I wanted to show a little area or country they call it. The Transnistria country. The title of the article gives all the names it goes by.
It seems that Moldova and this area of Moldova. (The Dniester Region) is a sore spot in that part of the world. We were traveling Moldova and stumbled upon this little gem by accident! As we got close to the Dniester Region we came upon some Russian troops. They did not stop us nor even look at us. We said Wow!! That was neat. There was tanks and lots of big guns, guarding the bridge we crossed. We crossed with no incident. Then several km later we came to a boarder crossing! We were not near the Moldavian boarder? Then we were asked for passports and lots of other information. Had to pay for me the American, a visa fee??? My Wife was free because she was Russian. Then we finally, after about an hour was allowed to cross into Pridnestrovie!!!
The country side was beautiful! But not anything different from Moldova. The trip was uneventful until we got to the first boarder patrol going into Ukraine. Then after about two hours we were told we could not cross at this point. Something about local people only. We then drove 50 km to another checkpoint. That took us around two to three hours to cross. That is where we found out that Moldova has nothing to do with this boarder crossing. So we left Moldova by going through Pridnestrovie, and we have no idea about having our passport stamped by Moldova. Pridnestrovie did not stamp our passports that we left???? So Moldova probably will never let us back into their country again. I really liked Moldova, So I hope that they will let me come back?
I have put two links to sites about Transnistria.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria
They are good sites to do a little reading on. Also if you plan on traveling that area of the world, just remember about the little country that wants to be a real country. They are working hard at it. But that is another story for another day!!
Kyle
Picture 1-Holy water at a rest stop
Picture 2- Snow, snow,snow
Picture 3- More snow, this was after a 25 degree Celsius day before!
Picture 4- Fabulous monastery.
Picture 5- The roads we traveled, well paved
Picture 6- Farm land and grazing land.
Picture 7- Typical Village in The Dniester Region.
Picture 8- Super Byway, Heavy traffic
Picture 9- These religious areas were all over the country side, We saw hundreds??
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