Municipiul Galaţi

Well going into Moldova was an experience in many many ways

After almost missing Moldova out of our European tour due to it being so small we just didn't notice it on the map 🙈 luckily we noticed in time to make a quick one day trip there!

Crossing the border we met the funniest border control man ever, making jokes about Victorias Secret and when we declared no drugs or guns he said "oh really why!?want to buy some!?" 🤣

We were chuckling all the way into Moldova, we thought, until we were met by the Moldovan security (the first guy was just the Romanian exit guard we realised) who was much less friendly and much more thorough... We eventually got through, and began the short drive to the winery we were booked at, the road quality made a short drive take a lot longer.

We pulled over to make breakfast, and it wasn't until Braces was already frying himself garlic and tomatoes (he normally only has porridge) and the smell wafting out of the window, that we looked out and realised it was wafting straight into a huge refugee camp 😭 the border we entered was the point between Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, so there was a huge area of tents and toilets (with police, fire and ambulance people too), all with Turkish flags and AFAD on, which I looked up and found out is a crisis prevention and intervention organisation from Turkey. This particular camp was home to of course women and children who have fled Ukraine, though around 95% of the 250,000 refugees here in Moldova are in fact housed in family homes.
When you see how poor Moldova is, and how modest the homes are, it really makes you realise how much impact this would have on your average Moldovian family.

The video of us driving, is on one of the main roads... So think the m62 🤣

Aside from the refugee camp and lots of small one storey houses, we mainly saw a lot of nothing and animals as most the road to the winery was through countryside.Read more