Thursday 7th November – Kiev

• Morning arrival Kiev, check into Kiev Central Station Hostel.
• Free afternoon in Kiev with optional trip to the shooting range
• Group drinks and dinner at the legendary Hospital Bar, a Kiev favourite, with some medically themed, entertaining shots!
• Overnight in hostel.

Friday 8th November – Chernobyl

• Day in Pripyat, ghost-town of the world’s worst nuclear disaster. Lunch on site. During the trip, we will be visiting some extra secret sites that cannot be mentioned here!
• Return to Kiev and head out for some dinner and dancing at a local 24 hour bar.
• Overnight in hostel.

Saturday 9th November – Odessa

• Extreme Missile Base (ICBM Rocket Base) Tour in Ukraine.
• If the Missiles were launched from this top secret Soviet base, the target cities were New York, Chicago, London and Paris and after about 30 min and one button the world as we know it would have been gone!
• Group 1 take the bus back to Kiev and end tour.
• Group 2 continue onto Odessa where we check into our hostel.

Sunday 10th November – Tiraspol

• Breakfast in Odessa, followed by tour of the Catacombs (extra cost).
• Free afternoon.
• Early evening departure for the 3 hour bus ride to Tiraspol, capital of the breakaway republic of Transnistria.
• On arrival in Tiraspol, we register with immigration  before transferring to the local version of the Soviet Inn tourist hotel. This is the quintessential Soviet experience in the region’s original tourist hotel.
• We go for dinner locally with drinks afterwards in the country’s only night club.
• Overnight in Soviet Hotel.

Monday 11th November – Tiraspol

• We get up early for breakfast near the hotel.
• City tour of Tiraspol.
• Pobedi Park (across the street from the hostel). Chance to ride the 50′s style amusement park.
• Walk down October 25th Street (the main drag) which has a large billboard of former President Smirnoff (real name) standing with the Presidents of 2 other Soviet breakaway Republics of South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
• October 25th St. to City Hall (government). It has a large bust of Lenin for great photos.
• Russian Orthodox Church of Tiraspol. Newly renovated with golden domes. Guests can buy inexpensive Russian Icons here. We will go inside. Women must wear a scarf on their head and men must take their hats off.
• Statue of Russian General Suvorov.
• The Eternal Flame Independence War Memorial.
• Parliament, housing the biggest statue of Lenin outside Russia.
• We walk to the river park. There is a walking bridge here for great panoramic photos of the river and downtown Tiraspol.
• Lunch at Andy’s Pizza, somewhat of a PMR icon of a restaurant.
• Convenient store in the centre of town with $3 for a bottle of one of the most prized Cognacs in Europe (outside France of course). During Soviet times, this was the brandy.
• Overnight at Soviet Hotel.

Tuesday 12th November – Tiraspol

• We leave the hotel for Bendery via mini-bus number 20. The journey takes 20 minutes.
• We arrive in Bendery center. We enter one of the largest outdoor markets in all of Transnistria. Guests will be able to shop and buy anything they want at very, very low prices. Also, many opportunities for old world type photos.
• We leave the market and continue walking down the main street until we reach the big white church in the center, well renovated and a favorite place for couples to get married.
• We continue walking down the main street until we arrive at the old cinema house and Lenin park. We view the main fountain and the bust of Lenin.
• We continue to walk down the main street until we reach the train station, renovated and well maintained. It seems like a ghost town because only a few trains stop here, and there are almost no passengers.
• Beside the train station is an old Soviet train from WII with the hammer and sickle on the front. Inside is a museum of the civil war between Moldova and Transnistria.
• There are many war relics and great photos to take. (It is 100% free.)
• When finished with the museum tour, we walk back past the park until we arrive at the city hall. The city hall has been left exactly as it was during the civil war still filled with bullet holes. Great for photos.
• Lunch in the town.
• We continue our walk to the river. There are statues and old amusement rides  such as bumper cars here. It looks right out of the 1950′s, but the rides are still operated and are very cheap.
• After a stroll down the river, we walk back to the bus stop to catch our mini-bus back to Tiraspol.
• We check out of our hotel and go to the train station for the short ride to Chisinau.
• Check into centrally located Chisinau Cosmos Hostel.
• Free evening and overnight.

Wednesday 13th November – Chisinau

• City walking tour of Chisinau.
• World War II Memorial and Military Museum.
• Central open air market, great place for kitsch souvenirs.
• Government buildings and parliament.
• Main Square + Central park.
• History Museum.
• Traditional Moldovan Dinner at La Plicente.
• Night of bar crawling in the city.
• Overnight in Chisinau Cosmos Hostel.

Thursday 14th November – Chisinau

• Morning trip to Cricova Winery to see the winemaking process and to of course sample some of Eastern Europe’s best wine! This is one of the most amazing wine cellars you are ever likely to see.
• Free afternoon in Chisinau.
• 16.45 train to Bucharest.

Friday 15th November – Bucharest

• Arrival in Bucharest around 6:00 am
• We will wish each other farewell as we have breakfast at the station
• End of tour. YPT can help you organise further arrangements in Bucharest or international connections

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