- What do you like about Chișinău? - Man, everything. People are nice. Girls are beautiful. I mean
it's just it's a hidden gem, I would say. That's the ... that's the way to put it!
Bine ați venit la Chișinău! (Romanian: 'Welcome to Chișinău!')
So we have yes the Arc de Triomphe so if you've ever been to Paris this is Moldova's version
just behind me and actually there's another one in neighboring Romania in Bucharest the capital there
So I've just had one crazy Chișinău summer I've been coming here quite often with clients to live
the tsar experience to the capital of Moldova with the war on in neighboring Ukraine. Yeah, we've had
to look for substitutes and surprisingly Chișinău has turned out to be quite an acceptable substitute
and I guess this must be one of the least visited capital cities in all of Europe it
may even be the least one this year and I think it just suffers from the fact that it's the capital
of a small country it's a bit out of the way and it doesn't have a good reputation especially on
YouTube if you look at other videos very rarely do they highlight anything positive about Moldova
or about its capital city, Chișinău, but the city has dramatically improved definitely in
the last five years just the lifestyle here has definitely moved on leaps and bounds from
when the first time when I came here which is actually back in 2009 it was a completely different
world almost. As the sun is just setting there behind the public buildings behind me behind
the Arc de Triomphe it's kind of an apt metaphor I got the jacket on it's the end of summer we're
now into Autumn so let's go together and take a tour around Moldova's capital. Hai să mergem!
- I make a video of how Conor makes me a video - Exactly I'm interviewing the one and only
Ana Maria so you've lived in Ireland before Ana Maria you were there for like five years
if I remember - For six years actually -- Six - Six years all together yes and uh like one of the big things
in Ireland is nightlife people talk about the atmosphere in the Irish pubs and this
kind of special atmosphere but how did you find it and how do you think in compares to nightlife here
in Chișinău, Moldova? - Yeah so I love the nightlife in Ireland it is pretty good but it's a lot of
pubs so you very often go to the pubs you have a pint like Guinness or something like this
and you enjoy your time here in Chișinău I can see a bit more clubs we don't have so many pubs
like maybe there are like two pubs in the whole city so usually you go to a club have fun and
enjoy yourself and you can order different kind of drinks so I feel that it's a bit fancier so
you can dress up nicely you know when you go to a pub you go in a very simple attire like you
wear like very simple plain usual clothes in here you have to get ready you have to get dressed
you have to like put a lot of makeup on and look good and enjoy yourself and you also can travel
from place to place you know like um if you want to be in one club now you can get a taxi which is
very cheap and go to another nightclub In Ireland I used to be very simple I get a pair of jeans, sneakers
and just go out and enjoy myself you know
- But here you you can't do that if you want to go to the club
- No, no, no ... high heels, beautiful attire, beautiful clothes ...
It's a lot of makeup so you have to like go proper clubbing - You have to
dress too impress if you want to go out in Chișinău - Absolutely you
cannot go just in sneakers and jeans absolutely not you have to look stunning
So what should you be wearing when you go out on the town in Chișinău? Is it going to be
a dress shirt or is it going to be a more casual t-shirt and the reason I'm bringing this up is not
because I'm about to pivot into fashion advice in general it's because in Chișinău the nightlife
is split down the middle between places that are the high-end kind of bottle service crazy
amounts of alcohol night out and those that are more alternative more casual and probably going
to be focusing on the electronic music more so it is important before you head out the door
to be dressed in either one of those two styles because if you show up at the alternative style
you're not going to get past face control most likely because you're not gonna have the right
dress code so let's make a decision here and head out and paint the town red in crazy Chișinău!
- When you're here in Chișinău versus Dublin how do guys approach you?
- Here, they approach me
- Yeah! In Dublin they didn't?
- Not that much! I don't know why but
in Dublin probably because there is a culture that you have to be a bit more careful you know
you cannot approach everyone that much in here you can just like get out with somebody will
buy you a cocktail will buy you a drink and you're gonna feel I don't know like yeah I can
say but more people would approach girls here and men feel a bit more open to approach women here
- You don't need to worry about that here actually you've got to do the opposite you've
got to be настоящий мужик настоящий мужик yes yeah a real man basically and uh take initiative
- What's your name? - Olia - Olia? Ok, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you
- Which one is your favorite artist, like?
Which are you the most excited about? from today?
- From today or both days? - From today, yes?
Jah Khalib
- Jah Khalib, ok!
- He has a very nice soft voice and of course the beautiful Irina Rimes.
Very gorgeous! I like her so much - Yeah I'm also looking forward to that and
are all Moldovan girls as beautiful as you? - Thank you! You are beautiful too for us.
- Thank you so much. - You're welcome!
- What else does Chișinău have that's cool that's not chicks?
- I mean you're gonna try obviously like the wine is great
the ... like for me it's also the ambience in a way it's kind of like Chișinău that was kind of
a romantic city it's like you know nice parks, you could walk everywhere, cafes, I mean it's all
about finding the right people obviously too like I've really made great friends for life here
- So get out from the camera oh
- You can film Adrian in this case as he's a really beautiful girl
Yeah like I always say in Mexico it's just automatic you meet people and they're smiling
and they're going to talk to you like I always say this like if you're at a bus
stop you know strangers just talk to each other and it's like the most normal thing but here
people are more reserved more cold definitely but like once you break that little barrier
it's uh you realize that it's just it's just like just like a Mexican if anything
This is my favorite ice-cream place in Chișinău.
Also got friendly staff here as well as the best ice-cream. It's like being in Florence or in Rome
as you can see I'm a bit conservative I always have chocolate with pistachio but very tasty!
Kharkiv is never far away from the heart!
- My city is like straight here in my heart so yeah!
- So we just met here hanging out in Chișinău and it's so funny you know like to meet
girls from a Kharkiv, my favorite city where normally right now I would be partying
with clients, we meet up here yeah in Chișinău. All of us are kind of like refugees in a sense
- Yeah, we are! We miss Kharkiv so badly
- Yeah - Like I mean because for us maybe because it's our home city and we miss it like
so much and there is our family there is our friends and uh like we want to come back as
soon as it's possible for real - You know what fuck Russia, fuck Putin! Yes exactly!
- Exactly, appreciate your freedom while you have it because it can always be taken away.
- We love Ireland, we like each country
besides Russia - Exactly.
- I just found a Canadian, right? - A Canadian born and breed! - And you've just moved to Chișinău, Moldova
- 2 weeks ago yeah you know what I'll be honest like I love that Chișinău is a more simple
life um you can really focus on the things that you want to whether it's yourself or
your business or whatever it takes away the distractions and allows you just to kind of
like be that's what I love about this city it's like yeah right like - Exactly everybody ...
- Just a lot of love and everyone here is a good vibe