This country is quite a small one, so it takes some time to find it on the political map of Europe and if you are telling somebody that you come from Moldova – he will depending on his politeness answer something like this “Sorry, where is it?” or “Yeah, I know this great African land”. The truth is that this country is located in Eastern Europe between Ukraine and Romania. The country was in the past a part of Romania and the official language spoken is Moldavian, which is very similar to Romanian. Actually, you could notice the difference between the languages only in pronunciation.

Moldova is landlocked, so it has no seasides and no great lakes. But the weather is very hot in summer, so you probably would be missing a swimming pool or any other bathing if you decide to visit it in the period from June to August. The temperatures are actually relative normal, rising up to 35, but the neighboring Black Sea brings lots of humidity in the air and already 30 centigrade is hard to resist for a visitor. So, the perfect time to visit Moldova is from the end of August till the end of September. The temperatures are to be 25-30 centigrade and the autumn rains are still relative rare. By the way, the Black Sea is 200 km from Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. It is already Ukraine, but there are daily buses to Odessa (unofficial second capital of Ukraine). So if you decide to combine the visit of Moldova with the visit of the Black Sea – you'll have a great holiday. But the Black Sea is quite another story.

As already said, the capital of Moldova is Chisinau and the only city to visit in this country. The other cities are not really interesting to visit. There are some places of nature though, that are surely worth visiting, such like Tsipova, a rock monastery and Orchei Vechi a sudden change of the step land to the rocky mountains.

There are lots of drinking establishments in Chisinau and clubs, a couple of very beautiful parks and lots of interesting people. As Moldova was earlier a part of Soviet Union, almost all of the people speak here Russian. Also English is basically learned at schools and universities. As many of the post-soviet countries, the percentage of the people with higher education is quite high, so you will see crowds of youth gathering in parks and in front of the universities.

The official currency of Moldova is Leu, rated 17:1 to Euro. The prices are quite low, due to cheap human labor, so you can have quite a good lunch at a cafe for 2-3 Euro.

The main source of income to the state budget of Moldova is wine-export. Moldova is very well known for it's wines and cognacs along the whole former Soviet Union and partially in Europe. The wines are mostly sweet due to hot climate and the cognacs are very mild, much milder as those I've tasted in Europa, though it is the matter of taste. There I've tasted the first time of my life a wine that was older than me. That was simply beautiful and a bottle of such wine stays in my bar right now. If you are a real fan of wines – you simply must visit the Cricova wineries. These are long cellars with barrels and bottles of wine. I was told that you could drive in with a car, but I've never been there. These wineries are on my list of planned visits the next time I travel to Moldova.

This land is worth once visiting and if you combine it with the visit to the Black Sea and Ukraine, you will get a nice imprint of the South-European part of the former Soviet Union.

About the Author: Iuri Tarabanov writes about interesting travel experiences. His travel site is http://www.travelime.com