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The only tourist in Moldova

telegraph.co.uk

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Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#411

Post by walterlw »

viraptor wrote: post #128
userulluipeste wrote: post #84

"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.

In most of Ukraine that would be called "samohon", which can be translated as "self-brewed" and is an umbrella term for a bunch of liquors similar to those described in the article. Vodka (or "horilka" how it's known in Ukrainian) is a specific drink that's mostly ethanol and does not include any supplements.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#412

Post by throwaway290 »

SomeoneFromCA wrote: post #409
throwaway290 wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your point was "post-Soviet cities have hot water year around", and your point was wrong.

My point was that the original poster was wrong saying that Soviet and Post-soviet cities had and have hot water only during winters. This is idiocy; you know that, I know that. Right now, while I am writing, my relative is using hot water to wash her head. What is your point?

"Right now my relative is using hot water to wash her head" is very far cry from "having water all year round"

By the way, that's not quite a flex since people still use hot water to wash heads when there's no central hot water. My friends and relatives in Russia were doing that before this month ;) Spoiler: kettles and buckets.

If you doubt me and have no one to ask then trust things like https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7lLlnmAAHt/. pretty sure Belaya Dacha markets to middle/upper middle class countrywide

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#413

Post by danayfm »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #171
danayfm wrote: post #147

I was in Moldova back in 2013 for a university org summer course and for me it somehow felt like being in Cuba. There weren't many tourists but everyone was very welcoming. You could see even between students the difference in pro-russians and pro-europeans. Weird thing is cut the hot water during the summer. Best wine I've ever had and it was home made from my friend's parent's cellar. Loved the time there.

Old Soviet style communities get hot water from central plants, mainly used for heating but also for showers, so when winter is over, they shutdown the heating plants for the season and no hot water at all. Some places in Northern China hook into muni hot water for showers in the winter but use solar hot water in the summer, when hot showers can be a bit less satisfying (in my experience anyways).

Makes sense, but when I asked most people answered that it was to save natural gas.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#414

Post by danayfm »

petre wrote: post #268
sam_lowry_ wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Purcari and Gitana are two staple names in the EU market. I bought them for 10+ years from a friendly reseller. IMO they are still the best value proposition.

You should try Vinia Traian[1] then, It's very close to the Gagauzia autonomous region, located in the Valul lui Traian PGI[2]. Also anything from Slobozia Mare: Domeniile Davidescu, Vinaria din Vale. They also have Saperavi, a Gerogian grape variety. A popular Moldovan variety is Rara Neagra but you should be careful not to consume it alone without meat or cheese because it's an older variety, it's more acidic and m…

Off-topic, where can I find moldovan wines in the US, specially any rara neagra? I used to buy them in a store in Ohio (Jungle Jim's), but I don't live in the Midwest anymore.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#415

Post by justsomehnguy »

fractallyte wrote: post #402
justsomehnguy wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, one more thing[0] The guy says 'just promoted to an official status ... in the past month'. So he himself confirms, what for the 33 years they didn't bother with a language 'which is spoken very widely'. And suddenly, in the year 2022, not only it's spoken 'very widely' despite being non-existent in any conceivable metric[1] before, but promoted to 'a secondary official status nonetheless' absolutely ignoring the…

Ukraine is a sovereign nation, with the right to make its own decisions. Neither you nor Russia have any say in this whatsoever . If you still vehemently disagree, the best recourse is to get Ukrainian citizenship, enter politics, and make your case. That's how this works.

> Ukraine is a sovereign nation, with the right to make its own decisions

That's why it imposes it's own vision on the language they don't even use.

> Neither you nor Russia have any say in this whatsoever

Neither you nor Ukrainians have any say in how people who speak English should use it.

> That's how this works.

Lol?

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#416

Post by justsomehnguy »

fractallyte wrote: post #401
justsomehnguy wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

For this conversation, I'm staying focused on Ukraine. I suggest you do the same, otherwise there's a risk of diluting a very important topic. The Kremlin has followed on from Nazi Germany in evolving and maturing its propaganda tactics. One of these tactics is to devalue and delegitimize other nations. The addition of one simple word - "the" - is enough to shift the perception of a country (with its own culture, lan…

> For this conversation, I'm staying focused on Ukraine.

You could had agreed or disagreed but you chose to divert. Because you like what Israel does in Gaza, what USA did and continues to do with countries on other side of the world.

> The addition of one simple word - "the"

You still don't get it? It's not Russian who added 'the', it's the one who actually use English language every day.

> Keep in mind, Russia has an illegitimate permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

Oh lol. By your own logic everything the Soviet government did should be returned back to pre-USSR times. Including Crimea and Lwow.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#417

Post by throwaway290 »

fer wrote: post #346
SomeoneFromCA wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Central Asia (where I actually live) does not have much to see, esp. Kazakhstan. The main tourist destinations are historical monuments in Uzbekistan which has huge tourist influx lately (every time I am in Uzbekistan I see a good deal of tourists around hotels). Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have beautiful mountains, nature. Kazakhstan is bit dull post-Soviet place, Almaty resembles more some city in Eastern Europe than…

> Central Asia (where I actually live) does not have much to see, esp. Kazakhstan I think this is the "I live here" bias. I've hit most stans, each is unique and worth a visit in their own ways, but I give you that a random snapshot from Almaty could have been taken anywhere in the USSR.

Almaty has nice mountains to see actually, but some seriously problematic neighborhoods and high crime.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#418

Post by mopsi »

protomolecule wrote: post #410
mopsi wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So, which industries did European countries develop in their African colonies, for example? Racists usually bring up ports, railways and whatever resource extraction they set up in Africa as their gift to humanity. As the other poster said, that's a very common thing to say for imperialists who justify colonization. Incredibly funny that you keep doubling down on the same tropes without recognizing how they sound.…

[flagged]

Why? That's a very mild way to put it. Entire generations of people were robbed of freedoms and natural progress of their society. Most of Central and Eastern Europe will catch up with the rest by around 2040-2050. Moldova will be lucky if they recover and reach parity even this century.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#419

Post by ossobuco »

aa_is_op wrote: post #335
ossobuco wrote: post #285

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.

...and before that was part of Romania, and the reason 80% of the country speaks Romanian. Let's tamper down with the Russian imperialism. We see how well that's been going in Ukraine and the Baltics.

Let's tamper down with the American imperialism. We see how well that's been going in Ukraine and the Baltics.

Re: The only tourist in Moldova

#420

Post by bobthepanda »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #235
bobthepanda wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With China, that might not be true given the recent unprompted stabbings of foreigners. US professors on an exchange program: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna156485 A schoolbus of Japanese children: https://www.ft.com/content/954dd160-3102-477f-b816-1a1769f0a...

These seem like isolated freak events in a big country, a bit like saying USA is dangerous because of school shoitings

It’s hardly a secret that the Chinese government stokes nationalist sentiment as a useful way to get legitimacy and distract from domestic issues. The problem with doing this is that you start flirting with the possibility of violence.

This isn’t even the first time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_anti-Japanese_demonstrati...

And the government is well aware of the dangers given that the opinions that they need to rein it in come from the same state media that promotes nationalist sentiment. Xi’s China in particular is far more nationalist than its predecessors.

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