Transnistria


I assume very people have heard of Transnistria.  When the Soviet Union fell apart in the early 1990s,   Moldova declared their independence, but the eastern part of Moldova which was more ethnically Russian wanted to be separate from Moldova.  There was a 2 year war and after Russian intervention, the two sides eventually agreed to a ceasefire & Transnistria was formed, but it is only recognized by a few countries.

I decided to go on a daytrip there and meet a tour guide for 2.5 hour tour of this small country.  There is a central "bus station" in Chisinau which is different from the one that I arrived at.  There were literally dozens of minibuses parked everywhere in different directions with signs in the windows indicating where they were going.  I eventually found the right bus and paid the driver a few dollars for the 1.5 hour ride.



In the past, there were many incidents of border guards in Transnistria wanting bribes from Westerners when they were leaving the country, but supposedly this doesn't happen anymore.  When I went inside the border control office, I tried to explain in my limited Russian that I just needed a temporary visa for a few hours.  I was then passed off to another person who needed take my passport upstairs for further scrutiny.  After a few minutes I received my passport back and received my visa, After arriving at the bus station in Transnistria, I met with a guy from Poland and the tour guide.

The tour was interesting and mostly covered military monuments, some parks, a few Lenin statues, and the major buildings in the two major towns (Tiraspol & Bendery).  Russia has military troops there and provides heavy financial support to the country.  After the tour, we stopped for lunch & afterwards I headed back to the bus station.  Unfortunately, the few remaining Transnistrian rubles I had were useless since no one wanted to exchange them back to anything else.  I purchased a bus ticket back to Moldova & was pulled off the bus for several minutes at the border for some more scrutiny of my US passport.

I can't say it was the most exciting day of my trip, but it was an interesting place to visit for a few hours.

Here are some photos from my daytrip to Transnistria.









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