Moldova

I went to Moldova for work. Mastercard called and asked if I could do a trend seminar – and of course I said yes. And I got to spend three days there. So lets talk a bit of Moldova – because I think I am in love.

Moldova is a pretty unexpected place to fall in love with – but hear me out. There are things here that point towards new trends in travel. It really doesn’t have to be Moldova, but the way we see things and choose destinations for our vacation might change over time.

One of my first relections in Moldova was “this feels like Lisbon in the 90s”. What does Moldova 2024 have in common with Lisbon 1998? The capital of Portugal in the 90s was very unexploited. Few tourists were here. Lisbon offered some unique archiecture and it was affordable. When most of my friends went to Barcelona, I went to Lisbon. I came back from vacation with stories of new wine, warm sensations, a new culture and plain “sun and fun”.

Exactly this is what we are all looking for 2024. We all want a summer experience that isn’t overcrowded.

This April I went to another Eastern European city (Prague) which has gotten super touristic and expensive. Admission to the Jewish cemetery alone is 20 euro. Not including the synagogue etc. Admission to the Jewish cemetery in Moldova was free of charge. And not crowded at all.

Who wants to go to Lisbon 2024 when you only meet other tourists? Noone actually lives in Lisbon any longer. It is all rented out on Airbnb anyway…

I realise that people reading this might not book a ticket to Moldova. And that is ok. My job is not to promote this. But my job is to look at trends, needs, dreams and new behaviour and I think there are details in this trip we can learn from.

So let’s do this. Here are my thoughts on Moldova.

Introduction

Quick – what is the capital of Moldova?? Do you already know it or should I tell you? The capital of Moldova is Chisinau and that is more or less where I spent my three days.

The city is not super big. 700 000 people live here and this is properly the captial. All the governmental buildings are here.

Chisinau is absolutley one of the greenest cities I have been to. Parks everywhere and plenty of trees. In the city center there are two parks where a lot of the activities happen. Being a proud reading nation (I have never seen so many bookshops in a city like here) one of the parks have an “alley of the poets” with Alexander Pushkin as one of them.

You could say that the parks kind of work as a normal city square. This is where the nice cafes are and also dance events etc.

This trip I didn’t have time to do any museums but there are plenty. I do miss a bit of contemporary art in Chisinau but perhaps I simply didn’t find it. A fairly new insitute called Artcor should be evidence that there is a creative industry in the city.

I was amazed to see that there were so many welldressed people in Chisinau. This creative class with taste and money… Honestly. Is this the best looking capital of the world?? And very few drunken people on park benches. I met one (!) beggar asking for change. No adidas overalls. No, people wore nicely ironed shirts and dresses.

The city is full of cute cafes. There are of course local chains but in general – super cute. Food is nice. I didn’t have time to try so many but if you are interested in looking at prices have a look at this one – La Placinte. I had local chicken with “mamalinga” and that cost 8 euros.

In general, the city is packed with these quirky and nice bars. I had lovely drinks at Marlene.

Of course Moldova is a huge wine producers. Plenty of wine here.

And since I was here for Mastercard I learned that Moldova and Chisinau have like a 98% penetration of contact payments, meaning you don’t need cash here. You just use your phone or creditcard. But you might need cash for taxis.

Architecture and sights

Just like you go to Lisbon to see “azulejos” or the tiles, you go to Chisinau to see old Sovjet architecture, or as we call it nowadays – ostalgie. In Chisinau many of these buildings need a car, so not necessarily walkable but I arranged a taxi for two hours to drive me around.

Read more about old Soviet architecture online. For instance here.

There are of course a few churches worth visiting.

And a interesting Jewish heritage.

And last but not least. I got the opportunity to meet Liuba who is Moldavian, but lives and works in Sweden. We both love old mosaic walls and there are PLENTY in Chisinau.

This mural is actually copied and exhibited at the Romanian exhibition at this year’s Venice Biennale.

Summary

So a summary. As a trend we are looking for unique experiences. We don’t want the same Barcelona or Corfu experience that everyone else gets. In general we are looking for affordability. It is said that Tirana at Albania is getting a lot of attention and it has a lot of “right”. Affordability, new experiences etc. Chisinau has no real beach and basically no water (river, lake or sea) and I don’t really think that Chisinau is “the new Barcelona”. But it is really, really nice. Go here if you want to see a green city with nice looking people and some unique architecture.

I hope to come back. My trip was ten out of ten.