retiredmartin

March 2025. Chisinau. Moldova.

I was back at our Chisinau hotel from my Tomato Gose expedition by half five, by which time Mrs RM had decided that the plate of walnuts (a Moldovan speciality) and bread sticks that accompanied wine tasting wasn’t sufficient for tea.

The Art-Rustique Boutique Hotel (name picked by random computer generation) is 10 minutes from the posh craft bar and 15 from the Metropolitan Cathedral, which I’d assumed to be the beating heart of the city.

But. though the traffic into the centre is 3 lane and manic, the centre itself is quiet enough to stand in the middle of the road and take photos.

Downtown isn’t attractive; business hotels and a smart shopping centre resembling, I dunno, Basingstoke. If you removed the Doom Bar boozers from Hampshire’s premier drinking towns.

Does Basingstoke have a Hotel Bristol ?

I only popped in for a loo stop.

Five minutes later we’re sat on a table in Lud’s Pub, looking at a typical chain hotel menu and a view of Chisinau at dusk,

partly because Mrs RM is hungry and not walking a step further.

And in part because the Untappd check-ins suggest interesting beer;

Sadly, the enormous menu is a disappointment,

though a man should not visit Chisinau and miss the local lager. You wouldn’t go to Glasgow and skip a pint of Tennent’s, would you ?

A clean, refreshing, dull pint half litre for £3. Cheaper in Basingstoke Spoons.

You might think the Bristol, the dominant hotel on Alexander Pushkin Street, to be the preserve of business folk and a few well-to-do gentlefolk.

But actually the trade is groups of lads and courting couples. Do couples court in 2025 ?

They’re drawn by dining booths decorated with pictures of London pubs,

and a menu spanning the cuisine of every nationality except Greenland.

But, miraculously, the German sausages (a Moldovan speciality) are world class, and the service cheery (not necessarily a Moldovan speciality).

Outside in a chilly Cathedral Square, we finally stumble on the “characterful” street, the Underbanks of Chisinau if you will.

And suddenly, it all looks pleasant.

But one thing is bugging me. Where are the people ? And where are the ice cream sellers ?