Chișinău

Country #55 - Moldova

The Mixup

After a short flight from Ukraine, I landed in Chișinău, Moldova. It took me a while to find the taxi stand in the airport but I eventually did. The driver still overcharged me by about two dollars but after my day I was in no mood to haggle. It was a twenty-minute drive into the city where I was dropped off at Zentrum Hotel. While checking in it was realized that my booking was never made at the hotel even though I had corresponded with them about a sponsorship and that they were fully booked. I had been dreading this for a while and knew it had to happen eventually. Zentrum and its staff, though, were fantastic throughout the entire situation. Special thanks to Lupa at the front desk who worked this all out!

They rebooked me at the Jolly Alon hotel which was very nice. I was still able to tour Zentrum which is such a cool little hotel in the heart of Chișinău. It has a modern yet chic feel to it and I hope to stay with them if I ever make it back to Chișinău! I cannot thank them enough for all of their help throughout the ordeal. My new hotel was fantastic and they provided for everything, including dinner which was much appreciated after a very long day.

I wish I had more time to see Moldova but once again the flights just don’t work. Everyone that I met, though, was so kind throughout my time here and I found that many people spoke English which was very helpful. I have a very early morning flight to Bucharest, Romania, and I can feel that I am starting to catch a cold (no thanks to the smoky Ukraine airport) so these four hours of sleep are going to be much needed but also not enough. This region of Eastern Europe (Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova) has been filled with confusion - it was a weird day for sure and I am definitely glad that it’s over and happy to be headed to Bucharest, Romania tomorrow.

55 countries down, 141 to go.

To learn more about Zentrum click here.