The last leg of my summer trip: Kishinev, Republic of Moldova
Yesterday, I finally made it to the Easternmost European point: The Republic of Moldova, where I spent one full day in the company of the lovely young people of Kishinev. The happiness of finally being able to make true an old travel dream of mine was a bit diminished by the reality that my summer travels are done for now. In a long time, I spent an impressive amount of time on the road, that lasted for almost one month and started in the South of Germany, with the Danube city of Regensburg. It continued shortly after with Bodensee and the beautiful island of Mainau and its unforgettable flowers, continued with a little bit of my beloved Switzerland and the encounter with a well hidden secret: the beautiful Liechtenstein.
After a short weekend back in Berlin, I was back on the road again, this time direction Central and Eastern Europe, a region I know quite well but haven’t visited in a long time: after having my morning coffee in the sunny Prague, I landed for late dinner in Budapest. From there, I finally made it to the picturesque Szentendre and Visegrad – an unusual rainy day doesn’t diminish my pleasure of travel – after exploring intensively Budapest where I haven’t been in around 10 years.
The next stage of the adventure followed in Romania, where I’ve been to Timisoara, a city on my travel list for a long time, followed by a visit back in one of my childhood cities, Brasov, and a long stay in Bucharest, from where I am writing right now. From Bucharest, I took the (right) decision to pay a short visit to Kishinev, at the end of a 8-hour bus trip through the beautiful green countryside.
Beyond the accumulation of destinations, there is always a lot of work: planning the routes, setting up a travel schedule for covering topics – luxury and foodie including – of interest for my readers, but not missing the occasion to discover some unexpected locations. The time spent taking pictures and the long hours of later editing. Or moving from a location to another, using local transportation trying to use languages I thought were for long forgotten in my mind. More importantly, finding always time to meet friends and interacting with local people. Not forget about the real summer, with heat and dust, an experience that it seemed I almost forgot about it, after spending so many safe cold summers in Berlin.
Being for so long far away from the place I call right now home – the hectic city of Berlin, created certain discomfort: sometimes the Internet connection was slow – hence the low frequency of posts on the blog – sometimes I realized at the end of a busy day that I only kept myself busy meeting people talking about life without any ‘tourist’ touch of the schedule. I needed to cope with different eating habits – not too much cooking in the last weeks either – while trying to get used with new products and ingredients. But nothing compares with the pleasure of checking on my own the hectic markets, trying to avoid being impressed by all the sellers that invite me with their inspired words to buy their products. At least in the case of huge melons, couldn’t resist often the temptation…
Do I really miss my Berlin home? For my whole post-18 yo life, ‘home was where my heart was’, and most probably this is how my life will always be. There is one place where I feel connected perfectly and permanently with my mind and soul and this is where my home will always be. A place where I am happy to return and whose people always make me smile. But at least for now, for very serious travel purposes, my home of adoption is Berlin and this is where I will return in a couple of days for catching up with writing, with more foodie and the expat life. From there will set up the next travel plans, because I am never tired of too much travel. I am feeling grateful for having the privilege of travel, knowing so many interesting and warm people, learning new languages and about new histories and cultures.
Meanwhile, my travel story will go on and on. Because I feel compelled to share my experiences and lessons learned. There will always be autumn and winter trips after the long summer travels.
Ilana on the road 