Where is Moldova?
It’s in the top 100 places to visit before you die. Moldova snubbed France last year for the number one tourist destination in Europe. It is the Alps of Europe’s the Far East. The capital of Moldova, Chisinau, is fast becoming the tech hub of Eastern Europe. Moldova is becoming a lot of things.
But you have never heard of Moldova.
Right! My point exactly! I made it all up.
You wouldn’t know about this country unless you are Romanian. Romanians don’t read this website. Therefore I figure you don’t have a clue.
Spending the New Year where you have no clue isn’t exactly what you call a New Year Rocking Eve either.
Despite careful planning, including the aid of premium high-tech software like Microsoft Excel and Google Spreadsheet (read “A Master plan for adventure“), mix-and-match countries to pleasant weather season, allowable vacation days, travel expenses and logistics didn’t always produce the best solution. I had one week during Christmas-New Year period to go somewhere in Europe I hadn’t been before. I would like the place to be warmer and within driving distance from Prague or served by budget airlines. The only countries left were Bulgaria, Caucasus countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia), Iceland, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, and Russia. My one-week timeline automatically threw out Kosovo and Macedonia, two neighboring countries I wanted to combine in a single trip, same for the further-away Caucasus countries. Bulgaria is a summer destination where people flock to the seaside to sunbathe, slap mud, sample rose products and do nothing. Iceland and Russia are two distinctive countries on its own. They are a lot further; require flying in, require longer time and careful planning and preparation. Russia and Iceland are not the kind of touristy destinations you wake up one night and decide to go the next day especially when you want to venture out of big cities and roam the barren highlands and volcanic landscape of Iceland and the vast Siberian plain of Russia.
The only remaining option was Moldova, freaking boring cold hellish landlocked Moldova.
I convinced a friend of mine to join the trip so I wouldn’t be alone. Who wants to be alone on New Year day unless that was your last year’s New Year solution and spend time with a Russian Moldovan divorcee, a seasonal Canadian farmer, an early-retired engineer cum investor who does nothing but traveling the world and a wandering American author penning his yet to be published book titled “The Laughing Dolfin.” Well, but that what I did.
My friend and I found on expats.cz, an online portal for foreigners living in the Czech Republic, a Romanian who would drive from Prague to his hometown in Moldavia in the eastern region Romania, next to Moldova. The Romanian would stay behind to spend time with his family. My friend and I would take another bus to the capital Chisinau and returned after the New Year to drive with him back to Prague.
On the way to Moldavia
We’re stopping at the first big city on the way to Moldavia, Romania.
Passing through a snowy village
To make a long story short, we made a long 20-hour car ride with only few coffee breaks in between, endured a night in an half-year abandoned cabin where we had to gather woods to warmed up ourselves in addition to going to the loo outside in nature and took early morning five-hour bus ride to Chisinau, my friend decided to ditch me because she couldn’t stand the cold. Gosh, she is a Russian. Enduring cold is what they do. But she didn’t want to be in this weather. She bought the bus ticket back to Prague on the same day we arrived and left the very next day.
At Christian’s family cabin in Sueceva Moldavia, Romania
I spent the next couple of days exploring adjacent villages, visiting a winery and monasteries. This would be terrific to do in the summer, backpacking and hopping from one spot to another, but not during the winter and an important occasion. There was no public transportation to Milestii Mici, Moldova’s famous winery; despite it was only 18 km away from the capital. I didn’t have a car or knew anybody going that direction. I opted for the second best winery in Cojusna instead. After making a trip there, I learned the winery had closed for the season.
Cojusna wine village
Having failed to sample good wine, I turned my attention to God. I decided to visit monasteries. Marshrutka or shared public taxi, a form of public transportation in Eastern Europe, operated infrequently. There was only one ride to the village of Butuceni and one ride back to the capital with no option for a detour from one destination to another instead of having to return to Chisinau. I ended up spending more than half a day in a village to wait for my ride back to the capital.
The Cross at Butuceni village
There was no other tourist and only few locals in sight. The locals stayed in their houses, perhaps to prepare for the holiday. There wasn’t any shop or tourist entertainment center except for the famous cross and a vacant monastery. There was no restaurant and the only one which opened didn’t cook anything. I didn’t bring any food thinking I would eat a traditional Moldovan meal in a folksy cozy warm restaurant at the village. There were only two mini stores selling imported goodies, sugar-loaded drink, pasta, wilted vegetables. The shops weren’t exactly opened either. I had to stand there and knock until somebody saw me, fetched the keys and opened the doors. I bought potato chips, a kilo of homemade biscuits and Coca-cola and had my lunch and supper out in the snow.
Butuceni monastery
I wanted to hitchhike, but there weren’t many cars passing by or going to the direction of Chisinau. Thus, I walked back and forth the same old streets and occasionally ventured a little far out from the village until my evening bus arrived. I thought about walking to the next village, but I didn’t have any map and got a bit uncomfortable. I saw only snow and hill and didn’t want to get lost and couldn’t find my way back. I had no intention to attempt a Chris McCandless’s into the Alaskan wild. No, you don’t want to get lost hungry, cold and speaking English where people only understood Russian and Moldovan. The only Russian I could mutter was “Ya khorosho” meaning “I’m good” which is quite ironic don’t you think?
At Butuceni village
By now I had traveled alone a lot and had my share of loneliness, but it was never this real, physical and mentally compound by the weather, silence, wet socks, a biscuit-filled stomach and lack of visible life.
Looking back now, the only reason I was able to step on ankle-deep snow, freezing my butt off, walking from one point to another was that I had a goal to work toward.
I could have stayed put in the capital, having supermarket wine, amazing borsch, warm meals until my return to Prague and could still say that I had visited Moldova. That wasn’t how I wanted to tell my story, though.
I was beyond loneliness and even depressed, yet at the same time, I felt a strange sense of happiness realizing that yes I could be dedicated to something and well on my way to finishing it.
Nobody put out a price tag for me to do this. I was doing this for myself.
We all know about goals. We are aware of the importance of setting goals. We all set goals at some point in our life. But I bet many of us will agree that often we struggle to achieve the goals or fail flat out. Sometimes when we reached some of our goals, we didn’t feel happy about it.
The non-SMART goal is one reason.
What else’s?
I am Asian. Hence I know a lot of “good” and “important” goals. I supposed to “know” what my life should be to the next, five and ten years. What I would do and where I would be then. I should finish high school, graduate from university, get a Master degree, get a Ph.D., become a doctor, get a hi-tech job, work for the government for job security, buy a house, purchase a car, etc.
Along the way, I realized those weren’t truly my goals. I didn’t intentionally set them, thus didn’t own them. I merely and passively participated in a repeating cycle to achieve goals “set” by others.
I don’t say that you should not finish high school, attend college, get an advanced degree, get a secured job or buy property. You should but are they what you want? If they are not, yet important to you, you’ve better internalize them and own them. You need a lot of commitment, mental and physical energy and to follow through and achieve important goals.
Hopping around to see a bunch of countries is probably trivial for a lot if not a majority of people. This is the kind of goal which doesn’t seem to bring any tangible benefit. I had a hard time at first identifying what I hoped to achieve when I accomplished this goal. Was it only to fulfill a hedonistic bliss or for something bigger?
Traveling to every country in a continent made my heart jump just by thinking of it. I didn’t feel obligated to do it. I didn’t feel pressured into doing it. I did it because it struck one of my core needs: the pull to freedom and exposure to new things, ideas and people. From the moment the goal was mentally created in my head and then physically set in stone until completed, I felt an unfamiliar indescribable joy. I can’t recall the last time I experienced the same strong urge to go toward the future.
Heed the advice of your school counselors, senior managers, mentors, Penelope Trunk and whoever about setting goals or funny stuff like that. It works you know.
Make sure though the goals that you set relate to something that you can identify, care about or believe in. Otherwise, you will end up pursuing the goals of others, regardless how wonderful they are, they suck.
A traditional New Year celebration where people wearing masks, dumping water and feather onto you
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I'm a motivation explorer, personality type hacker, behavioral investigator and storyteller. I help startup founders, entrepreneurs, and corporate managers to understand themselves, the people they manage and how to get the best of their people. Specialty is in psychological personality types and brain-based methods. When I don't do the above, I hop around planet Earth with TravelJo.com to learn the Art and Science of people from everywhere and to give you all the free travel and tips and advice in many cool destinations.
My name is Cindy, also rhymes with travel junkie. A friend said I was probably a gipsy in my previous life. One of my many secret missions in life is to convert you to run off every once in awhile.
One thought on “Checklisting Europe | The Many Wonderful Goals That Suck”
FrankPosted on 4:49 am - Nov 2, 2016
I actually really enjoyed driving in Romania for the week I was there. Yes, traffic was aggressive and roads weren’t in the best condition compared to Germany, but the roads were in better condition and were better marked/signed than the roads in Canada where I live. Drivers were aggressive but very good and although many times traffic flew straight through left turn lanes, it was very efficient and there were no traffic jams. Roundabouts are fantastic and should replace all 4 way stops in North America. I wish I lived there honestly. Loved everything about driving there.