Now we are in Transnistria, an autonomous region of Moldavia that declared independence in 1990. It is a small area between the Ukraine and the river Dniester Nisdru in Moldova. The capital is Tiraspol with 170 000 inhabitants.

The country is not recognized by any of the UN-countries. But it has its own flag, currency and rule, but also a really bad reputation of corruption and criminals. But according to our guesthouse owner it is far better now than for 10 years ago.

At the border we got a 24 hour visa without any problem. We just showed our booking confirmation. The border guards tried to get a 20 US dollar bribe. But we did not give him any money. We liked Tiraspol and decided to stay a little longer. Dmitry at our guest house helped us to extend our visas easily.

We have the place completely to ourselves, a big garden a grill and everything. Today we made a really nice barbecue dinner with a tasty wine. Usually we can only do easy cooking by ourselves, eat street food or go to restaurants. So this was nice for a change.

Left Tiraspol today to continue our journey. Dimitry told us about a healing pyramid with cosmic radiation. Unfortunately the pyramid was locked so we could not get healed. Then we went to Bender where the last and roughest fights were taking place in 1992 during civil war.

After that we went back to Moldova and to the capital Chisinau. We strolled around town for a while before we continued to the Romanian border in the evening. Chisnau is much more modern than the part of Moldova we encountered crossing the border from the Ukraine a few days ago.