Through Transnistria
Trip Start
Jun 08, 2006
1
11
18
Trip End
Jun 27, 2006
Tiraspol, Moldova
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
It was quite scary and they made us buy a fake visa when getting there. Then we entered the country and crossed it by bus. We had a stop in Bendery and then in Tiraspol. There I visited the most disgusting toilet ever but thank god I did as further on at the border with the Ukraine we were to sit for 4 hours in that boiling hot bus.
Before the border with Ukraine we had to hand in our passports. After 2 hours everybody got them back except Peter and I. The russian army stationed there wanted to see money! We didnt have any money with us, only our credit and debet passes. They wanted a 100 dollars per person and only spoke english when it came in handy for them. They forced us to go into a little cabin where to russian soldiers were armed with Khalasnikovs pointed at us. This way they tried to blackmail us and wouldnt give our passports back before we would pay them. Peter was feeling really ill and was quiet and I had to do the word. I screamed at them saying we had no money and they kept demanding and used our not closed off Moldovan visa as an excuse. Through a window i saw our busdriver taking out our backpacks off the bus and driving towards the ukrainian border. Here I panicked and started screaming at the soldier saying WE HAD NO MONEY!!! Finally he gave us back our passports as they saw they werent gonna get any money from us! We ran towards the backpacks and a soldier that didnt agree started screaming at us but I told peter to keep running and ignore them! Scared to get shot in the back we ran towards the bags, picked them up and ran towards the bus! Thank god he was stopped at the ukrainian border so we could hop on the bus again and safely continue our journey towards Ukraine.
