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The only tourist in Moldova

telegraph.co.uk

291–300 of 427 posts

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#291
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would they ever know if you won't outright tell them yourself (like being a famous person an posting your itinerary on the instagram)? They'll see you've been to Russia, if you use the same passport for both visas, which may be frowned upon right now, but not illegal. But which Russian cities you've been to (and de-facto Mariupol is just that right now) — who the hell knows?

Plenty of people have two passports for this reason. Lots of things in immigration require you to honestly self-report and have no mechanism to validate at the point-of-entry. For instance, many countries without visa requirements will still ask about criminal records in your native country, but have no access to the data to verify if you tell them you've never even had a parking ticket. But if you get caught later d…

Using two passports is not always the solution. As a dual citizen of two countries, I also have two passports. A couple of years ago I travelled to Malta with the passport from the country I currently live in. One week later I flew over to Israel, where I used the passport of my birth country. I was extensively interrogated at the border, because apparently the system flagged me to the border officer as there was no record of me entering Malta with the passport I attempted to leave the country with.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#292
post #252

"Sergiu exuberantly offers up shot glasses of mulberry vodka, pine-needle vodka, strawberry vodka, “medicine” vodka, “78 per cent proof” vodka" Although Moldova has vodka-drinking Slavs in it, the beverages described are not vodkas. Vodka is made of cereals or potatoes, whereas these are nicer-flavored, fruit-based distilled beverages that locals call "rakiu", in English it would be schnapps: https://en.wikipedia.org…

In russia everything is vodka. Sometimes this overflow to english. In europe it is kore distinguished.

These are most definitely not vodka in Russia.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since what Moldova is Russia? Am I on reddit or 4chan?

Since history is a thing? Beside being part of the USSR, part of Moldova has also been in the Russian empire. Also a good portion of the population identifies as Russian.

"History" might be a thing but Moldova has not been part of the USSR for more than 30 years now, and has been part of the Russian Empire for only about a hundred years (after the peace of 1812 and until shortly after the first World War). It was one of the shortest-lived imperial possessions.

> Also a good portion of the population identifies as Russian.

Said "good portion" is about 4%, according to the latest census [1]. Balti is the only municipality with a substantial Russian population. USSR politics means that much of the Moldavian population speaks Russian (tl;dr you had to learn it at school and were generally forced to use it in any public setting) but only a small minority of the Moldavian population "identifies" as Russian.

Pre-emptive "but ackshually": 1. nothing wrong with identifying as Russian, this is a comment on population statistics 2. the census was conducted the same year that a pro-Russian administration was voted into power so yes, the statistics are perfectly representative, no one had second thoughts about saying they were Russian.

1. https://statistica.gov.md/en/population-and-housing-census-i... .

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since what Moldova is Russia? Am I on reddit or 4chan?

Since history is a thing? Beside being part of the USSR, part of Moldova has also been in the Russian empire. Also a good portion of the population identifies as Russian.

that same kind of thinking encouraged Russia to go on a 3-day march on Kyiv. Ask an average participant of that march how that has gone for them. Oh wait

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since history is a thing? Beside being part of the USSR, part of Moldova has also been in the Russian empire. Also a good portion of the population identifies as Russian.

that same kind of thinking encouraged Russia to go on a 3-day march on Kyiv. Ask an average participant of that march how that has gone for them. Oh wait

Historical facts are not "thinking". I don't get your snark to be honest. These Russians, are they in the room with us right now?

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#296

"Sergiu exuberantly offers up shot glasses of mulberry vodka, pine-needle vodka, strawberry vodka, “medicine” vodka, “78 per cent proof” vodka" Although Moldova has vodka-drinking Slavs in it, the beverages described are not vodkas. Vodka is made of cereals or potatoes, whereas these are nicer-flavored, fruit-based distilled beverages that locals call "rakiu", in English it would be schnapps: https://en.wikipedia.org…

These are often described as vodkas in practice, even if they technically aren't. Applies to other eastern Europe products too. For example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%B3dka_%C5%BBo%C5%82%C4%85... is fruit/herb based, but is commonly known as vodka and even was labelled as such.

This is only true in those parts of Eastern Europe were "vodka" retained its (old) colloquial use from Polish. So... Poland and maybe some parts of Ukraine, Slovakia etc.. If there are parts of Moldova where these drinks would be called "vodka", I haven't been to them yet :-).

The local generic term for an alcoholic drink is different, but "vodka" is specifically used only for things that say "vodka" on the label pretty much everywhere between the Tatra Mountains and the Mediterranean.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#297
post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In russia everything is vodka. Sometimes this overflow to english. In europe it is kore distinguished.

Since what Moldova is Russia? Am I on reddit or 4chan?

Hmmm, you woke up a lot of former Soviet Bloc demons there.

Moldova isn't Russia, but has a sizeable Russian-speaking minority concentrated in a generally non-recognized separatist state of Transnistria. This minority is mostly Putin-oriented and despises the West and anything Western-related.

Until/unless Russian imperial intents are defeated or collapse on their own, the risk of Russia reabsorbing parts or whole of Moldova stays real, though mostly contingent on defeating and reabsorbing Ukraine first.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which countries? Arguably, women of post-socialist (Slavic) countries have comparatively higher socioeconomic status and comparatively more even gender dynamics that these in the West. For a dedicated sexual predator, it would be much easier to just head directly to Thailand or similar.

Russia. Here is a post lining up his reporting and his sexpat account in Vorkuta, Vorgashor, Kotlas. https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldAndBaldrDossier/comments/16euvy...

Unless he broke any laws explicitly I don't see a problem. Dating in Russia is not forbidden.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#299
post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since history is a thing? Beside being part of the USSR, part of Moldova has also been in the Russian empire. Also a good portion of the population identifies as Russian.

"History" might be a thing but Moldova has not been part of the USSR for more than 30 years now, and has been part of the Russian Empire for only about a hundred years (after the peace of 1812 and until shortly after the first World War). It was one of the shortest-lived imperial possessions. > Also a good portion of the population identifies as Russian. Said "good portion" is about 4%, according to the latest census…

The south of Italy still has leftovers of Arabic cultural influence from the Arab occupation in the VIII century. That lasted about 300 years but we're talking about a millenium ago, so it's perfectly reasonable to consider Moldova as culturally influenced by Russia, even if just for the geographical proximity.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since history is a thing? Beside being part of the USSR, part of Moldova has also been in the Russian empire. Also a good portion of the population identifies as Russian.

that same kind of thinking encouraged Russia to go on a 3-day march on Kyiv. Ask an average participant of that march how that has gone for them. Oh wait

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