We got into Chişinău midday and made it straight for the central market, to get some food for a picnic lunch. From here we continued to Cathedral Park, where we – after locating a nice spot in the shade – had lunch, to then explore the area around before meeting our guide for a tour around the city center.

The tour started (what else to expect, considering we already were in Cathedral Park) with an introduction to the cathedral and its odd setup (with the bell tower separate from the actual church), followed by a visit of the inside.

We then crossed the street and made it into Stephen the Great Central Park. Here our guide used a number of statues to convey key bits of Moldovan history. A short walk got us to the president’s building and the parliament. It was then back through the park and up to the street of the 31st of August 1989 (commemorating the day, when – under Soviet rule – Romanian was made official language of Moldova and latin script adopted … over were the days of Russian and Cyrillic – Limba Noastră cea Română). We walked by the National Museum, the National Palace Music Hall and a number of churches, until we made it back to the main boulevard. The tour concluded at a nearby tourist/ arts market.

Our bus got us to the hotel a bit down the boulevard – the Grand Chisinau Hotel (as we ended up calling it), a hotel that to a good extent kept its Soviet charm and setup. I guess, I would not want to stay here for a week – but for two nights and on this specific trip it was a good pick. I only wonder, if they still have the microphones in the rooms …

For dinner we made it to another incarnation of Andy’s Pizza – La Placinte. Another chain linked to the same owning company as Andy’s Pizza – this one specialized in traditional cuisine (La Placinte is the name of the traditional Moldovan layer pie). This place – being part of chain – delivered the same great quality as Andy did yesterday – just different food (ohh … and Andy’s food would have been available here as well).