To Discover Transnistria

Tiraspol aprtment block, Transnistria, 2012

How We Traveled Back to USSR

Everything started with Alex.

He had a birthday at the end of November, and being a hungry adventurer he wanted to celebrate it in an unorthodox way.

“How about we go visit the last separatist republic in Europe?”

— Alex

The only possible answer to all this was CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

Fast forward I picked up my other close friend Mitko, and together we went by car to Bucharest, and from there together with Alex all the way to Chisinau (Moldova). After a crazy night's party there, we went to the Chisinau bus station.

Fun Fact About Transnistria

On the third day of our Eastern European Road trip, we planned to visit Transnistria. Ever heard of it?! Most Europeans feel exactly the same about the separatist republic founded in 1992 right after USSR collapsed.

Alex & Mitko purchased the tickets for the marshrutka that we hope to bring the 3 of us seamlessly to Tiraspol, right in the heart of Transnistria, where still the communist evil rules...

What Was The First Thing We Did In Tiraspol

As soon as we arrived in Tiraspol, we exchanged local money...Now we are rich! Right after I (georgi) shot this picture a local old lady wanted to volunteer to redo the very same image and instead of shooting Alex use her as the main object. Of course, the Transnistrians rubles should be replaced by very green American dollars. It comes without saying that she should keep them forever!!!! Long story short...this day wasn't babushka's (old lady in Russian) happiest day in the life.

First Impression of Tiraspol

Cold, windy, depression...behind us is the Tiraspol's main train stations....with NO trains, NO wagons, NO electricity wires. Hey hey....we always look at the bright side of things...Look the train stations is freshly painted. That is something hard to find words to describe.

Sharo expecting foreign guests, Tiraspol, Transnistria

Time Flows Differently In Tiraspol

Regular apartment building, Tiraspol, Transnistria

To many westerners or people from the far East, it might be surprising to discover people live in such buildings. I recall couple of years ago I had friends from Japan coming to Bulgaria to visit me. Among other things, they wanted to see old communist blocks, which looked 10x better than those of Tiraspol, but still…communist.

Tiraspol's Architecture Week has been open with the main theme "communism from the 70's and 80's today"...oh, wait....even now it looks totally the same...everywhere.

Very strange, wherever we go during the Eastern European Road Trip we hit on that guy. We stop at a gas station in Romania, he is there. We take a walk in a wine yard somewhere in the countryside before the Romanian - Moldavian border...again he is there. We go to a Milestii Mici winery near Chisinau....and what to see...We start to think he is following us.

Look, now he is pretending to be an ordinary soldier...but instantly we recognize him. The true Transnistrian soldier has a bottle of vodka in his pocket.

Do you want to wash your hands?

Is Everything in Transnistria from the ‘70’s?

City House of Culture, Tiraspol, Transnistria

The city house of culture has been recently renovated. Even the path to it has been fixed. So, there are also some new things in Transnistria.
Nevertheless, it is hard to see people on the streets.

Sovjet Tank from WWII, Tiraspol, Transnistria

Total respect for the Batushka all around the city.

We have tried to make pictures of the newly built Lenin statue in front of the national parliament. Just before we finished making fun of the pink marble a guy from the secret service appeared. We were kindly asked to delete those pics. Sorry guys, you should imagine the majestic 10m figure of Lenin looking towards Street #25.