Part 2 of my trip to Chisinau.

In my last instalment, I took you through the heart of the city, culminating in reaching the Triumphal Arch. Now I'll continue exactly where I left off.

This charming building is the bell tower next to the cathedral. The cathedral's behind it.







It's quite nice, isn't it?











This is in front of it. It looks like a fountain but it also looks a bit weird.







A nice two-shot of the cathedral and this... thing.








Woo, classy shot.











Pigeons!








I came, I saw, I took a picture.











After that, I happened across a shopping centre, so I went inside. Not much of interest, mainly clothes, but I took the lift to the top floor and took a pic. Then I realised that there were no stairs to the top floor. So if the lift broke, you were stuck. Genius. Maybe there was an emergency stairway...




I left the shopping centre, only to find a large religious group doing something in the street. Don't know what, but I took a pic anyway.







I kept on walking around and noticed what looks like a fancy hotel.








This is the shopping centre I was in earlier. Sun City. It looks so... lovely.







I dunno what this is but it looks COOL. Probably police or something, looking at the logo.










Back onto the main street. Busy.








Now what's this? Hmm... Interestingly, the toilets have a keycode which you get when you buy something. Toilets in Ukraine and the like cost money so McD's toilets are even more common to nip in for free than in England.





This just illustrates how easy it is to change currency on the main street of Chisinau. 'No commission'? That's normal, here and in Kyiv.






National Theatre, I guess. That's what it says.








Next to the theatre is a park with this weird statue, and people were selling paintings and stuff too.










I'm guessing this is a musical theatre place. Inside is a small café, where the girl serving me spoke Romanian, so when she said 'eight lei', I asked her to use English or Russian, and she used both with a bit of thought. Sweet.








City hall. Another EU flag. Funny: the ruling party is communist, but there's now a coalition for EU integration, so maybe that has something to do with it. Don't fully understand, though.









As I was walking, I turned round and thought, 'what the hell is that?'







It's SKYTOWER! A big office block, though apparently there's 'shopping', as the sign says, but I couldn't find any.










Next to the tower, I'll let you figure that one out.








Well, everything seems to be in ord... wait a minute! Lira? Deutschmarks?! Get a new sign, mate, it's a bit old.







Central Piazza, I presume. Well, it's actually a BIG market, rivalling Petrivka in Kyiv. There's all sorts of crap to be found here, though it's a bit harder to navigate than Petrivka because of many people in a small space.





The smell of this indoor cheese market hit me when I entered. The photo's blurry because I didn't want anyone to see me. Coward, I know.






Meanwhile, outdoors, it's just as busy. And this was on a Wednesday afternoon!







Imagine how busy it'd be on a Saturday lunchtime! Jesus.








Anyway, I like crowded markets, but time was getting on and that one's pretty damn crowded. Outside the market was this big department store. I didn't explore too much, didn't see much point.





Opposite that building, another bloody big one. Weird how you can see the lights through the windows...







Jesus, how many big buildings?! Yes, this was in the same square I was standing in.










This globe, attached to the big glass building two pics ago, turns. I thought of a video, but I think you can imagine it yourself, so a photo will suffice.






This building, with mobile phone and electronic shops inside, has some nice statues attached.







In the distance is a nice statue. Shame I didn't get closer.








Ciuflea church complex. Looks nice from the outside, but sadly didn't go in...







...because there was a big gate with a man in uniform in front, and I'm too much of a pussy to go and ask if I can get in.







I walked back to the hostel over a bridge, and looking over the side I realised that there's some crazy shite down there.







This is the bridge, with Mall Dova in the background (apologies for awful photo).







It's like another world under the bridge.








After getting home, I went for a meal with a guy from the hostel, then onto a bar called the Rock 'n' Roll Café (I think) and met another hostel guy, plus a local. As we were thinking of moving on, a guy walked in and announced that he was staying in the same hostel, so we had a new member of our team.

After finding that most of town was closed on a Wednesday night, we walked to Club City, or the City Club, or whatever. This was obviously where most people were that night, as it was a busy nightclub. I hate nightclubs and I made that clear, but we went anyway. After a while of watching two go-go dancers, I grabbed a taxi with another in my group, and went to bed.

The following day I did very little as I'd already seen about as much of the town as I wanted, and the weather wasn't so good. I eventually went for a meal with the three others from the hostel in Mall Dova. The top floor has a range of different restaurants, and we decided on one with typical food of the region (I think... it's hard to classify, but it was lovely, and cheap).

I just hung around at the hostel, and eventually grabbed a taxi to the station and jumped on the train. My kupe was empty, which was interesting. I got the chance to watch a movie on my laptop as a result.

I also thought I'd take some pics of the train for those who are curious. This is my kupe, my bed on the bottom left.







View from the top bunk, towards the (closed) door.








Looking up from the top bunk, towards the other bunk.








My bed again, a more direct view. It's rather comfy, actually, as the train is so damn slow that it's easy to sleep on, and I traditionally have immense trouble sleeping on the move.,






Er, the toilets are not so comfy. This is a bad shot, but you get the idea. Don't sit down. Though hovering is hard with the train shaking. There's a hole in the floor for water to leak out, and when you push the flush, the water (or whatever else) simply drops out of the train. This means you can't use the toilet either at a station or when you're near a station/town. Can be frustrating, that.



And this is the corridor, with windows on the right and kupes on the left. I didn't use the flash as there were guys there and didn't want to attract attention (I like to go unnoticed on my travels).









A guy got in my kupe at Ungen and I talked to him in my basic Russian for a few hours, enjoying a drink of brandy and some chocolate until it was time to sleep, then had to get up super early for the border crossing. Everything went smoothly, thankfully.

So, that was my trip. Hope you enjoyed it, and if you happen to go to Chisinau for any reason, just take some Euros or dollars and you'll find it easy to change them into the local currency. Other than that, it's a small city, not much to see. I'm kicking myself that I didn't plan on a trip to Tiraspol (in autonomous province Transnistria, essentially a separate country but a corrupt Soviet-style one) but this was a last-minute plan and I didn't really find out about it until I got there. Maybe some day...