Upon crossing the border from Romania into Moldova, I immediately noticed a change. There were fewer paved streets. The houses looked shabbier. Cars were older. The roads were appalling. The main highway to Chisinau, the capital, is full of potholes. No wonder Moldova is the poorest country in Europe.
Chisinau has a sleepy feel. There are few tall building and lots of shabby buildings the city center. Sidewalks are in poor maintenance. There is one mall in the entire country, built only a couple of years ago. There is not much to do in Chisinau except walk around, which I did. Like Romania, money changers are everywhere, indicating that much of the population has migrated.
While a democratic country, Moldovan voters have elected communist governments since the fall of the USSR. It doesn’t seem like the government has done much to lift the country of poverty. One a per-capita basis, Moldova is poorer than China and is at a similar level of development to some of the richer African countries.
When I took a taxi to the train station to catch my train returning to Bucharest, the taxi driver, who spoke some English, asked me what I thought of Moldova. I said I liked it. It was true, while boring, people were reasonably friendly, and visiting was a positive experience for me. The taxi driver told me he thought that Moldova was a ‘bad country’ and like many of his countrymen, he wanted to leave. I once read somewhere that Moldova was the least happy country on earth. I can now perhaps see why.
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