Pole Dancing in Disputed Territory
The minivan drove on towards the border crossing that would take us into Transnistria.
We drove out of Moldova leaving the sad, wounded tower blocks behind us and the scenery changed very quickly into field upon field and every so often there would be a person in rags with no shoes sweeping the ride of the road. There were people dotted all along the road side all in old torn clothes, shoeless and sweeping. However there was no houses or visible congregations of people.
I thought maybe leaving the capital would be a bad idea, if the capital itself was falling apart I didn't know what to expect from outside the capital.
We had read online that Transnistria was stuck in Soviet times and was a time capsule of this time period. We have been to a fair few ex-communist countries so the idea of seeing what it would have been like during the Soviet times was something we both found intriguing.
As we drove further and further stopping to collect people along the way, the van became very full and people were sitting on the floor and one lady lay her arm across Alona's thighs for the entire journey.
As the van started to slow down we knew we were close to the border because instead of people along the side of the road there were giant Russian flags everywhere. Around the corner we started to see tanks placed at the side of the road with the men all dressed in Russian military outfits, with guns in their hands and around their waists.
As the van come to a stop a young man climbed on board he was around 20 and he randomly selected me and Alona to get out the van. Went down the van with everyone staring at us silently. We got off the bus and the man spoke to us in Russian, when we clearly did not understand he pointed to a small hut. We walked passed the tanks and the military into the hut. All we had on us was our passports as the man had gestured to leave our bags on the bus.
We went forward to the counter where a large pane of glass separated us from the officer. He spoke in Russian and he gathered we didn't understand and he swapped with another guard he addressed us in English in a thick Russian accent.
We handed over our passports with the entire hut staring at us and some of the military watching us through the window. We were there for what felt like forever but was probably just ten minutes. He gave us our passports back and a slip of paper allowing us into Transnistria.
As we left the hut we looked up and our van had gone and all that we could see were tanks, military men and Russian flags.
Fuck.
We heard someone shout something and we turned around the van had crossed the border and was waiting for us. We got back on board with everyone staring at us icily.
We pulled into the bus station and everyone got out of the van, we realized we had no money because they don't use Moldovan money so we went to find an exchange place. Luckily there was one at the bus station and we exchanged what Moldovan money we had left.
The bus station was more like a car park with a large building at the end.
A man approached us and he told us he was a taxi driver and he would drive us wherever for around 2 euro.
We walked towards his car that had no taxi sign on it and only the drivers door and one door at the back worked, Alona went in first then me. To our horror on the back and front of the chairs were covered in fur. The whole car was covered in dead animal skin. He started driving and we hoped he wasn't a psychopath.
We looked out the window, I thought that it didn't look like a time capsule at all, if anything it was very well developed and unlike Moldova. The buildings were well kept, people were well dressed and they had functioning pavements and roads.
We paid the man and got out the car grateful we made it safely. We checked in and the women told us not to use the bank machines because they will eat your card instead and you must find a money booth at a bank.
We went on the hunt for a money booth and it took us about twenty minutes to find one. I handed over my passport, slip of paper and my bankcard. We took the money out and went in search of wine.
We found wine and went to our room. I opened the door and burst out laughing, I asked Alona to guess what the weirdest thing would be in a hostel room?
She didn't manage to guess it so I opened the door and there right in the middle of the room was a strippers pole.
The whole room was painted red and the roof was black mirror, there was weird art on the walls and of course, a strippers pole.
It was one of the weirder rooms we have stayed in. We drank wine and tried to process the border crossing. We were both shattered and eventually fell asleep. To my horror, the next day I checked Instagram and on Alona's story was me, tanked on wine running very unangelticly at the pole and trying to spin round it!
How embarrassing.
After two days of going around and looking around our time was up and it was time to move on. As we climbed onto another van a huge pang of hunger hit me. Alona said she was hungry and we tried to figure out when the last time we ate was.
It was two days ago. We had forgotten to eat since leaving Moldova.