Over the past 5 years of living in Germany, we’ve traveled as much as we can, but there are still a few European countries that we haven’t been to yet. To see a new destination, last weekend we headed east for a weekend in Moldova.
exploring Chisinau
On Friday, we left home early morning, and after flying Stuttgart – Vienna – Chisinau, and the time difference of +1 hour, it was late afternoon when we arrived at our hotel. We set off to see something of the capital city of Chisinau (pronounced key-shee-now), starting in Cathedral Park, a two-minute walk away.
The Moldovan Orthodox Cathedral of Christ’s Nativity is in a lovely park setting, with lots of green trees and flowers, fountains, and colorful flower beds. A Triumphal Arch is nearby, built in 1840 after a successful defeat of the Ottoman Turks.
The green space continues into Stephen the Great Park, named after a 15th century prince who fiercely defended Moldova’s independence. Nicknamed “the Alley of Classics,” busts of philosophers, writers, and artists line the paths, leading to a special monument to Alexander Pushkin. Pushkin was a Russian poet, a radical who wrote about freedom, and was therefore banished to Chisinau in 1820. He spent his time reading, writing, and traveling, and wrote some of his best works in Moldova.
Both Cathedral Park and Stephen the Great Park are charming, clean, shady, and peaceful.
Time for dinner, we found a traditional Moldovan restaurant with outdoor seating, and enjoyed a meal of placinte (plah-cheen-tah) and grilled vegetables. Placinte is a pie with either savory or sweet fillings, the dough is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The region of Moldova has been making wine for over 5000 years, and a local red went perfectly with our pork placinte pie.
Saturday Markets
Saturday morning we set out to see both the traditional Market in Chisinau and a Flea Market that runs daily around the central train station. The Market was bustling with customers and vendors, small stalls set up in narrow aisles, spread over several city blocks. Besides the traditional fruits, vegetables, flowers, and meats, there were also sneakers and cell phones, kitchen goods, and tools.
We could have spent more time at the market, but we pushed on to see the Flea Market while it was still early. Another interesting scene, the market taking over several blocks again, with items for sale spread out on sheets on the ground. There were a lot of lightly used clothing for sale, kitchen goods and tools, and also axes and long knives. We found a few “treasures” to buy here for our Moldovan souvenirs.
Walking through Chisinau, we saw an interesting mix of beautiful monasteries and churches, a war museum, abandoned buildings, and many statues.
We ate lunch at the highly recommended Moldovenesc restaurant, in air conditioning. Temperatures were in the 90’s, and we appreciated how much A/C we encountered at our hotel and in shops and restaurants around the city. Polenta, chicken, and pickles, lunch was another great traditional meal.
Next, we visited Valea Morilor Park, another large green space in the capital. There are lovely views from a rotunda on a hill down to an artificial lake that was built by Soviet youth groups in the 1950’s.
It was interesting to see fountains that didn’t run, and statues or monuments that were not lit up at night, part of Moldova’s effort to conserve energy stores due to the war in Ukraine.
Moldova Highlights Tour
For Sunday, we booked a day outing through Trip Advisor to see highlights of Moldova. We were a small group, just 3 visitors and our charming guide Ecaterina. We drove north of Chisinau to start our tour at the Curchi Monastery, a beautiful complex that includes a lake.
In the same area, we visited Old Orhei, a preserved historic settlement at the top of a hill. A historical recreation shows a family home consisting of a cluster of small buildings to show the sleeping and living spaces, some built right into the hillside.
A further climb upwards brought us to a small cave monastery. It’s amazing to think of the monks who lived and worked in this small space, which included their sleeping cells. Their outdoor world would have been wonderful though. From the face of the cave, views of the Raut River and green fields stretch for miles.
After an excellent traditional lunch in the village of Old Orhei, we headed to our last tour of the day. Cricova Winery is famous for its massive network of underground tunnels used in its wine making and storage. We joined a big group boarding red trolleys for a ride through the maze of tunnels, with a few stops to see different parts of the wine making process, and cubbies built into the stone walls holding personal wine collections, all underground.
Our tasting was in a stately long room, where our guide continued to entertain us with his quirky humor, even getting funnier with each tasting. We loved the wines, especially the whites and rosés.
This was a fantastic day out with a fun group, learning about Moldova’s history, religion, foods and wines, along with excellent photo opportunities.
We had an excellent weekend in Moldova. It’s always interesting to see somewhere new, and everyone we met was very kind and helpful, even if they didn’t speak much English. We will definitely be looking out for buying some Moldovan wines when we see them available.
Moldova Logistics
| Flights | Austrian Airlines Stuttgart – Vienna – Chisinau |
| Hotel | Bristol Central Park Hotel Booked direct with hotel, included breakfast and airport pick-up and drop-off Highly Recommend! |
| Day Tour | Best of Moldova: Cricova Winery & Old Orhei and Curchi Monastery Booked through TripAdvisor, ran by Moldova Tours Highly Recommend! |
| Good to Know | Currency: Moldovan Leu, cards are widely accepted but also good to have cash for markets Time Zone: Eastern European (EET), +7 hours from New York City (EST) Plug-In Adaptor: Standard EU plug-in Language: Moldovan, Russian, some English Weather note: August is generally the hottest month |
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