Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The only tourist in Moldova

telegraph.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 427 posts

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#301

Post by walterlw »

ossobuco wrote: post #295
walterlw wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

it's about the difference between "was" and "is". Sure, a bunch of states were formally parts of the Russian Empire as well as the USSR. That doesn't mean you can reduce them to "it's just Russia", those lands and peoples had history prior to being invaded and some have been lucky to have had some independence since the fall of the USSR. Considering that there are people out there literally fighting to the death not to be a part of the next russian imperial project i'd politely ask you to be a bit more sensitive about the whole thing.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#302

Post by solatic »

lukan wrote: post #260
seattle_spring wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want a bit of a lark, spend some time checking out /r/roadtrip. Seems like at least a few times a week someone will show a map of their planned route: 8,000 miles across 10 states, 7 national parks, and 14 cities. "Hey guys! I'll be driving this route during a long weekend. Any other places I should stop??"

So is this mainly for a virtual highscore? Gamification of real life, tick all the boxes on your mission list, to feel accomplishment? I doubt one can see the real gems this way. I travelled a lot, but the highlights were never the famous tourist spots and I would not have felt them as highlight by just stopping by and making a picture. But each to his own I guess.

Consider the number of people whose dating profiles say that they've been to X countries by the age of 20-something. Yep, easy way for that to be true is to just drive through them.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#303

Post by type0 »

krick wrote: post #161
type0 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Traveling to Mariupol as a tourist is the real deal in 2024 except you'll be on occupied territory and will be breaking Ukrainian law, you might get a prison sentence if you ever go to Ukraine again

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?

Just to clarify, a prison sentence doesn't actually mean you'd be incarcerated, Russia for example routinely sentences foreign nationals to prison without the means to getting them arrested

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#304

Post by alxlaz »

ossobuco wrote: post #299
alxlaz wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

Certainly, but that doesn't make Moldova either Russian or part of Russia, as the parent poster asked, just like the south of Italy is neither Arabic nor part of whatever Arab country you want to take as the successor state of the last Arabic sovereign of Sicilly (Egypt?).

Moldova is still culturally very distinct from Russia and many other former Soviet republics, so the odds of something being true in Moldova just because it's true in Russia are in fact remarkably small. In particular, "vodka" is not a common generic term for alcohol-based drinks in most of Moldova, whether that's true in Russia or not.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#305

Post by thaumasiotes »

snmx999 wrote: post #291
qingcharles wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Were you using the second passport to leave Malta, or to enter Israel?

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#306

Post by DiscoDays »

fishnchips wrote: post #247
stychos wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt most of Ukrainians knows Ukrainian language.

Not a Ukrainian but I know a good few. The language is taught at schools so you if you’re not educated in the Soviet Union you will know it. Whether you choose to use it is a different matter. And data would suggest that the usage is on the rise.

> if you’re not educated in the Soviet Union you will know it

My grandparents and parents and siblings all learned Ukrainian in school during Soviet times. This is in what now would be considered a predominantly Russian-speaking part of Ukraine btw.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#307

Post by ossobuco »

walterlw wrote: post #301
ossobuco wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

it's about the difference between "was" and "is". Sure, a bunch of states were formally parts of the Russian Empire as well as the USSR. That doesn't mean you can reduce them to "it's just Russia", those lands and peoples had history prior to being invaded and some have been lucky to have had some independence since the fall of the USSR. Considering that there are people out there literally fighting to the death not…

Personally I took that "in russia" like I would with "in europe...insert generalization here". As in Russia the general area, not specifically the country. Similarly we still refer to a good part of the Balkans as ex-Yugoslavia.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#308

Post by tsimionescu »

larodi wrote: post #226
9front wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"rachiu" in Romanian/Moldovan is brandy in English.

Those drinking ракия know that it’s not a brandy, although it can be made to resemble brandy or even in the image of some whiskeys but is essentially made from completely different produce, and usually also process.

Moldovan/Romanian is not written with cyrillics, "rachiu" is the proper spelling.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#310

Post by goodcanadian »

stychos wrote: post #172
dralley wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt many Russians can tell the difference between Ukrainian and Polish either. I unironically think that some of them convinced themselves they were fighting Polish mercenaries just because they heard western Ukrainian accents.

I doubt most of Ukrainians knows Ukrainian language.

If only there were some way of fact checking such a claim . . .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Ukraine

Post reply on HN