[English] - The roads are kind of smashed up, poverty is pretty clear here there isn't really
good infrastructure. There aren't so many amazing buildings to see but
So I've made it to Chisinau which is the capital of the Republic of Moldova.
Moldova is a landlocked country in southeastern Europe. I'm in the Botanical
Gardens which are quite nice. You can see as I pan around not so bad it's kind of
an I guess an oasis of calm and quiet in an urban setting. It's right in the
city centre here so Chisinau has a population about half a million. The
official language of Moldova is Romanian but Russian is really widely spoken here
and as are some other languages like in the south where you have Gagauz in
Gagauzia which is a Turkic language for a turkic-speaking minority there. So it's
really interesting for me about the language situation here is how tolerant
everybody is about bilingualism you can really speak in Romanian, Russian or a
mixture of both whenever you want there's no no problem at all and having
lived previously in Belgium where there's a lot of friction between French
and Dutch speakers there, this is really I guess a model of tolerance in this in
this regard. Also the country of course has a separatist enclave called
Transnistria where in part one of the reasons for separation was a language
issue because there is majority Russian-speaking as opposed to here
where it's majority Romanian speaking but in spite of that it's actually
pretty cool. You can speak in both in a way it's kind of like a language
learner's dream to be able to come here and speak at least two languages on a
daily basis without any problem so that's one thing that Moldova certainly
has going for it for a multilingual traveler.
So here we have an example of a bilingual sign in Moldova, here in the zoo.
That's warning you that bathing is strictly forbidden and here we have a
sign telling us that the animals are dangerous in both Romanian and Russian.
[Italian] - So I'm here with Ana, a friend from Chisinau.
So Ana, you can speak in both languages here. - Yes. We are in Moldova ...
Whoops, excuse me I should speak in Romanian ...
[Romanian] Here we are in Moldova and we speak 2 languages because we were of the Soviet Union and
here we speak Russian and Romanian. This is a plus for us because it's easy to go elsewhere
to other countries like Ukraine and Russia and other countries where they speak Russian and Romanian.
[Russian] - Is it possible to speak without any problem in Russian and Romanian everyday?
- There are people who speak in Russian as their language
but we speak [mainly] in Romanian but they're those who don't speak Russian because
the Soviet Union is already gone and then there are those who still continue to speak it.
[English] - These external pipes, very common in the former Soviet Union to see on the road
something that in Western Europe you put under the ground.
Yeah I'm in Chisinau's central food market and as you can see there's a wide
array of produce being brought straight in from the farms nearby to the city and
this is one of the things that in spite of Moldova being Europe's poorest country
that you can have as a benefit here because all this produce is so fresh
and more I guess developed countries in inverted
commas a lot of time, a lot of the time we buy food that isn't quite as fresh or
as good. We buy in the supermarket. It's processed. It doesn't have the same nutrient
quality as you're gonna find here straight off the fields in Moldova so
this is one of the advantages at times of being from a less developed country
so let's go in to buy some fresh food.
[Russian] What is it possible to buy here? What's tasty? Can I have some grapes, please?
Which ones are better for me? How much is that? - 20 Lei. [1 euro] - How much?
- 20 euros - 20 euros, I don't think so!
Thanks a lot. - And you. [Romanian] - Thanks!
[English] I've been to the market I've gotten my my grapes here. Gonna
enjoy them right now - very tasty - so I'm gonna see you at my next stop which is Orhei Vechi.
So this is basically a complex including several things. It's not just one
historical site. There are Turkish baths. There is a Moldova monastery. There is a
Moldovan fort here and there's lots of other artefacts in this area and it's a
really really beautiful area. It's supposedly the most beautiful part of Moldova just
this little hill behind us and the valley below so we're gonna go down
there and take a look and then go up to the monastery right up here somewhere
and then take a closer look. There are also some catacombs there look interesting from
I've seen online so let's go check them out!
So here I am just walking up the hill towards the monastery in Orhei Vechi
and this is the most beautiful part
of Moldova as I was saying earlier you got this beautiful monastery in front of
me behind me you have some catacombs on on a ridge and then you've got this
beautiful vista out over the valley. It's quite yeah it's quite spectacular I
would say. Definitely worth making the trip out from Chisinau. It's only about
an hour's drive so this was definitely one that I'm glad I rushed to make
because it's about to ... the sun is about to go down so let's go and see the
monastery before it's where it's dark here.
So we're now finished up in Orhei Vechi and heading back to Chisianu,
the capital. As you saw there really beautiful vistas off the top of
the hill down onto the valley and of course a very beautiful monastery on top
and those interesting catacombs that you could see from the aerial shot
so see you back in Chisinau!
So greetings from Chisinau, the capital of Moldova.
I'm back here again. Today is a very special day. It's the Ziua Naţională a Vinului.
which is the national day of wine. So wine is something really important
here in Moldova. It's actually I think probably the most famous export from the
country maybe is their wine and you see wine production and every level so some
of the most famous vineyards here in Moldova are Pucari, Cricova
like almost I think 200 kilometers of these underground caverns where you can ....
where the wine is stored and you can sample that. That's really cool and quite unique here in Chisinau.
So that was my video from Moldova you might notice that the background has
changed little bit maybe not the back I'm in a similar country to Moldova the
same region and it's six months later because I've been editing that footage
that was shot back in September only now. It's now March 2018. Now I'm actually
here filming my next video my current vlog. That is going to be the next video
coming up which is from Brest in Belarus. They've just launched a five-day visa
free program to this city so it's something that a lot of you maybe are
interested in coming to see since its' new as an opportunity come without a visa
So if you enjoyed this video about Moldova then give it a big thumbs up if
you're not a subscriber like a lot of you aren't, hit that subscribe button
whack the notification bell beside it. If you are interested in more professional
tips about traveling I have a free gift for you below. Go down to the description
and click on my free training program for travelers. I would normally say
'la revedere' which is good bye in Romanian from Chisinau but actually I'm
in Brest in Belarus so it's gonna be 'до свидания' which is goodbye in Russian and
kind of appropriate for a video about Moldova so I look forward to seeing you in the next video!