Hey you guys, since the last update I have spent a few days in Chisenau, Moldova and made my way to Iasi, Romania.

On Tuesday morning I checked out of the hostel I stayed in my first night after arriving late to Chisenau on Monday and made the move over to an apartment I had booked for the next 2 nights. The apartment was much nicer and was located in the heart of the downtown. My first order of business was to get some Moldovan cash, and then head over to the military history museum a few blocks away. Here are some highlights of the museum:

After the museum, I went back to hang up my laundry (such a pain in the butt that you never have a dryer anywhere in the part of Europe I’ve been in) and then set out to see some of the highlights of the central part of the city that I had identified in my research before arriving. Overall, Chisenau had some interesting things to see, but it just doesn’t compare with a lot of the other places I’ve been to on this trip. Maybe there’s a reason it’s the least visited country in Europe, but I’m still definitely glad I came and saw it.

On Wednesday, I set out to grab some lunch and see a few more places I hadn’t gotten to on Tuesday. I had plans to go do some busking in the late afternoon since I hadn’t bothered in trying to secure any bar gigs in Chisenau. When I got the cafe and sat down, I heard a lady speaking clear American English to a Moldovan during some type of networking lunch they were having, and I saw her look over at me when she heard me place my order. After her meeting was over, she stayed behind and came over to talk to me and ask if I was American and what I was doing in Moldova. I told her about my trip and about busking that evening, etc. She, Kristin, then told me that her husband was with the US embassy and she knew of an American bar owner, David, that she was going to put me in touch with. Long story short, I wound up with a pop up show on Wednesday night at the Smokehouse bar! After I parted ways with Kristin, I went to the ethnographic museum and looked around for a while, walked to a couple other points of interest, and then went and got my equipment and posted up at the Smokehouse in anticipation of the 7pm start time.

One really cool thing that happened at my Smokehouse show was that I met a local girl named Stela, who had asked me if she could come up and sing a couple of songs. I was glad to have her, and I came to find out that she was actually a radio host for a Moldovan national radio station. After I told her I had been on the radio in Ukraine, she offered me to come and be on her morning show on Thursday before I left town for Romania. Of course I said that I absolutely would love to!

After a few hours of sleep, I got up this morning at 7:30 and checked out of my room, got a coffee and a pastry, and made my way over to the station. It was super fun being on the radio again! I played 4 songs and answered lots of questions about my travels and music and even got a few calls from listeners. Everybody was great to me!

http://www.jurnaltv.md/news/bb6e1b9d72157837/popcorn-show-24-octombrie.html

Above is the link to the entire interview if you would like to watch. My portion starts at the 58:30 mark…

After the interview, I got on the road to my destination of Iasi, Romania, about 2 1/2 hours west. It was nice to finally see some of the Moldovan countryside. It was somewhat scenic, but not really all that great in the portion that I traversed. Also, there was like a permanent haze in the air all the way up until the border, and then it just immediately cleared when I got to Romania. There’s just something a little strange about the land and air in Moldova, but I can’t tell you exactly what.

After crossing the border, it was only a short drive in to the city of Iasi. I went straight to the bar where I’m playing tomorrow night to shore up the details and then went out exploring, but I’m going to save those pictures for my next post to keep things more organized.

Tonight I’m relaxing and planning on catching up on some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a big job – I’m playing a place called the College Bar and it is an event they are doing for all the local students who just returned from spending the summer working in the USA. They thought it would be perfect to have some American music and I agreed!

Talk to you guys again soon!