transnistria: tiraspol and bendery

I've been fascinated with geopolitics for a long time. I love learning about how people view themselves, and when those views become strong enough to want to be separate. I think there are 195 official countries (as defined by the UN,) in the world, though there are a number of territories and areas that function as separate entities, but are not internationally recognized as separate. There are two more countries that are recognized by some others, but not enough of the rest of the world to be considered officially recognized countries: Taiwan and Kosovo.

It's the separate areas that fascinate me the most, those that function by themselves, but have little to no official recognition. I took a few days to visit one of them, which calls itself the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. The short name used more often is Transnistria, which is a whole lot easier to say.

Transnistria is basically the easternmost sliver of Moldova. Most of the republic is on the eastern side of the Dniester River, between the river and the Ukrainian border. Moldovan law actually defines the area, and designates it as an autonomous part of Moldova. In reality, Transnistria functions as a completely separate country.

The history of Transnistria is complicated, as are the histories of many countries in this part of the world. The area has been part of Ukraine, Moldova, and more. The capital city of Tiraspol was probably founded all the way back in 600BC, so there has been habitation here for a very very long time.

I reckon most people don't really know where Transnistria is, and have only a vague recollection of the name. This vague recognition probably comes from the early 90s, when the collapse of the Soviet Union caused total chaos in this part of the world. 

Former Soviet republics were struggling to figure out independence, and areas like Transnistria wanted to separate from Moldova, which was basically a new country anywho.

My journey started with a flight from Moscow to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. The flight was in the middle of the night, which wasn't as bad as it sounds. After hanging out in the airport for a few hours it was easy to catch a marshrutka to the city center, getting off at a stop near the central bus station. From there it was easy to get on a marshrutka to Tiraspol. The hardest part was figuring out how much I was supposed to pay, as I don't understand Moldovan.

The drive from Chisinau to Tiraspol is easy, though a bit nervewracking when you get to the official border. Since Transnistria is not officially recognized, there is no stamping of passports when you 'leave' Moldova. Moldova doesn't even have border control officers at the border. Transnistrian soldiers investigate your passport, and print out a paper visa for your visit.

The soldiers at the border asked me where I was staying, so I'm glad I had booked a place ahead of time. It seemed like there was a list of some sort, because the name of the place I had booked was familiar to the guy. 

He also asked how many days I planned to stay, that information went into a computer as well. The paper visa goes in your passport, then you give it back when you leave Transnistria. Passport stamp geeks like me wish there was a stamp, but I understand why there isn't. Maybe sometime in the future.

I stayed on the marshrutka as it went through the city of Tiraspol, only getting off at the last stop, which happened to be the train station. As I'm a sucker for train stations, I walked through the train station before turning around and walking in the general direction of my accomodation.

Since I'd known I wouldn't have service for my phone, I'd dowloaded maps to my phone ahead of time, which made it easy to figure out where to go. Thank goodness for modern technology. Not far from the train station I noticed a sign (in Russian, English, and Moldovan,) pointing to a tourist information center. I had a general idea of what I wanted to see in the city, but I figured it would be a good idea to see what the info center had.

It was a great idea to walk into the tourist information center. They gave me a paper map of the city, as well as information about specific buses to go to other cities, and where some things were located. 

They spoke good English, I had no troubles with communication.

I checked into my accomodation and ended up taking a short nap. This is when I point out that the local temperature was over 30C in Tiraspol, significantly warmer and more humid than Moscow. I don't like taking naps, but my body needed the rest after the lack of sleep, and increased temperatures and humidity.

Eventually I started walking and exploring, I didn't end up spending that much time walking that day. Definitely not as long as I should've explored. Oh well. I started by walking toward Pobeda Park. 

Heaps of Russian cities have this kind of a park. More often than not there is a WW2 memorial in this park, but that wasn't the case in Tiraspol. There wasn't much of anything in the park, though I did appreciate the entrance gate. There weren't many people in the park either, but that was probably because of the heat.

I exchanged money not far from the park. Since Transnistria isn't officially recognized, they don't have an internationally recognized bank. I saw a couple ATMs, but I think they dispensed Moldovan lei, which wouldn't have been very useful. 

Transnistria does have their own currency, called the ruble. It's value is pegged to the Moldovan lei, the ruble is slightly stronger than the lei. I exchanged Russian rubles for Transnistrian rubles, hoping that I guessed right about how much I would need for three days.

Leaving the park I made my way to one of the main streets of the city: 25 October street. The date is from Russian history, as it is the date in 1917 when the Bolsheviks captured the Winter Palace in St Petersburg and therefore took control of the country.

Walking the length of 25 October street takes you past nearly everything there is to see in Tiraspol. I saw the front of the theatre, which was quite grand. I walked past the House of Soviets, stopping to take a photo because there was a bust of Lenin in front. Another grand building, typical of every house of Soviets I've seen.

I walked into a bookstore, most of the books were in Russian. I found a city sign, and took a photo even though I'm pretty sure I had sweat rolling off me by that point. 25 October street doesn't have shady places to walk, the direct sun was soooo hot.

A block off this street, not far from the city sign I found a supermarket. I was absolutely thrilled to see a few products from Ukraine, as those don't exist in Russia these days. It was air conditioned, which felt absolutely fantastic at that point. I was disappointed in the yogurt selection, there weren't many options. 

I love visiting supermarkets in general, and the chance to buy liquid was sorely needed by this point.

After gulping down a lot of water, I kept going. I found the city house of culture, small but grand. It was right next to another park area, this one with no shade whatsoeva. At one end of the mark was a monument with a guy on a horse, as well as flags of all the regions in Transnistria. There was also a series of flags with Russian colours right next to an identical series of flags with Transnistrian colours. There were giant flags of the countries of Transnistria as well as Russia, flying at the same height.

I kept going down the street, coming to the parliament building for Transnistria. In front of the building is a big statue of Lenin, of course I took a few photos. He stands on a tall pedestal, you have to back up quite a bit to get all of him in a photo, with parliament in the background.

Across the street from parliament was the war memorial I knew had to be somewhere in the city. I found a tank, an eternal flame, names carved in stone, etc... One part of the area was a separate memorial for soldiers who died during the Soviet war in Afghanistan.  Transnistria was under Soviet control when that war happened (I think,) so this memorial makes sense.

On the other side of the war memorial area was the river. I could see some man made beach areas, I kinda wished I had brought a bikini to lay out and actually enjoy the sun. I have no idea whether it is a good idea to go in the water or not.

Even though I'd only been outside for around 3 hours by then, I was exhausted. My lower legs were showing the rash I get from heat exhaustion, so I knew it was time to head back home. I stopped at a restaurant for dinner, enjoying the air conditioning more than anything. I crashed hard that night, which is typical for the first night of any trip for me.

The next morning I made it a point to get going earlier in the morning than I usually do, to make up for lost time the day before. I walked back to the supermarket, loading up on more liquid and snacks for the day. From there I walked to a stop to catch a marshrutka to a town called Bender (or Bendery, depending on who you ask.)

I got off the marshrutka near the center of Bender, hoping it wouldn't be hard to find where to catch one going back to Tiraspol later in the day.

First up for me was walking along Lenin Street, to the Lenin statue. He hadn't been cleaned in a while, I could see a lot of yellow pollen dust all over the statue. Ick. I kept going, all the way to the end of the street, where I found a train station.

This train station was much better than the one I'd seen in Tiraspol, though I think it gets far less traffic. 

There was no one inside while I was there, but the doors were unlocked, and I could see signs designating a ticket office, so there had to be someone I couldn't see. The stairs and ceiling were quite grand, I was thrilled.

On one side of the train station was a train monument, as well as a war memorial. Very similar to what I've seen in various Russian cities. On the way back to the city center of Bender I looked at some of the street signs on the buildings. More than one of them listed names in Russian and Moldovan, as well as historical names of the street. I love that kind of stuff.

I walked to a big traffic circle, in the middle of which was a stelae showing that Bender is a city of military glory. I didn't know that designation happened outside of Russia, but it obviously does. On one side of the traffic circle was an older tank, with another war memorial. Again, typical of a Russian city.

From there it was a looooong walk to my next sight, in very little shade. I was really glad I'd brought water with me, and even happier when I saw another supermarket just as I got to where I wanted to go next.

I love big monuments, this one definitely qualified. It was a victory arch, like those I've seen in Moscow and St Petersburg and Irkutsk and Astrakhan, etc... Just past the arch was another big gate of sorts, the gate marked the entry of a military cemetery. I would've walked through more of the cemetery, but it was now the middle of the day, and the sun was strong. Instead I headed for the supermarket across the road.

Inside the supermarket I walked around until I found a vent from which cold air streamed out. I stood under that for a good five minutes, it felt incredible. 

Ice cream and more water were the perfect purchases. I noticed chocolate for sale, how does anyone eat that in this weather?

Then I got to suffer through more sun to walk to the last place I wanted to see in Bender: a fortress. There was a much higher entry fee for foreigners, something that never fails to irritate me. This fortress is the first thing to visit on tourism lists, but I wasn't as impressed as I wanted to be. It had been renovated not too long ago, and I felt like it looked new.

This fortress goes all the way back to when this area was part of the Ottoman Empire. 

The outer walls have been rebuilt, as have the towers in various places. You can climb stairs to a walkway along the top of half the walls. There isn't much in the middle of the grounds, it is mostly green grass with a couple walkways. Honestly, I didn't think it was worth the entry fee.

There was a church near the fortress, but it wasn't open, argh.

As I walked back into the center of Bender, I followed a couple buses/marshrutkas and found the main starting point for city buses, and from there it was easy to get back to Tiraspol. 

Since I'd enjoyed my dinner the night before, I went back to the same place :)

Before going to sleep that night I made a specific list of what I wanted to see the next day, my last day in Transnistria.

The next morning I was up early again, and actually managed to get myself out the door by mid morning. First on the list was a photo at the city sign for Bender, then a stop at another, much bigger city sign for Tiraspol. Those two signs weren't all that far from each other, the cities aren't far from each other.

My first sight back in the city of Tiraspol was a history museum. I was disappointed again to find another foreigner entry fee, sigh. Nothing was in English, so my extra money went I don't know where. The foreigner price was three times the local price, so I feel like I have a legitimate complaint there.

The museum was decent. There were several rooms with different parts of Transnistrian history. I saw traditional Ukrainian clothing and culture, uniforms of soldiers from various wars, products produced in Transnistria, etc... Looking out the window in one of the back rooms I was thrilled to see another statue of Lenin.

After leaving the museum I tried to figure out how to get to Lenin. It turned out that the statue was in an area behind a locked gate, sigh. As I walked by that gate, it opened, and a truck drove through. I took the chance to walk through at the same time, and eventually found an open door. Employees were standing just outside the door, taking a smoke break. In my very broken Russian I asked them if I could get closer to Lenin and take a photo. Yay!!

The history museum was really close to the war memorial area I'd seen a couple days before, and that area was close to a bridge over the river. 

I walked across the bridge, to a marshrutka stop on the other side of the river. It was easy to catch a ride to my next and last stop for this trip: a monastery.

Noul Neamt monastery was founded in 1861, and has somehow survived, even though the area was under decidedly non religious Soviet control for a long time. During those years, from around 1960 to 1991, the monastery served as a hospital. The entire monastery is surrounded by brick walls. I found the entry gate and walked into a nice garden area. 

The inside of one wall was covered in a religious mosaic mural. 

The property isn't big, but manages to hold at least two churches, a bell tower with lovely painting, and what I assume are accomodations for the monks. I didn't see anyone else the entire time I walked around, but I'm sure someone had to be there. One of the churches was open, the other was not. The interior of the open church was totally covered in frescoes, and light streamed in, so I was a happy camper.

I left the monastery and went back to the main street to find a stop to catch the next marshrutka back to Tiraspol. The ride wasn't long, but it was longer than I would've wanted to walk, if I"d had the time to do so.

My timing ended up being on point, as I only had to wait a couple minutes for the next marshrutka to come along. 

I got back to Tiraspol in time to have one more meal at the same restaurant I'd already visited twice, then grab my backpack from the hostel, and walk to the train station.

I didn't have to wait long for the next ride to Chisinau, and from the central bus station there it was easy (and cheap!) to get back to the airport.

I wonder if other cities in Transnistria are worth exploring?