- Hello from the capital of Moldova.
I am back in Chisinau.
It's been 2 years and I am standing right beside the epic, the infamous stairwell that
was featured by my friend Mr Bald in his video.
- Now I'm in the very center of the city.
This is the Oxford Street of Chisinau, the capital city, right?
But check this out.
I want to show you something.
Look at this!
This is how little the government has done for this city that even here in the right
center of the nation's capital.
Look at it!
Look there's bloody steps missing.
No one has done anything.
Check out this!
This is the wheelchair access.
I mean imagine trying to push a wheelchair up here with 2 uneven bits of metal.
It's a disaster.
- He highlighted the dilapidated state of central Chisinau.
It is a capital city in Europe
and it's pretty hard to imagine when you see the stairwells around here but his video
did provoke the local government to go and actually repair ...
they've actually renovated this one already which was the original one and I see that they are starting to work
on the others so that actually shows exactly the impact and the influence by exposing you know
just how bad things were maintained here in Chisinau, a lot of the reasons that happened, corruption
being obviously being one of the problems here in Eastern Europe in general but
I did notice that in defense of the government here that compared to 2 years ago
the city does look a bit better and a better maintained so let's go on a little tour of Moldova
I'm here for a few days and see
exactly what it can offer you the visitor if you're brave enough to come here after seeing Mr Bald's video
Поехали!
So what is this called in Russian this game?
- Нарды!
- I'm not sure about how it should be. Don't film me; I'm a shy person
- Ah, I don't believe that at all! You're not shy!
- Soroca? Since you like țigani?
- Milești Mici, Cricova - Have you been there to Milești Mici?
It's so big! - Castel Mimi is also very beautiful
- Look at it! This is like something in Afghanistan. This isn't Europe, surely to God!
- So definitely one thing that Moldovans take very seriously is their wine production
It's like a national obsession
Vin - Vino whatever you want to call, here it's one of the biggest things that almost every Moldovan family does
and did you know that Moldova houses the 2 biggest wine collections in the world
and both of them are in 2 very interesting underground cellars, very close to the capital, Chisinau
the first one is Milești Mici, which has a whopping 2 million bottles of wine
which are housed in underground labyrinthine roadways that stretch to 200 kms
and then you have Cricova, which has a mere 120 kms of cellar roadways underneath the ground
pretty mad, the whole thing
and Cricova is also interesting because it houses many famous wine collections
for example after the Second World War, at the end of the Second World War, the Soviets managed to capture
the wine collection of one of the Nazi leaders, Hermann Göring, and they brought a large part of it
to, you've guessed it, Chisinau and the Cricova wine cellars
- This is the home of wines. We are entering the home of wines here
- Breakfast for example with juice, I pay ...
- So Philip, where are we? - We are in a Gagauz restaurant
So it's like Turkish kind of food and the Gagauz are originally from Turkish but who settled here in Moldova
So let's try it out. It looks really good. We just had a soup and it was next level.
- How good was the soup, the ciorbă? - Very good, very good
- Yeah? One of the best ciorbă you've had? - One of the best actually recently. It was really good
- Ok, interesting. Poftă mare! - You too, cheers!
I'm being assaulted here!
So I have a sweet spot for Chisinau and for Moldova based primarily on nostalgia
that's because I used to come here 7/8 years ago even 4 or 5 years ago and it was quite a different back then
in the meantime so many Moldovans have gotten Romanian passports or Russian passports
as that's become a lot easier in the last 5 or 6 years and as a result so many young people from Moldova
in particular young people have left the country to seek their fortune in other metropolises like
Moscow, if they've got the Russian passport or even Dublin or London anywhere in the European Union
basically and go and work and just like well over a million Moldovans have gone and done that
so the vibe in a city like Chisinau today it's markedly different to what it was even 5 years ago
there's just a dearth of youth and energy in this city
So a really cool final opportunity has arose here in Chisinau just before I dash to the airport tomorrow
and that is to spread my message beyond this YouTube channel to the Moldovan mainstream media
because I've been invited on ProTV here in Chisinau to give an overview
of what their country has to offer the intrepid international traveler
I'm super excited to get to spread my word my message what I give you here on the channel
to other people who might be interested to get, you know, a foreigner's perspective on their country
and probably a little bit different to what maybe they've seen on Bald and Bankrupt
and I'm going to point out the high points so I'm super excited to get that opportunity
So welcome to the real center center of Chisinau so this is the Arc de Triomphe
similar concept to another European capital that you're almost certainly more familiar with
but I have to say that this is definitely not Paris
or a Micul Paris or Little Paris like Bucharest used to be known which is obviously the capital of Romania
nearby, it does not have the same number of options in terms of beautiful places, infrastructure, restaurants, food
though it does have really good wine here, I have to say that is one of the highlights
so if you had only watched Mr Bald's video
you would probably think that basically Chisinau is the capital of a country in sub-Saharan Africa
if you look at the economic level that it appeared to have in his video
'cos he's hanging out with a homeless guy and drinking with him and drinking with him and basically
been beaten up by him
in one of his videos and then obviously the one that went viral you see very dilapidated parts
of the center of Chisinau. Now it's not ... there are nice buildings
lining the boulevard Stefan Cel Mare
there are some parks and you know there are some other nice historical buildings
not just ones that were built during the Soviet Union and I think overall if you were to come here
you could definitely knock a good long weekend out of the city, there's enough to see and do
and entertainment, especially for the kind of guys who I know that I am normally talking to on this channel
so don't be completely put off coming here to Chisinau
it's definitely not going to be Paris, it's definitely not going to be Kyiv, Moscow, Odessa, Lviv or even Minsk
in terms of what's on offer but it's also not the kind of wasteland
that you would imagine if you'd only watched that video so definitely give it a shot
and consider it for a weekend, you'll have fun
one of the great things here is the local wine
people are really friendly and you'll definitely have enough entertainment
and places to see and check out
and go to the vineyards nearby and take a nice tour there and go up to Orhei Vechi
which is not so far from Chisinau either
you can go and do that and of course then nearby you have
Transnistria, the land that officially does not exist. That's also worth a day trip
So I think you can really knock you know a long weekend, 4 or 5 days without finding it boring
or that you're going to feel uncomfortable and also I didn't find the city particularly dangerous at all
to walk around in. Mind you, I do speak Russian and some Romanian so that always helps in these countries
but I would think that it's actually a bit safer than say being in Odessa and while I don't think crime in
Eastern Europe is really that problematic for tourists
and while the country might not be economically very strong, Moldovans do have a great hospitality
themselves, they have big hearts.
Mulțumesc frumos! La revedere din Chișinău, Republica Moldova [Thanks! Goodbye from Chisinau, Moldova]