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| Over a bad night's sleep wondering if we could leave Transdniestr without landing in jail, we woke and walked to the train station under a dark early morning sky. Police packed the station. With nervous stomachs we walked to the ticket counter. "Dva billieta, Odesa," we said and spent our last rubles. Then we boarded a rickety train for the four hour ride. The border turned out to be anticlimactic. Transdniestr or Moldova didn't maintain any border exit formalities; we didn't see a guard. On the Ukrainian side we gave our passports to a young looking guard who turned out to be a trainee. She nicely stamped our passports for us without a fuss. When two senior officials arrived - and yes, they looked like trouble - we already had our passports stamped so we couldn't be pressed. Instead, these officials pulled two other people off the train, which caused a lot of crying because an entire family had to get off with them. They didn't re-board. The train continued to Odesa where we will spend the next two days. | |||
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The
highest mountain in Moldova is 430 meter Mount Balanesti. This train couldn't
make it over an anthill but it carried us over the Moldova-Ukraine border without
a hitch. | |||
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The lavish Pasazh, a shopping mall in Odesa where the shop
fronts look so much better than the merchandise. | |||
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| Odesa is full of baroque buildings. | |||
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| Old men wear their medals as status symbols. | |||
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Puppy dog puts out a tin for tips or biscuits. | |||