In the year 2010 we made with an old Renault Espace a 20,000 km long road trip –Around the Black Sea. In six months we crossed elven countries:Poland, Ukraine, Romania,Bulgaria, Moldova, Russia,Georgia, Azerbaijan. The Caspian Sea was our most eastern point of the trip. On the way back we drove through: Armenia, Nagorny Karabakh, Turkey and finally Serbia, where our car gave up.
We met the Gipsy King in Moldova, became good friends with a poor family in the autonomous republic Transnistria, fell in love with Crimean landscape, hated corrupted Russian police, had a good rest in Chechen villages in Georgia, melt in 42 Celsius degrees in Azerbaijan, got wet in Nagorno-Karabakh, were asking questions about Turkey in Armenia and about Armenia in Turkey. And all this with a small, not even one year old daughter Hanna.
At the end of Moldovan world, after long long awful roads (“Drum in lucru” – means road during renovation but we didn’t see any renovation!) – in small Lalova village we found a lovely place: to stay for night or to eat.
In Saharna, less than 100 km north from Chisinau you can find something for your soul and something for your eyes.
Because all good tourists should check it out: Tipova Monastery – Easter Europe’s largest cave monastery.
That was a day when Hanna was repeating all the time: “GAGA GAGA”. So our destination was clear: Gagauzia, another autonomous region of Moldova, when Christian Turks are living.
Fairy place (like the picture photoshoped by Tom, heh – the original one you find inside the post): cave monastery Orheiul Vechi. The room was filled with the smell of garlic. And we met a real monk.
I feel so happy to be on the trip! And more and more often I’m wondering why not all the parents are packing baby to their car and leaving to discover the world together?
In old shabby Soviet block there is living a family. With no warm water except winter but with warmest hospitality we met until now. Welcome to Crasnoe, tiny town in Transnistria.
The town (like all Transnistria) is lead by Sheriff Smirnov, on the streets a lot of Renault Espace cars (so we felt very welcome) and… smiling faces: after 3 years I came back to Tiraspol.
The most what Hanna liked was jewelery and golden teeth. We liked the most smiling eyes and real family feelings. Warm soup, freshly baked cake and sweet cherries to take with us. Not much time is needed to get through social structures: from talking with kids to drinking with the “king”.
Today Hanna is 10 months old! Last weeks were a crazy fast change of life with her. And I’m not talking about different countries or climates – but discovering the world.
Neighborhood of Parcul Valea Morilor in Chisinau. Shopping bread in the morning, visiting hospital, having police meeting, fighting with embassies. We are living a Chisinau life.
And again we crossed UE-not UE border. Again without a problem, again a bit excited. Hello Moldova.
Danube Delta where Danube river split into 3 channels and spills into Black Sea is a 4187 square km wetland (also partly in territory of Ukraine). This makes a heaven for 300 species of birds and 150 species of fish. National park where every private man has a boat to organize trips.
So first we visited Saturn, Venus, Jupiter and Neptun… Not so cosmic seaside resorts with hundreds of not the most beautiful hotels. But looks like place to be in the summer – Romanian seaside is not so big and all country has to find his square meter on the sand.
Bucharest time was a time with our friends: with Polish-Romanian couple Ania and Costin with small (younger but not smaller) Magda, with Andrei and his lovely family, with Luisa in students dormitory.
Million places to see but we cannot stay in Transzlvania forever. So just brief stays, walks and talks in the heart of the country: small village Slimnic, in two important cities: Sibiu and Brasov and part of Transfagaras Road.
First time stopped by police (not counting night visit of border police during our camping)! I think they were just curious why we are passing by same village four times.
In Romania it’s not always sunny, we had storms and rain too. But we liked it!
In Turda, not far from Cluj-Napoca we visited Salt Mine. Knowing just that it’s big and old – we came downstairs, with Hanna packed in warm clothes. And that was the most surrealistic surprise ever! In the hole after the the bell.shaped salt mine (opened in 1271!) there is an amazing modern playing ground.
Bianca Felseghi from “Ziua de Cluj” daily newspaper in Cluj-Napoca found our blog by friends, made a comment and that’s how we get to know each other. Because we like journalist we had a coffee with her on the old town on Cluj. That’s what was published afterwords.