The good thing about Chisinau, Moldova, is that there aren't a lot of tourists-This means it is easier to hang with locals, see where they eat, shop, etc. The musuems (particularly the one I went to the other day), wasn't particularly crowded. It's nice not to worry about stepping in front of people with selfie sticks, large tour groups, etc.
The bad thing about Chisinau, Moldova-is also that there aren't a lot of tourists. This means that little or no tourist infrastructre exists. No free walking tours, souvenir shops, or even simple brochures on attractions. Plus so few people speak fluent English, there are very few I can ask about attractions, history, etc.
Yesterday was my final day in Chisineu, and although the weather was cloudy and rainy, it was actually a good day to walk around, which I did.
The First thing after breakfast at the hostel (which was just bread and margerine), was to go to a bookstore advertised in an English language map as a place to buy books in Chisinau. This indeed was true-but none of the books we're in English. I then went to a coffee house, which looks like a swatch of Seattle placed in Chisinau. I had an citrus amaretto coffee, which was very good. The cost for the coffee and piece of pie was about $3.50, which is reasonable in the US but quite expensive here. The coffee house was one of the few places I heard fluent English spoken-i got the impression this is a popular place with ex-pats. When I was done with the table, a 50ish looking something man, who spoke very clear English, along with his teenage son (I'm guessing) came over and asked if I was done.
I asked if he was from the US-it just turns out he was from Germany but spoke very clear English-Somehow he thought to mention there we're a lot of very educated people in Germany (as if I didn't know that) when I commented on his English. I mentioned I knew that. I tended to like his son more then him-who said nothing but just waved.
I was going to go to a museum after that (I don't like musuems, but being it was raining and the history museum I went to the other day only cost $.50 to get in, I thought I might), but being that the rain stopped, I just kept walking through two adjoining parks. It was actually quite pretty with the leaves cahning color. I walked past flower markets and various statues, and outside the park, government buildings with the protestors trying to throw out the corrupt leaders.
For lunch, I went to a communist style cafeteria, which I actually went to a few days earlier-I had some soup (borcht), potatoes, and mushrooms, plus some sweet pear like juice for a communist-like price of about $2.00.
I still wanted to buy a book on Moldova-but didn't know where to look. I went to the Radisson Blu hotel, one of the few chain hotels downtown, hoping there would be a store selling souvenirs inside-but there was just a sign mentioned "Radisson Blu shops opening soon". The doorman, again one of the few people speaking fluent English, mentioned to go to the Sun City Mall, which was just across the street. The mall had everything-it was a 4 story downtown building with small shops, from shoes to cellphones-but no souviners, and no English language books.
I later went back to the hostel to take a nap. I also figured I would ask the man who worked in the hostel if he knew of any places for souviniers such as books I can buy. I figured this was probably an exercise in futility-as his English is poor and doesn't seem to understand most of what I ask for. I was correct-He didn't realize I wanted to buy a book-but he found one on the shielf written in Romanian I could look at.
After taking a nap, I went to dinner at a sushi restaurant I found in the Sun City mall. I was the only one in the restaurant, which is usually a deterrent for eating there-but I was excited to eat sushi for a change. I then went to bed, knowing that early the next day I would get up early to take the train to Odessa.
