In between
July 13, 2011
(Picture: Lenin Street, Bendery – Transnistria)
Some time ago, I booked a plane ticket to a country named the Republic of Moldova. When I informed those asking about my travel destination, many of them were puzzled to find out that a country with this name exists, and little did really know where to situate the relevant country on the world map (to which my answer that there is a country in between Romania and Ukraine was often welcomed with wonder).
End of the geography lecture? Not really. To my own amazement I found out that in between Moldova (you know, that country in between Romania and Ukraine) and Ukraine proper, the region of Transnistria declared independence from Moldova. However not recognized by any country in the world, they do have border controls (and how), an own currency, a president appearing on photoshopped billboards reading Transnistria – Abchazia – brothers in the struggle for existence, and a protocommunist political regime.
Walking around the streets of Tiraspol (the capital) actually feels like travelling back to the USSR of the 1990′s. And getting on the bus back to Chisinau, Moldova in order to pass the border crossing before 22:34 (the time by which I was ordered by the authorities to leave the territory) felt slightly surreal. As Lonely Planet would say, travelling in this region is “as rewarding as it is challenging”.
