Chisinau

I stayed in a comfortable but homey hotel that was built when Chisinau was an important military center for the USSR's Western area. Called Cosmos, it's at the end of Yuri Gagarin Ave., a major thoroughfare and home to numerous street-sellers who lay their secondhand items down on the sidewalk, hoping to get a little cash. The country is very, very poor.

The friend I had come to visit here, who was posted by the Peace Corps to a town in the south of Moldova, traveled up to stay at the hotel with me by one of the ubiquitous minivan bus services that run through the town, the countryside, and even into neighboring countries. We visited a couple of her favorite museums and had a wonderful evening meal at a restaurant called Propaganda.Read more