Tuesday 23rd November 2021 – Chisinau, Moldova

• Arrive at your convenience into Chisinau – the capital city of Moldova which is well connected by flights from Europe and elsewhere.
• Make your own transfer and check into the Chisinau Hotel – a former Soviet hotel
• Pre-tour meeting will be held at the lobby of the hotel at 5:00pm to discuss tour itinerary and to meet your fellow travellers and YPT guide.
• Head out for dinner and drinks at an incredible steakhouse
• Overnight in hotel

Wednesday 24th November – Chisinau – Tiraspol, Transnistria

Morning

• Breakfast at hotel
• Meet up with our local fixers who will transfer us to Tiraspol – the capital of the breakaway republic of Transnistria.
• On arrival at the border we will cross the no man’s land between Moldova and Transnistria which is an infamous smuggling route and we’ll register with immigration and KGB/MGB before transferring to our hotel to drop off our luggage.
• We’ll kick off the Transnistria tour by stopping by the flea market in Tiraspol – here it’s possible to buy all kinds of Soviet antiques for rock bottom prices. You never know what you will find!
• We’ll then walk down the main street called October 25th street which has a billboard of former President Smirnoff: The warlord who turned president for almost twenty years. We’ll see the embassies of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the foreboding HQ of the infamous Sheriff organisation and stop at a bookshop to pick up some Russian and Transnistrian nationalist paraphernalia, a mug with Putin or a fridge magnet of ICBMs firing across the atmosphere, why not?
• We’ll then stop at the impressive House of the Soviets, built in Stalinist style with a large bust of Lenin outside.

Afternoon

• We’ll mix with students at the Dolce Vita cafe, an inexpensive place with great buffet style food and the eatery of choice for students at nearby Tiraspol university.
• We’ll then transfer to the other end of October 25th street to see the North Korean style statue of Russian General Suvorov. Surrounding it are the flags of Russia, Transnistria and the breakaway brotherhood states of Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia.
• Have your picture taken in front of a giant crest of Transnistria featuring the hammer and sickle!
• Visit Parliament, housing one of the biggest statues of Lenin outside Russia.
• Visit the Eternal Flame Memorial complex dedicated to the Soviet-Afghan war, WW2 and the Transnistrian civil war. Check out the battle-damaged T-34 monument to WW2; it’s permitted to climb on it and get an awesome photo.
• We’ll then switch it up and board an old Soviet ferry without an engine and cross the Dniester river to see how the village people live across from Tiraspol. This is an area truly lost in the USSR!
• Visit a still functioning palace of culture with an enormous head of Lenin outside, pockmarked with Kalashnikov bullet holes after Moldovan troops symbolically executed him during the civil war.
• You’ll then visit a stunning and completely self sufficient monastery complex that has to be seen to be believed. We know many of the priests there and sometimes they allow us to sample their incredible homemade wine, however, this is subject to whether the one priest with the key is available on the day.
• Pay a visit to a local store which hasn’t changed since the USSR and still uses an abacus to calculate the total. Here we’ll stock up on $3 Kvint cognac (One of the best cognacs in the Soviet era), $1 vodka and local smoked cheese.
• We then head to a stunning viewpoint and Soviet obelisk that was one of the most brutal battlefields during WW2. In the Russian speaking world, it shows respect to the dead to raise a shot of cognac or vodka in their honour and we’ll do just that!
• Return to Tiraspol and head for dinner at 7Fridays
• Tour highlight: watch the football match between Sheriff FC and Real Madrid with the incredibly enthusiastic locals cheering on their team!
• Drinks in the city
• Overnight in Soviet Hotel

Thursday 25th November 2021 – Tiraspol

Morning

• Breakfast nearby the hotel
• Group A members: check out of hotel and board our transportation back to Chisinau where your tour concludes
• Group B members: continue tour onto Bender, the second largest Transnistria city and a site of fierce fighting during the civil war. 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. This is a true old school, Russian market. Expect pigs heads, spices and everything imaginable for sale.
• We leave the market and continue walking down the main street until we reach the main church in the centre, well renovated and a favourite place for couples to get married. Here you can buy inexpensive Russian Orthodox jewellery and icons.
• Check out the city hall which has been left exactly as it was during the civil war and is still filled with bullet holes.
• Continue walking down the main street until we arrive at Lenin Park. We view the main fountain, the bust of Lenin before going into the local cinema which is largely unchanged since Soviet times except Mission Impossible is playing instead of Soviet propaganda.
• 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. Besides the train station is an old Soviet train from WWII with the hammer and sickle on the front.

Afternoon

• We’ll have lunch in the town at a local cafe called CCCP. This is designed to create a sense of nostalgia for locals and is packed with original Soviet memorabilia and great food.
• We head to the river to check out ‘The Great October’ theme park. There are old amusement rides including bumper cars and mini ferris wheels here. A scene right out of the 1950s, it may look abandoned but the rides are still operating and are very cheap.
• See the HQ of the Transnistria navy! Yes, it’s as ridiculous as it sounds!
• Visit an ancient Bulgarian village boasting a beautiful WWII monument and Soviet Cultural Centre with a fantastic Lenin statue!
• Explore the old Soviet Red Army bunkers which go on for hundreds of kilometres, they have never been mapped!
• Visit a former Kolhoz (Soviet Communal Farm) that is now lying abandoned and perfect for urbex.
• Return to Tiraspol
• Dinner at a local restaurant with a buffet selection of food
• Overnight in Soviet Hotel

Friday 26th November 2021 – Tiraspol – Rîbnița – Soroca

Morning

• Breakfast nearby the hotel
• Check out of the hotel and head to Rîbnița where the very isolated Soviet Nuclear war survival bunker lies. Only three were built in the entire world.
• On the way stopping at an isolated village of Toshlick to view their intact Soviet cultural centre and monument, with a map of the front line as it was in 1943.
• We stop at a fantastic place to overlook the Dniester River, including one of the few small islands, with many local fishermen and locals enjoying a family BBQ.
• Arrive into Rîbnița, the third-largest city in Transnistria. Here we’ll see the Memorial of Soviet Fame, which overlooks the biggest Russian Orthodox Church in town.

Afternoon

• Lunch at the Rybnitsa centre before heading to the Lenin and Cultural Centre, including a unique Soviet mural.
• Walk through the Old Rîbnița Soviet Park.
• We’ll then drive across the long and impressive Rîbnița Bridge, protected by Russian peacekeepers. After we clear the checkpoint are in the Moldova DMZ.
• Now we move on into the forest and very isolated wasteland. (This is exactly why the Soviets built the bunker here)
• Along the way we’ll pass forgotten villages and will have time to stop and take photos.
• Continue driving down a military road built within a forest. After some kilometres of difficult driving, we reach a non-assuming flat area. This was a deception to fool enemies. Here lays another tour highlight where you’ll explore the old Soviet nuclear war survival bunker – there’s two with 13 floors in total going underground. We must be careful because the structure is deteriorating – this is true urbex!
• Dinner in town and overnight at a rustic hotel in Soroca – the gypsy capital of Transnistria.

Saturday 27th November 2021 – Soroca – Chisinau

Morning

• Breakfast at hotel and check out.
• Explore the Gypsy Hill filled with some of the craziest looking gypsy mansions you’ll ever see.
• Visit the Soroca Fortress – a historic medieval fortress dating from the days of Ștefan cel Mare.
• Drop by the Thanksgiving Candle – a hilltop monument and chapel with an amazing view of all of Soroca. Perfect for photos.
• We’ll do a symbolic walk up the many stairs as an acknowledgment of these lands that suffered under many invaders. They fought bravely and managed to keep their language, culture, and traditions.
• Begin making our way back to Chisinau in Moldova

Afternoon

• Lunch at Chisinau’s famous burger joint
• Check into our hotel and freshen up
• Before the tour concludes we’ll check out the Romashka tower – built in 1986 and was the tallest building in Chisinau, it resembles a corncob and is ridiculed for being the ugliest building in the world.
• Dinner nearby the hotel for a farewell feast and goodbye drinks.
• Overnight at Hotel Chisinau

Sunday 28th November 2021 – Chisinau

Morning

• Tour concludes – own transport to be arranged from Chisinau. YPT can assist with onward travel or hotel reservations.

Read More