TIRASPOL, TRANSNISTRIA

2015-11-11, 22:15, THORIN

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We are being a bit cheeky here calling Transnistria a country, but we are classifying the areas we travel through by governing bodies, and Tiraspol is certainly no longer governed by Moldova, and hasn't been since 1994. So what is Transnistria? Transnistria is a forgotten break-away state that declared independence amidst the eastern European turmoil of the early 90s when the iron curtain fell. After a few years of tussling with Moldova, a sliver of territory down the far east of the country decided that it felt a closer allegiance to its Russian roots than Moldovan. The Transnistrian governing body declared independence in 1994, and has since received full backing from Russia, as well as recognition by the other Russian backed breakaway states of South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Abkhazia. The state borders Ukraine to the east, which is reasonably easy to enter from Transnistria. However, entering Moldova through Transnistria could be potentially difficult, as you will not receive a Moldovan entry stamp, and we read stories about people being detained! Needless to say, we entered from the Moldovan side and continued onto Ukraine.

Also, if you spend more than 12 hours in the country then you need to register formally with the police, which we couldn't be arsed to do. And if you stay more than 24 hours (to the minute) then you can incur a hefty fine upon leaving! We decided to go to Tiraspol early, and then leave in the late afternoon to hit Odessa by nightfall.

We hopped on a bus out of Chisinau, which was an experience in itself. Since we cannot speak Moldovan (which is essentially Romanian), we had to really on peopel speaking broken English and/or broken Spanish. Romanian is a romance language, although heavily influenced by the slavic languages, but some nouns are common and Romanian speakers who have spent time in Spain pick up the language quickly. Anyway, we bought a ticket at a booth in the bus area, which apparently was from the wrong company. We were chided loudly in Moldovan by a bus driver, who walked us round the where we bought the tickets and then had it off with the ticket lady. In the end she seemed to win the arguement, and the bus driver begrudgingly let us onto his bus to Tiraspol.

Entering Transnistria was suprisingly easy. All Transnistrians are given Transnistrian passports by Transnistria, Moldovan passports by the Moldovan government, Russian passports by the Russians (who prop up the country) and some even get Ukrainian passports because Ukraine would like the land too! As we drove through the poor farmland demarcating the informal boundary between the break-away state and Moldova, the bus stops and everyone gets out and forms a queue by a hut. We follow suit, not entirely sure what will happen. The guards in the guardhouse took our passports and issued us 12-hour stay visas on a sheet of paper, where the transliterated each of our names into russian (which was pretty cool). We then got back on the bus and made our way to Tiraspol. 

There is not a tonne of stuff to see on the way to Tiraspol - mostly farmland, but before long we pulled into the 'bus terminal'. Tiraspol was one of the big cities in Romania back in the day, and as such the city still holds some of its grandeur. However, much of it has been replaced by amazing Soviet architecture and statues. We got off the bus, and this cracked out lady came up to us. She had previously introduced herself to us in Chisinau, and offered to help us around. We politely declined, but she seemed pretty adamant. Luckily she had lots of bags, so we pulled a fast one and slipped out of the station!

We walked through some cool neighbourhoods as we made our way to the central area of the city, which had some cool architecture. The city looked about 50 years old (as the Russians had funded its rebuilding in the last few decades) and we were amazed by how well-maintained it was or being a forgotten de-facto state - in fact it was in better condition than much of Chisinau. However, I suppose this is no great surprise as this often seems to be the case with communist states in Europe!

We walked around for most of the day, going down the huge boulevards that were constructed in the centre of the city that could well be Minsk or Pyongyang I imagine, and passed some amazing buildings, as well as the great 'Batman Lenin' statue, which is a statue of lenin that has a remarkable simialrity to batman. You are very much reminded that you are in a communist, ex-soviet state. Aside from the statues of Lenin and giant tanks parked around the city, hammer and sickles galore pepper the buildings and walls, giving a very interesting vibe.

We changed our money into Transnistrian Roubles (as that is the only accepted currency in most places, although they supposedly accept USD and Russian Roubles as well), and had some delicious street food. Back before all the war and stuff, Tiraspol was a vibrant city surrounded by super fertile land, and the land today, although neglected, still yields excellent food.

The city did not come across as 'super poor' as it had been described, but in the last few years, rich Russians have been pouring money into Transnistria, and particularly Tiraspol, which seemed to be the source of a lot of the new found wealth. Over 2/3rds of the GDP of Transnistria is directly from Russia.

We eventually made our way back to the bus station and hopped on a bus going to Odessa, as we didn't want to extend our visas and there wasn't much more to see. Still, it was an incredible place to visit, notwithstanding the international limbo that it exists in. Definitely worth a visit!