catch our train to Bucharest.

We liked our food at Bouchee yesterday so much and their breakfast menu had looked good so we decided, as we knew of nowhere else to go, that we would go there for breakfast this morning.  Liesl ended up discovering, after months of refusing to try them, that she absolutely loves croissants and she just ate and ate them for breakfast today.  She ate through Bouchee’s supply of small ones and dove into their big ones as well.  We had to wait at the restaurant for a while for Liesl to get her fill of the bread products.

After breakfast we took a slow stroll up the main boulevard and did some shoe shopping on the way (but no one found anything) and worked our way to the Arch of Triumph and the first of the big city parks.  We explored the park and found some fountains and then some playgrounds and let the girls spend some energy there.

Luciana had some attitude problems and missed out on having as much playground time as Liesl got to have, though.

We ended up getting snacks at a little pizza place in the park.  We got a potato sampler tray that turns out is a Moldovan thing.  It is potato wedges, French fries and these unique potato ball snacks all in one.  Tons of places that we have seen already have this.  I got my first Moldovan beer as well, a Chisinau.

After the little snack break we grabbed gelato from a stand by the pizza place and returned to the playground so that the girls could play for another hour or so.

While the girls were on the playground, Dominica and I did our first travelogue videos.  We are starting by working on a Twitter-based channel that can only accept thirty second “Vines” or short video clips.  This will give us some solid constraints and force us to work with that to get started.  Luciana decided that she wanted to record a “YouTube Channel” too, and she made a short clip while we were in the park.

After the first park, we crossed diagonally to the city’s other major park and took the time to see the famous statue there; but the girls were tired and we could not go into that park but had to head back to our hotel.  The walk was not far, but too much for Ciana.

Everyone, except for me, was tired this afternoon.  So I dropped everyone off at the house after their “long morning walk” and I set out for a much longer walk on my own.  I went south and west from the apartment so that I could go to the Armenian Cemetary, a major point of interest in Chisinau as it is where the Soviet Eternal Flame Memorial is with the standing guard is located.  It is a famous World War II memorial.  I had wanted to see that and it was not far away at all.

I went to the cemetery and walked around there for half an hour.  It is well worth seeing if you are in Chisinau.  I walked through the cemetery and out the far side and took the road continuing on for a very, very long walk up hill through the city.  I just kept walking as long as I was going uphill to make sure that I was putting in all of the effort getting there so that it would be faster and easier getting home.

I ended up walking through several really interesting and nice neighbourhoods and got to see a number of the old Soviet era housing blocks as well as lots of new construction in many different areas.  The city really is just amazingly green and seems to be incredibly liveable and great, clean public transportation running everywhere.  I found another Andy’s Pizza located in the middle of a neat residential area, too.

I walked so far that I actually went out to the last road in the city before turning around and walking back to the house.  Many kilometres on this walk.

Last night when we went out for crepes the girls had spotted a restaurant named Jeraffe, that had big giraffes out front and they asked if we could go there.  I checked out their menu online last night and thought that it looked awesome so I was totally up for that.  So this evening that is what we did.

We knew that Jeraffe was on the fancy side so we dressed up as best as we could given the limited wardrobe of impromptu travellers.  The restaurant turned out to be pretty busy with a large birthday party but they made room for us.

Our dinner was absolutely amazing.  Some of the best food that I have had in many years.  Everything was just great and everyone loved their meals.  Great food and great service.  Luciana had had a long day and actually fell asleep during our dinner and slept for at least half an hour at the restaurant and I had to carry her back to the apartment (tomorrow she would wake up and remember none of this as she completely slept through everything.)

Liesl has been wanting to sleep in the upper room in our penthouse here in Chisinau and as it is so warm I am not too worried about sleeping up there myself.  So I slept with Ciana downstairs on the pull out couch and Dominica and Liesl slept upstairs in the warm room.  I find it much more comfortable sleeping by all of the open windows.

During the night we lost power for twenty minutes.  I always know the details of power losses since the CPAP forces me awake.  I got to look out of the high rise windows and see the city had gone dark so I knew that it was not just our apartment or building.

Overall it was a good night’s sleep.

We were up shortly after five this morning to prepare for our arrival in Iasi, Romania, in the province of Moldovia, on the eastern border right against Moldova.  It was a great train ride last night and other than our night being too short, most of us were feeling pretty good this morning.

We got off of the train into the nice, large Iasi train station and went up to buy our tickets for the train going on to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova.  We have read about this transfer quite a bit and know that there is a daily train that comes from Bucharest, through Iasi and on to Chisinau every day.  When we got to the window to get our train tickets, they told us that there was no train today and that we would have to wait until tomorrow!  This is a bit of a problem as we have no accommodations in Iasi for tonight but do have them in Chisinau waiting for us.

We were told that we could take a local bus on to Chisinau, so we got some information about that and set off to see if we could find the bus station.

We ended up walking nearly two kilometres on a very hot day with all of our luggage to get to the nearest bus station that we could fine.  Once there, pretty much no one spoke English, but they found someone to help us and he explained where the correct bus station was: back across the street from the train station!  We had gone out the wrong door and missed it.  Argh.

Here we grabbed a taxi since we were at a bus station and taxis were coming in from time to time.  It was way too much for us to try walking all of the way back again.  None of us were going to be happy doing that.

The taxi got us back in just a few minutes and cost almost nothing.  Once at the “real” bus station there was a coordinator who spoke English well enough to deal with us tourist types and immediately got us to the right bus, although he was pretty surprised that we wanted that bus, and coordinated getting our bags on and our payment.  It turned out that the cost of going from Iasi, Romania to Chisinau, Moldova was only $9 per person!  The trip is not that different from going from Rochester, NY to Toronto, Ontario!

We were there at least an hour before our bus was going to leave so I got us some coffee and everyone used the bathroom while we were there.  We met some of the other people getting onto the bus with us.  Mostly it was a band that was travelling to Moldova to play a concert.

We were under way around nine thirty.  The bus was full and we were most definitely the only tourists on the bus.  And everyone from the band to the other people on the bus to the bus driver were pretty surprised that we were going to Moldova just to “see it.”  Getting tourists, especially non-Romanian tourists, going to Moldova is as unheard of as we have heard that it is.

The bus ride was pretty comfortable.  It was way too warm, but that was about it.  The girls played on their Kindle Fires the whole way.  Dominica is the only one that had a hard time.  Warm buses or aeroplanes really take a toll on her.

The first leg was quick and easy, under and hour and we were at the border.  The crossing was packed with cars that were backed up very far but we were waived through as a bus and probably completed the entire Romanian exit and Moldovan entrance in under and hour.  Considering that we are a bus and that Moldova is a non-EU country and a former Soviet Republic this was pretty good time.  We had no issues going through the border, it was all organized and nice.

Once onto the Moldovan side it was pretty apparent that we were into a much poorer country and the bus started routinely picking up hitch-hikers as we went.  The roads were mostly terrible and in some cases it was hard to tell that we were even on roads.  I was very thankful that we had not tried some scheme by which I was stuck driving around Moldova.  I am sure that it would have been fine but I would not have been happy at all.

One of the upsides to taking a bus like we did is that it just dropped us off right in front of our apartment building.  We did not get a hotel room as they are very hard to get in Chisinau and we rented an apartment instead.  Dominica had found this really nice penthouse that looked incredibly interesting so we had decided to stay longer in Chisinau than we had originally intended so that we could enjoy it for longer.

We had no problem finding the apartment but we had an issue getting into it when we first arrived.  We took the girls to our private playground and let them play for about an hour or so while we waiting for the apartment people to respond to us.  Dominica had been talking to them all morning but once we arrived they acted all surprised that we were showing up when we did and they just stopped responding for a while.

Eventually they let us in to the apartment, it was around one in the afternoon by this point, but it was not our apartment but another one that was not the penthouse.  There was some confusion at this point, possibly brought on by the language barrier, and we cannot tell if they were trying to bait and switch us or if they were just trying to offer us this apartment instead of the penthouse.  The one that they put us into was on the fifth floor, instead of the thirteenth, but was larger than our penthouse and all on a single floor instead of being a two floor unit.  It was very nice and spacious and would have been fine but we were specifically staying longer in Chisinau because we really liked the apartment that we had chosen.  Suddenly instead of being ready for us at two in the afternoon, the originally intended arrival time, it was not going to be ready for us until nine at night!  At least we had a place to drop off our bags so that we could do things while we were waiting for the apartment to be readied.

Our first order of business was getting cash as we had no Moldovan money whatsoever.  So I left everyone at the apartment and went out for a walk looking for a bank.  I did pretty well and had an ATM in no time, not more than two blocks away.  I got money and returned to the apartment and let Dominica know about a good looking restaurant that I had found on my walk.

We were all getting hungry so we decided to just go to the place that I had found and see what they would have.  It was a very short walk and very easy to find.  The place was called Bouchee and they ended up having just amazing sandwiches and lots of stuff that we did not get a chance to try to night that we hope that we might get to try again.  So far, Chisinau food is impressive.

Liesl did not like anything on the menu, in particular, and so since she really wanted pancakes and I had seen a creperia not far away I agreed to go there as well for her to get the food that she would want there.   It was a short walk, but we had to wait on our apartment to be ready anyway so there was really no reason not to go to two restaurants as it would make everyone happy.

The crepes were very good although the service was very slow and several tables that came quite a bit after us not only got their orders taken but were actually getting food before we even got acknowledged.  But things were good once they started taking care of us.  The girls both had crepes and were very happy.

After we were done eating we returned to the apartment getting back around six thirty.  We did not know when they might be ready for us to move up to the penthouse so we wanted to be in the apartment and ready even though we had not anticipated that they would have it ready until around eight this evening.

This gave us a chance to do some catch up.  I had my laptop set up.  The girls had their Kindle Fires and were in their own world.

It was well after nine, maybe after nine thirty, after we started hounding the apartment to let them know that we were just sitting around waiting to get into our own place that they finally “got it ready” and let us in.  The penthouse was pretty awesome and the girls, having liked the other apartment and being sure that they were not going to like this one, were suitably impressed.  The views are fantastic.  Overall it is not a kid friendly apartment, the renters were correct about that.  But our girls are good and safe and this would be fine for us.  It was a bit smaller and only one bedroom instead of two, but the girls were going to be happy on the pull out couch in the living room (they had tried to tell us that there wasn’t a pull out couch to convince us to take the lesser apartment downstairs earlier!)

We were in the penthouse for maybe an hour at most, getting it all set up, when, of course, the kids were hungry.  There were not too many options and we did not know the area but I had seen an Andy’s Pizza not far away so I offered to walk down there and see what I could get.

Andy’s Pizza turned out to be way, way more than a pizza place.  This is the big Moldovan chain and is more like a TGI Friday’s, Applebee’s, pizza place and Red Lobster combined.  They had several menus, all of which were large, and a bar and a massive amount of seating.  It was all very impressive.

I ordered two pizzas and sat down at the bar for my first glass of Moldovan wine while in Moldova.  Moldova is world famous for their excellent wine and massive wine production so I had to get some here.  It was very good and I had twenty minutes sitting at the bar to talk to my dad on Telegram on my phone.

On the walk back to the apartment I had to pass through the flower sellers’ district which, oddly, was all completely open and busy as we approached midnight.  I got roped into one place and ended up buying roses for the girls.  They have never gotten flowers before so this is a great time to get them for them.

When I got back to the penthouse, Luciana was already very much asleep.  Liesl was still up and ate her pizza, as did Dominica and me, and Liesl loved the flowers, as well.  The pizza was pretty good.

Liesl and Luciana slept tonight down on the pull out couch in the living room with the balcony windows wide open as it was super hot in the penthouse.  Dominica and I slept upstairs in the master bedroom which was way too warm.

Today is the day, we begin the trip east to Moldova and the old USSR late tonight.  The plan is that we will leave home in Baita, Mures around eight thirty or nine o’clock this evening.  It is one hour up to Beclean.  We want to be there plenty early, no need to be rushing around at the last minute.  We are getting the eleven thirty train to Iosi just before midnight.  We have a sleeper compartment (or so we think… fingers crossed) and will be arriving in Iosi tomorrow morning around seven in the morning.  Then we have to switch from the Romanian train to the Moldovan train and take that across the border and for a few hours to Chisinau, the capital and largest city in Moldova.

We have an apartment rented there that looks really nice and is right downtown.  Chisinau is the greenest city in all of Europe and is supposed to be incredibly walkable.  Only twelve thousand tourists visit Moldova each year and we are four of them this year!  This is nearly as off the beaten path as you can get and still be around people and definitely as far off of it as you can get while still being in Europe.  Even Georgia and Armenia are less remote!

We do not know how long we are going to be in Moldova.  Probably about five days.  But we are playing it by ear and do not know exactly what the plans will be.  Moldova is very low cost so we are not in a panic to not be there for a while.  And they are second only to Romania for quality of Internet access in Europe.

No rain today.  I love rain but the sun is a nice change of pace.  No rain or sign of rain all day.  No wind and warm sun.  Windows are open and the crickets are going crazy.  Very quiet day.

Dominica spent the morning getting ready for the trip.  I slept in late because we know that there is an extremely high possibility that there will be no power outlet in our berth on the train which means that I will be stuck being awake all night as I will be without my CPAP for the trip.  So I am preparing for that possibility.  We are also sad to learn that there is no dining or drinks car on the Romanian overnight train so we have to bring all snacks and stuff with us as there will be nothing on the train at all,  not even what little bit Amtrak offers in the US.  That’s a disappointment, eating dinner on the train is always a treat and we have not gotten to do that in forever.

Around noon some of the girls’ friends came over and stayed until six.   So they were pretty busy all day.  We made sure that they stayed outside and they pretty much just camped out on the porch and played.  It worked out pretty well.

Once everyone left it was time to get loaded up in the car and drive up to Beclean so that we could catch our train.  It is over an hour to the train station and we did not want anything to go wrong.  So we left quite early.

The drive up was fine and we were to the train station with a lot of time to kill.  Both girls fell asleep in the car on the drive up, it was late and they were quite sleepy.  This will be good for the train later.

We parked the car at the train station and decided to just deal with food right there.  There were not many options, we looked around at what was there, and decided to go for a “fast food” place as they are called here.  It was a little sandwich stand right in front of the station.

It was a struggle to communicate but we found a vegetarian sandwich option which included French fries, cheese shreds, cabbage slaw, mayo, ketchup and mustard on massive, fluffy round bread that was warmed up for us.  The sandwiches were absolutely enormous and turned out to be about three dollars for four of them!  I got a can of beer as well, my driving is done for the foreseeable future so I get to relax and enjoy one!

We ate for about an hour.  Luciana pretty much did not want to try the sandwich at all.  Even though the ingredients were perfect for her, she was tired and cold and just wanted to nap in the car.  So we gave up and let her.  Liesl was a trooper and ate a bit of her sandwich but did not like it that much.  Dominica and I liked ours pretty well.  We certainly appreciated the price!

One of the things that we have found in Romania is that there are two different mayonnaise situations that go on here.  There is good mayo (Helman’s, McDonald’s and similar are available in stores here and lots of home made) and then there is another rash of awful mayos that are not really edible.  We seem to run into each at random when dealing with local brands or restaurants.  Sadly, these sandwiches had the latter.  The bad mayo is gross and the good mayo is, well, normal delicious mayo.  These sandwiches would like have been amazing with good mayo.  It makes all of the difference.

We killed as much time as we could get away with lingering over the sandwiches and beer sitting at a little plastic table outside but it was chilly and the girls were both napping in the car by that point and we wanted to move our luggage to the platform and be totally ready for the train.

The train ended up coming late.  It was supposed to pick us up at Beclean at 11:21 PM but it did not really arrive until about midnight.  We had gotten to the platform around 10:45 so we were standing out there for quite a long time.  We were cold and tired when we boarded our train.

It was time to get prepared and ready for bed the moment that we were onto our train.  This is the Romanian rail running from Beclean to Iasi where we will get off in the morning.  We are not at the initial starting point, we are assuming that the train has been running for many hours before picking us up, but we will ride it to the very end which is easy.

We were very thankful that our train had a single power outlet so I would be able to plug in my CPAP.  We were well prepared and had a power strip with us so we could charge lots of devices while we slept which is super important with how we travel.

Our room is a six bed berth but set up for just four beds, which is very comfortable.  The conductor has set it up with the two bottom bunks and the two top, but with the girls we switched it so that it was the two bottom and the two middle.  This way they are not up so high and we just lift them up and down.  This worked out quite well.

We were caught by surprised ten minutes or so after getting onto the train that suddenly all of the lights went out.  Our guess is that it was very late and that this was some sort of lights out policy to keep the people that get on the train late from keeping the others awake.  Except we had no night lights or reading lights working either, so our room was pitch dark except for the tiny bit of light coming in from time to time from the window.  We had Dominica’s phone’s flashlight and we had to use that to make the beds as we had had time to get settled into the room before it went dark.

We were off to sleep within half an hour, at most.  We had already eaten and were quite tired when we got onto the train.  No one wanted to be awake any more than necessary and the train trip tonight is not all that distant so we knew that we were going to have to be getting up in the morning earlier than we would like as it is.  It is going to be a short night.

The little girls and I all slept great.  I had a few issues from the power going off from time to time on the train which made for CPAP problems but it was not too bad and I found the beds very comfortable so was able to sleep well.  With the window open it was not too hot once we had relaxed.  Dominica, on the other hand, had issues sleeping and got almost no sleep all night, the bed being far too hard for her.

Overall the train was quite nice and we liked it a lot.  We did not like the early lights out policy or issue and we wished that there had been an option for a dining car, we always like getting to do that.  This is definitely a less expensive train option than we have done in the past for an overnight sleeper train.  But we love the idea of affordable, overnight, cross country Romanian train travel.  This is a huge vote towards Romania as a base of operations!