First day in Chisinau

Brittany is such a good blogger that I can't really top her description of the day. I'll try to add pictures to give you all the full Moldovan experience.

This is breakfast in at a sit down restaurant in Frankfurt, Germany - White sausages with mustard and a pretzel. Very delicious and a much needed coffee after only a few hours of restless sleep on the plane. It was our first introduction to European restaurant meals which are delicious, long, without free refills and the attention normally paid to the customers that US waiters and waitress pride themselves on.

3pm flight from Frankfurt to Chisinau ("Keesh-now")


This was our best flight of the trip - plenty of room, clean and some of the best food! Also, we began to be aware that no matter how hard we could try to blend in we might as well have neon signs following us around that we are Americans. Flight attendants, other passengers, everyone - speak to us in English, if they're not just blatently staring that is. More later.

Food on the flight: smoked lunch meats, cheeses, a fresh roll, "salad" - which is all the good stuff, none of the lettuce, and a dessert that Brittany and I didn't know the name of, but of course ate first because it looked and was so delicious. Lunch was followed by tea - all on a three hour flight! Someone should tell the US this... it's a good policy. :D

After the flight - Green Hills grocery store to exchange money and buy food. We were able to get some snacks, bottled water (we're not supposed to drink the tap) and soap. It was very much like an American grocery store, but smaller and not in English. Oh, and security followed us all around the entire time.
















Moldovan "monopoly money": The exchange rate is about 12 lei to 1 US dollar:

Today we had lunch with the team at Restaurant Giraffe and afterwards went site seeing with Stella (a dental resident) and her sister who is entering dental school in the fall. We went around the main street of Chisinau (Stefan cel Mare - named after Stefan the Great, Moldova's one and only hero) and the downtown to see some monuments:

Brittany and I in front of the National Cathedral

Stella and her sister took us inside (I really wish we could have taken pictures!!!). It was gorgeous - so ornate with every inch hand painted or in gold. We had to cover our heads while inside (Orthodox trandition), but fortunately we had our scarves.

In front of the National Museum - and a statue of two babies sucking on a wolf's teat. I'm sure there's a story behind that...

After some coffee and cake at a French cafe, we said "moltumesc" to our gracious hostesses and went back to our apartment:

And don't worry Mom, there are five dead bolts on the door and the head of US security lives right next door:



Tomorrow trips to the dental school and out to one of the orphanages - Ialoveni!