Highlights of Moldova

Moldova

Moldova is one of the least visited countries in Europe, and also the poorest country on our continent.

Tourists visit Moldova mainly for the famous wine cellars with underground corridors of about 200 km, but also for monasteries carved in rocks, folklore and one of the best cuisines in Europe. No wonder that Moldova’s main motto is “Moldova discover the routes of life”.

Is it worth going to Moldova, which is the least discovered country in Europe?

Below 5 highlights of Moldova.

1. Moldovan cuisine

Moldovan cuisine is a combination of Turkish, Balkan, Russian and Jewish cuisine. This is the biggest discovery of a trip to Moldova and at the same time a reason to come back again someday.

Moldova is famous for soups – the most popular is “zama” or “zeama” – chicken soup with noodles and herbs with a sour taste and “ciorba” – based on broth with vegetables and offal, seasoned with kvass.

However, the national Moldovan dish is placinta, a type of yeast or semi-French dough with a pizza shape filled inside, e.g. with cheese, cabbage, meat, as well as with fruit (cherry, apples) and mamaliga, i.e. cornmeal with sheep’s cheese, greaves and cream (unlike in Romania, mamaliga can be a separate dish and not as an addition to meat or other dishes).

Other dishes include sarmale, i.e. cabbage rolls with rice and meat wrapped in grape or cabbage leaves, grilled meat, eggplant roulades, and peppers with sheep’s cheese. For dessert, try the so-called “Guguta hat” or pancakes filled with cherries and cream and topped with chocolate. For the main dishes and desserts, it is best to choose the Moldovan wines from the vineyards “Cricova” or “Purcari”.

It is best to try Moldovan cuisine in the La Placinte restaurant chain (about 6 places in Chisinau). However, for breakfast, it’s best to go to “La Mamuca” patisserie and compare how pretzels with poppy seeds, sesame or chocolate inside taste (covrigi, about 10 MDL per piece).

2. Cricova

Cricova is the most famous Moldovan vineyard (there are about 50 vineyards in Moldova) with underground corridors carved in limestone rock and over 120 kilometers long. The cellars are visited as part of guided tours using small melexes. Due to the fact that there is a constant temperature around 12-14 degrees Celsius throughout the year, it is worth taking warmer clothes with you.

During the trip, a visit is made to the place where champagne is produced and held (referred to as sparkling wine), as well as an underground church, 5 tasting rooms (each in a different style, e.g. sea or folk), an underground cinema (watching a 15-minute film on the history of Cricova). Between places you can drive through the streets with the names of grape varieties or types of wines. The most famous place is the National Collection, where approximately 1.3 million bottles of wine from various countries, including Moldova, were collected and bottles, which were a gift for famous politicians, e.g. Donald Tusk or Angela Merkel. Among the most famous exhibits is a bottle of red wine from Israel from 1902 “Easter Jerusalem”. Within the whole complex there is a wine shop and an elegant restaurant outside (Moldovan cuisine at affordable prices).

The cheapest tour is from Monday to Friday at 9.00 am at a price of 185 MDL (without tasting, about 1h30) or a tour with tasting 3 types of wine (450 MDL, 1h30).

3. Mileştii Mici

The former limestone mine was transformed into an underground vineyard with rooms for storing wine bottles. Currently, the basement of the vineyard has about 2 million bottles of various types of wine – the vineyard with collections of 1.5 million bottles has been entered on the Guinness list of records. Mileştii Mici produces its own wines, but they are mostly intended for export, e.g. to China.

Mileştii Mici is the largest underground vineyard in the world – you can move along corridors over 200 km long, although currently only 55 km of tunnels are used. You can rent your own wine storage room in the vineyard, which the Chinese use very willingly.

Unlike Cricova, you can only enter this vineyard with your own car, e.g. a rented one at the airport or a taxi – we must leave one place for the guide. During the trip lasting about 1 hour you can see the underground waterfall, limestone selection machine, the largest wine collection in the world and huge barrels for wine storage. Finally, the tasting rooms are visited, which can be reached by opening the door at the press of a mysterious button as in the films about agent 007 – these rooms are in a rustic style and are not as richly decorated as those in Cricova.

After leaving the surface, it is worth stopping at the store and watching 2 fountains with red and white wine gushing from bottles into glasses (however, it is only water colored with dyes).

The cheapest tour without tasting costs 200 MDL, and with tasting 3 types of wine and with snacks 350 MDL.

4. Orheiul Vechi and Țipova

Moldova is famous for its Orthodox monasteries carved out of rocks and located on the rivers. The most famous is the monastery in Orheiul Vechi carved in the cliff above the river Raut. Right next to the stone cross and belfry there is the entrance to the cave with the monastery and former monks’ cells. The interior, which was once decorated with paintings, consists of several altars and a wooden iconostasis. An elderly, old monk watches over this place. You can leave the monastery on a rock shelf with a view of the surroundings – in the walls you can see coins that are pressed there by pilgrims.

After visiting the monastery, it is worth going to Butuceni – a traditional village with wooden, colorful houses with porches and hidden wine cellars. In this town there are several guest houses with places where you can try Moldovan cuisine.

The monastery in Țipova is located about 100 km from Chisinau. The cells and main rooms of the monastery were carved out of limestone on the right bank of the Dniester. From the church located on the rock descends a narrow path down to the old cells and churches located in caves – this place was often abandoned by monks, and in the USSR was transformed into a tobacco warehouse. Here was the wedding of the most famous Moldovan hospodar, that is Stefan III the Great. From the path there is a great view of the wide Dniester River and the city of Transnistria (Popenc city) – on the river there is a border with a country that is not recognized by anyone. Churches and cells do not make a big impression due to the lack of any decorations. However, due to its location and calmness, this place can be considered one of the most interesting in Moldova.

Entrance to the monasteries is free (although there was a price list in Țipova, but no one charged).

5. Chisinau

Chisinau is not one of the most interesting or the most beautiful capitals in Europe – old trolleybuses and minibuses (marshrutki), former Soviet marketplaces, blocks of flats and houses as in a provincial city. Despite this, the city attracts tourists – the wide boulevard of Stefan III the Great with elegant shops, the shopping center of Malldova, a lot of green areas, e.g. in the center of Park of Stefan the Great with the busts of the most eminent Romanian writers. The city is a good starting point to visit other regions of Moldova (from Chisinau within 2-3 hours you can reach the north or south of the country).

In Chisinau there is good accomodation (apartments for rent) and decent local restaurants or bars such as the “La Placinte” chain (with delicious placinta) or the “La Mamuca” bar (great pretzels). In the evening you can go to a concert or a wine bar and check if “Cricova”, “Butuceni” or “Purcari” are better.

It is enough to spend about half a day on visiting Chisinau – it’s worth visiting the Orthodox Cathedral of the Nativity with a rich iconostasis and the Triumphal Arch from the nineteenth century, as well as the buildings of ministries or other offices from the time of the USSR. You should also visit the National Museum of the History of Moldova (entrance 10 MDL / person and children 2 MDL) in the old palace, where there is a reconstructed panorama of the battle of the Second World War, as well as the Ethnographic Museum and Natural History (entrance 10 MDL / person and children 2 MDL) in a Moorish style building with a peculiar collection of dinosaur bones and folk costumes. In your free time, you can go to the Piata Centrala market around the central bus station with a rich selection of vegetables, fruit, food and all sorts of things imported from China – the climate of old bazaars in Poland and the countries of the former USSR.

Practical information

Currency – 1 euro = 19 MDL (Moldovan leu)

Access – you can directly go from Poland to Chisinau by plane “LOT” or with changes with the low cost airlines “Wizzair”. A better option is to travel by plane “Ryanair” from Poland to Odessa and then a modern Moldovan train from Odessa to Chisinau (only 3h30, tickets from MDL 159.10 or on the Ukrainian railways page 252.13 UAH, trains only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays; only Ukrainian control, although it passes Transnistria)

Accommodation – apartments in Chisinau, e.g. “Stefan Cel Mare Lux 2 Rooms Apartment” – MDL 595 for 1 night for 4 people

Transport – it is best to rent a car, e.g. Dacia Logan for 2 days for PLN 200 (1 l of gasoline 95 for 18 MDL), minibuses (maxi-taxi) it is difficult to get to all interesting places or only 1 or 2 minibuses per day, taxi from Chisinau to airport for 100-200 MDL

Food – in the bar “La Mamuca” – coffee for 17 MDL, pretzels with chocolate inside for 10 MDL, sesame pretzels for 6 MDL, chicken patty for 16 MDL; 1.5 l water in the store for 10.75 MDL and a bottle of Moldavian wine around 50 MDL

In the restaurant “La Placinte” – bottle of wine “Cricova” for 125 MDL, chicken soup for 45 MDL, placinta with various filling for 40 MDL, eggplant roulades for 50 MDL, pelmeni for 60 MDL, 1 liter of home wine for 90 MDL, mamaliga with sheep cheese and greaves for 50 MDL, bottle of water “Jamnica” for 28 MDL, small fruit juice for 15 MDL, coffee for 24 MDL