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(part 1)
They had Fanta in Moldova, and I was very happy. During the stay in the old, hot apartment, I brought this in huge amounts. There was a small shop next to the old apartment, and I went there pretty much every time we left or returned to the old apartment. This shop, incidentally, was undergoing some type of enlargement, as construction work was going on. This may have been the reason for the interrupted cold water in the apartment block. I eyed the construction workers angrily as I left the apartment every day. Apparently, too, there were notices of interruption of cold water services posted around the apartment, but as they were in a foreign language, I didn't know this. Dorina seemed reluctant to fill me in on the purpose of these notices, but that seemed to be what they were. On my second day we went to a lake. I had seen this lake on my previous visit, but of course, it was frozen over. I remembered thinking what a pretty lake it must be in summer. And I was right. There was a sort of tree shaded area, with people laying around and sunbathing. I saw an old guy who looked just like Boris Yeltsin sleeping under a tree. Young boys walked around selling popcorn and beer, which I thought was extremely cool. There was a small stand selling other drinks. The lake itself was quite pretty, and many people enjoyed swimming and generally not being hot inside their brick apartment blocks. We rented a paddle boat thing and went around the lake in that for a while. Some boys ambushed us as we went under a bridge, and clung onto the back of the boat trying to get a ride. As we went under this bridge a second time on our way back, this got really bad, and the boat nearly sank! Dorina was yelling at them and slapping them with my sandals, getting quite upset. I had to jump off the boat and yell at them. They were quite afraid of that, for some reason. Little buggars. At least they gave us no more trouble after that. This experience, although not terrible, was enough to make us not return to the lake again. - During one of the first days in the new apartment, I looked out the window and saw an old man asleep on the footpath. He was just sleeping. This was highly amusing to me. I took some photos of him. The landlady explained that the old guy had some kind of mental illness and that he just lived down the road. Apparently every time he drank alcohol, even just a little bit, he would end up like this, passed out on the street. This, I thought, was extraordinary. The landlady explained all this to me, and we didn't even speak the same language. Some people tried to wake him up, and one industrious man woke him and helped him to his feet. Asking him if he was OK, he left. The old man, of course, wobbled, and fell over, almost hitting his head on the concrete. Much better to leave him asleep, I think. - We found a cafe/restaurant called Green Hills, downtown. The service was excellent. The food wasn't too expensive, but not entirely cheap by Moldovan standards either. I thought the food was rather plain, too. But excellent service! Our waiter, Vadim, who served us on several occasions, is to be highly commended, although I'm sure he was just 'doing his job'. (Note, on my 3rd trip to Moldova, Vadim was still working there. This is highly unusual to see the same person working at the same restaurant after 6 months in the USA!) I preferred sitting outside, but one night we ate inside too. An old english man was having dinner with a young Moldovan girl. I think this type of thing is quite common – mismatched foreign men & Moldovan women getting together. Although this seems like a great thing for the foreign men, it usually ends very badly. The happy mismatched couple get married, the girl gets to leave Moldova, and as soon as she can get unrestricted residency in whatever foreign country she's in, the marriage ends, and often large amounts of her husbands funds disappear. Moldovan girls are not there to be exploited, folks. They are just as clever as western women, and they really don't find older/fatter men attractive despite what your Russian marriage internet sites might tell you. I remember seeing another guy at my favorite pizza place, Pizza Pazza. A foreign guy, not as old as the english guy I had observed at Green Hills, maybe 30, maybe 35, with a very slender, well dressed Moldovan girl. He looked decent enough, but was a little overweight. The girl looked thoroughly pissed off at having to accompany him inside to ask where the bathrooms were for him, and then waiting for him to 'do his business'! Fair enough too, I suppose. For these guys who are trying to hook up with these Moldovan women, I suggest finding one in your age/weight/intelligence range. If you want it to last, and don't want to end up broke, that is. The other thing I noticed is the girls who want to leave Moldova are usually the ones who are not completely socially normal. The ones who are comfortable in Moldova aren't in a huge hurry to leave. I suppose there are always exceptions to my generalizations, but from the look of the statistics of foreign men/women divorce rates, this might be good advice to follow. -- Downtown in summer is marvelous. The parks, the flowers, the people . . fantastic. Everything is within walking distance, the cafes set up their outside seating, more people are selling stuff, the sun is out longer – it's great. A high point was seeing people buying beer at McDonald's, and then drinking it outside in the McDonald's seating area, something that is not possible in the USA, and would probably get you arrested if you tried it.
- Our new landlords are what might be called middle class in Moldova. They are not rich, but they are not begging for cash, either. If you own your own property in Moldova, then all your income can be used for pleasure, pretty much. Basic food is extremely cheap, so that's not a factor in your income, unless your income is really really small. Our landlords owned a Lada, expensive looking furniture, several televisions, and were always smiling (except for that first time we saw them). Sure there were huge houses up the road with several Mercedes parked outside or inside the gate, but who cares? Our landlords had everything they needed to be happy, and it showed in their smiles. It was certainly enough for me. Dorina thought that I would still be complaining, because my complaints about the old apartment meant somehow that I just liked to complain about anything. This did worry me for a time. I thought perhaps she was right, and I really do just like to complain about everything. But happily this turned out not to be true. Besides, I think that owning a Mercedes in Moldova would be more cause for stress than happiness. All that time spent worrying about someone stealing it, and trying to maintain the image of someone important enough to own one. What a hassle. The landlord one day came and grabbed us from our apartment and showed us to a door in the ground in the backyard. This turned out to be a wine cellar, where he makes his own wine!! This place was becoming cooler and cooler every day. -- An interesting incident occurred one day. Dorina got a phone call on her cell phone, which was apparently a 'wrong number'. But since the caller was a male, and Dorina is a female, they had a conversation. It ended with him calling her several more times that day, and also in following days. She said this was fairly normal. To me, it's not so normal. This could be a product of boredom. Guys calling random numbers in the hope of getting some girl on the phone. But I think it also shows how friendly the girls in Moldova are. If this happened in the USA, or even Australia, the girls would probably call the police! This calling didn't continue beyond a few days however. Why? Well, one night we all got really drunk, and I told Dorina to call that guy back and invite him over. He was 'busy', apparently, and he never called again. I think we scared him off. - Dorina had to work for a few days, so I got to spend the majority of the day by myself. I watched a lot of TV, which was surprisingly good. I really liked watching American movies, with bad Russian dubbing over top of them. This is just were the movie is played, and one Russian guy speaks over top of the movie, so if you listen carefully, you can still hear the original voices. On most movies, this one Russian guy does all the voices, male and female, as well as for children! It's highly amusing. Atleechna! I also went for a walk one day, by myself. Dorina thought this was a horrible idea, but I thought I could manage. As usual, I didn't get ready until about 3pm, and then the walk commenced. I walked all the way to downtown, through the market, and then further. I wanted to explore a specific area of town which I hadn't been before. I encountered the train station accidentally, a public swimming pool, and then started on my way to the area of town I wanted to see. I found a rather deserted look stretch of road, and I probably should have caught the trolley bus at this point, as trolley buses always go somewhere, right?. But I didn't. I kept walking, up hills mostly. I ended up on top of a big hill, with a few houses. I found a really good view of the city. Excellent! But I didn't find any commercial areas, which I had hoped to see. So, after a brief rain storm (see photos!) I looked for the tallest apartment block, and set off towards it. After some time, I found a small commercial area, but it wasn't quite what I hoped. I noticed that the rain had knocked tiles off some of the apartment blocks!! Another reason to avoid those places. I also saw women walking around barefoot, holding there shoes. It was raining, so I thought perhaps they liked the feeling of water on their feet. In Australia, it's common to go without shoes, even to school when you're a kid. After a bit, it dawned on me that these women probably only owned one pair of shoes, and were walking barefoot, holding their shoes, to avoid getting them damaged by the water. I eventually found my way to a shuttle bus, and jumped on. Being about 5pm, it was full of people heading home from work. And, just having rained, the windows were streamed up. I couldn't see past the people to the window! Once a few people got off, the window was still steamed up, so I still couldn't tell where I was. Eventually I thought I recognized something, so got off, and luckily, it was the right stop. Hooray! - Once we walked Diana home. She was Dorina's friend who lived in the old apartment that we vacated. She had originally moved in with Dorina, as she had no place to live, for a month or two. Since Dorina had already paid the rent for that place, it was still 'ours', and so Diana continued to live there. Diana added something to the mystery of Moldovan's Her father apparently is some chief executive guy for an oil company in another town, not too far from Chisinau. So, he has a bit of money, apparently. So I presume her family home isn't too shabby. Diana herself was always nicely dressed, and seemed well brought up. Why, then, was she content to live in such a crappy apartment? It was a complete mystery to me. Dorina's mum's house in the village was 100 times better. It had no cold water either, but you could at least go outside by means of a door instead of a non-functioning dodgy elevator to get it, and parts of the wall did not collapse every time you swatted a fly. So, I suppose that Diana's father was not too rich. He did bring us the fridge for the old apartment, but it was tiny, and it didn't really work. He did seem to own a car, but it was probably a Lada. -- One day, Dorina and I went to a grocery store called “Green Hills”, the same name as the cafe/restaurant we went to where Vadim works. This is your typical western grocery store, with all kinds of crap available for purchase. We chose some crap, and stood in the checkout line, where the Russian lady in front of us invited her Russian friend at the end of the line to push in. This was a bit rude. Then, this Russian let HER Russian friend from the end of the line push in, too. This caused Dorina to protest, but to no avail. How very rude. She told me that Russians are like this. I looked back at the line behind us, some 8 or 9 people, all being quiet, and not protesting. They looked Moldovan, not Russian, so this may have been the reason they too were not trying to push in. I don't really know much about the Moldovan/Russian differences in Moldova, but this incident was certainly a black mark against the Russians. It also gave me an opportunity to swear out loud in English, something which I enjoyed immensely. Dorina said most people understand English swear words, but if they did, no one made any fuss. For a bunch of people used to others pushing in front of them, this came as no surprise. This attitude of 'putting up with crap' came about apparently because people were just given so much crap to deal with that they just gave up fighting. Well, I can understand this attitude a little bit. This is probably why Dorina and Diana were happy to endure the harsh conditions of that crappy apartment we stayed in. However, as I proved myself, in this day and age in Moldova, better opportunities exist, and with a little bit of effort, you can make things better for yourself quite easily. Finding decent apartments is not necessarily that hard, nor expensive. And one day soon, people shall start to protest about others pushing in front of them in lines. - We decided to visit a town called Soroca, in the north of Moldova. One of Dorina's friends lived there. We decided to take a bus there. I hadn't been on a bus before, so thought 'why not?'. It was a modern bus, not too shabby, and the cost of the 3 hour journey was very low, about $2 or $3. We set off, and the inside of the bus was hot. Very hot. There was one vent which someone opened, allowing a cool breeze through, but someone else complained, saying the breeze hit them in the face. So the vent was closed. People would rather endure the heat, it seemed, than put up with a wind in their faces! I was sweating constantly. I was not at all happy. I practiced more of my swearing-out-loud-in-English routine, which was proving to be very satisfying for me, although not effective in restoring any lost breeze to the bus. Dorina, I noticed was not sweating at all. This was amazing! How is it possible? Most of the other people on the bus dozed off from the heat, the suffering apparent on their faces, but a look of 'well, we're used to suffering'. The country side was not too interesting, but it was OK. We stopped at several places to let people off at various villages, and the bus driver would get water from the roadside wells to drink. Entering Soroca was pretty cool. We went through some winding roads, and saw the city in the distance. We were dropped off in the middle of town, which was quite quiet. Sort of like a very mini Chisinau. We met Dorina's friend, who was with another girl, dressed up in short skirts and a lot of makeup. We went to this other friends apartment, which was very crappy from the outside, but remarkably luxurious inside. Apparently, this girls family owned some restaurant in town, and could afford all this stuff. There was a big screen television, deep pile carpets, an immaculate kitchen, elegant chandeliers - but no gas, and no hot water. Due to some mix up with plans, Dorina's friend said that we had no where to stay, and the hotels were inaccessible to us, as we both forgot to bring our passports. After some phone calling, her friend arranged some place for us – an apartment of the son of one of her families friends. By then it was dark, and we walked along the river front to this apartment. The owner was away in Italy, working. The apartment had no gas, no hot water, and no electricity! It was also quite beautiful inside, lovely wood floors, expensive looking furniture. It's a shame that Moldova is quite poor. The owner of this apartment probably just grew tired of not having hot water or gas, and decided to piss off to Italy, but if some of these commodities were available in Moldova more readily, this nice apartment in the quiet but charming looking town of Soroca would be quite a nice place to live. Dorina and I went to a near-by bar for something to eat. It was a run down place, but otherwise OK. I've heard many stories about alcoholic Russians in small towns, and I believe I saw some of them in this bar! Ukrainians, actually. Dorina said that most people she ran into in Soroca only spoke Russian. We slept in our comfortable but un-lit apartment, and the next day decided to get the hell out of town, after some brief sightseeing. It's not that we didn't like the place, but the lack of basic comforts such as soap was a bit more than we could bear. We toured an old castle, strolled by the river and had a look at Ukraine on the other side. We had a walk around the gypsies houses - huge houses built on a hill. They may have even had hot water and soap, who knows?
We saw many young girls dresses very scantily with much makeup. I wondered when the last time they had a hot shower was? Yes, I am a biased westerner used to hot showers. I can't help it, I am spoiled. Although, in hindsight, after a few more days I'm sure I would have adjusted. Habits are just hard to break, I think. After all, when I was a kid, I used to only have one shower per week. Getting clean was slightly uncomfortable for me back then. Dorina told me that I had high standards. I was dumbfounded. All I wanted was a nice shower, some soap, some good food. That was all! I don't expect the earth. I guess the standards of Moldovan's are even lower than mine! It was amazing to hear this. Every young person in Soroca seemed to own a cell phone, but yet apartments did not even have hot water or gas. What the hell is going on? This reminds me of what I saw in Chisinau. Many vans from the local cable company were driving around town, men getting out to install cables, etc. The vans said it was a “Moldovan-American venture”. Ah, good old Americans. They care enough to help out Moldova by giving everyone cable TV (which they then charge for, of course). But some people still do without even cold water. Terrific. We found a nice Lada taxi to take us back to Chisinau. It was a crappy Lada, almost falling apart, but the ride was comfortable, cheap, and we could even wind down the windows. The driver was a very cool guy, who, although I did not understand a word he said, made a very favorable impression on me. I calculated the amount of gas he'd use for the Chisinau trip, and worked out he used most of our fair money for gas. Very little left over for profit, and even less left over for repairing his Lada. When we got back to our nice, new apartment, we were very happy. Hot water, soap, chocolate milk. How little we needed to be happy. Comfort. It seems people immigrate to other countries to be more comfortable. Wars are fought over resources which are used to make people more comfortable. People work and are stressed for comfort. What would life be like if we were perfectly happy with the comfort level provided by living in a bush? Would wars, stress, and conflicts disappear? So, the Soroca trip raised some interesting points. The western world is obviously more comfortable than Chisinau. Chisinau is more comfortable than Soroca. But Chisinau provided all I needed, or even really wanted, to be happy. Life in the western world often leaves me feeling empty. But yet people fight to maintain a western level of comfort. It's a bit weird. Obviously, my view is still a bit distorted. I never lived in Moldova, never worked, never understood the languages. And my trip to Soroca was only for one night. I don't know. -- Hand washing my laundry brought to my attention a fowl smell. Coming from my clothes? Does the sum total of the dirt in all my clothes really smell that bad? Hand washing isn't too bad. I have done it myself on trips before. You get quite a lot of exercise wringing the clothes out, etc. I could never get the clothes completely clean, which was a bit of a bummer. I really like clean clothes! Some Moldovan's own washing machines, but a lot still wash things by hand, too. I think washing machines are cool, too. Actually, I found it was the one western appliance I missed the most, upon my return to the USA. Cars, computers, fast internet, air conditioning – I can do without them. A washing machine would be more difficult to live without. - I saw an interesting ad on TV. A young boy approached a BMW stopped at traffic lights and knocked on the window. The driver put the window down a bit and stuck a one lei note out the window for the boy. The boy shock his head, and held up a sign that said “Pay the taxes”. They both smiled. Citizens not paying tax is one of the main reasons Moldova is so poor. That, and corruption! However, I noticed the governments tax schedule. Some of the taxes are 40% or more! I can't imagine any Moldovan, used to keeping all profits he or she makes, willingly donating almost half to the government. I think they should start off lower. Perhaps 10% tax for things, and the government makes an extra effort to show the citizens that it is improving things around Moldova with there money. Once the people see the improvements, and realize that they are directly from their tax money, and not disappearing into the pockets of some greedy politician, they might be more willing to pay more in tax. I don't think these things can be forced. -- I noticed a week or two into my trip that I was feeling a bit strange. I couldn't quite explain the feeling. I thought the change of time, food, conditions, etc was to blame. One day I brought some Pepsi from the store, and immediately after drinking it, I felt normal again. I had been getting enough caffeine from tea, coffee, etc, but I had no idea that my body was slightly addicted to Pepsi. Although a similar thing happened when I visit Australia and try to do without it, too. I feel strange, can't pin-point the reason why, and mum rushes out and buys some Pepsi for me, I'm sure I could overcome this addiction if I wanted to. But Pepsi isn't the most harmful substance in the world, so I won't be trying to overcome it anytime soon! -- The rest of my trip in Moldova was spent relaxing and hanging out. We visited some apartments with Dorina's friend Diana, who was looking to buy one. We saw a variety of places, varying in price and quality. Out of them all, I still prefer our little apartment/house. Apartments don't do it for me. I like to be on ground level, with the outside right there, and not down several flights of stairs. Apartments are OK, and sensible, I think, but they are not for me. I like back yards, front yards, space . . . We went to a nightclub called Dance Cafe several times. It became one of my favorite places to go, along with Pizza Pazza. It was always a pleasure to see the Moldovan way of running a nightclub. We also visited a nightclub called Star Trak or something like this. It was pretty cool inside, well designed. I've seen American nightclubs which are far fancier inside, but they lack something which Moldovan nightclubs have. A kind of 'soul' or atmosphere. Lack of imagination, perhaps. Too much money is thrown at decorations without much thought. In Moldova, sometimes imagination is all there is, and the end result is more pleasing to the eye, at least to me. I'm not so easily fooled by expensive things, I guess. Quite often the price of objects becomes the focal point, instead of their functionality or purpose in the overall design of things. And that, I think, is stupid. -- I found that I had escaped a particularly bad heat wave in Nebraska when I returned. I had the usual feelings upon my return. It was sort of nice to be back. I had all my western luxuries. But half way through the second day of being back, it all got boring again. All these things which I do not need. People being obsessed with them, and forgetting to have fun. My roommates are a good example of this, watching TV 12 hours per day, on a regular basis. Not doing dishes because the TV is more important. Crazy stuff. I really did like the washing machine though. |
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