I really wanted to come here. Though, to be honest, I'm not sure why. Maybe curiosity about the local wine, which you can buy anywhere, but surely tastes much better right here. And I wasn't disappointed. The wine and food are excellent, and on top of that, they cost next to nothing. In any case, wine is treated as a national beverage here — it's not even considered alcohol.

Chisinau is clean. Wide post-Soviet streets, trolleybuses and very kind, friendly people. Yet these pluses cannot mask the poverty of the average Moldovan. The grim concrete architecture, tragic roads and omnipresent brutalism sit oddly alongside the cleanliness that accompanies them. I have the impression that this country still has one foot in Russia, while the other - not yet fully functional - is trying to step into Europe.