Chisinau

Me and my friends took part in the «Art-labyrinth» festival. Apart from being there, I saw some of Chisinau.

The abandoned circus building.

Detail of the facade of the abandoned building of the Chisinau circus. Moldova

Chisinau turned out to have a rectangular grid of streets in the center.

Sycamores on the 31 August street in Chisinau, Moldova

There were old trolleybuses, nostalgic to some.

A trolleybus near the museum of fine arts in Chisinau, Moldova

And there were new trolleybuses.

a new trolleybus in Chisinau, Moldova

A clock built into a bus stop.

A clock built into a bus stop. Chisinau, Moldova

A clock on one of the crossroads of the rectangular grid.

A clock on the intersection of August 31 and Pushkin streets. Chisinau, Moldova

The «Valea Morilor» park entertained my brain with a «try to translate that on your own» mind game. It was obvious that «valea» means «valley». But that «r» in «morilor» made me think only about «death», which wasn't acceptable for urban naming. I succumbed and googled. Turned out to be «the valley of mills». Who stuffed that «r» phoneme into the «mill»?..

The stairway to the ponds were completely decayed — almost eroded away, but with signs of renovation coming soon.

Almost eroded stairway to the Valea Morilor ponds. Chisinau, Moldova

The pond looked like this from the stairway.

A view of the pond and the beach in Valea Morilor park. Chisinau, Moldova

Wikipedia said that this pond stood dry for three year between 2006 and 2009. Different online maps had different satellite imagery of the pond — with or without water.

Comparison of Valea Morilor on Bing Maps, Google Maps, and Yandex.Maps satellite imagery. Dry pond and filled.

We passed by this 19-th century water tower near the intersection of Oleksiy Meteyevich and Balunescu-Bodoni streets.

water tower build in 19-th century. Chisinau, Moldova

Our randomly chosen path went down the quiet street of Maria Chebotari.

Maria Chebotari street. Chisinau, Moldova

These sawtooth-like concrete things with places for flowers were common in the city:

sawtooth-like concrete fences with flowerbeds, an element of Chisinau design. Moldova

It was time to leave for the train station. There was a biserica near a bus stop. And again, who stuffed the «r» sound into the «basilica»?

Somewhat over-the-top illumination of the Saint Nicholas church in Chisinau. Moldova

The train station was unexpectedly dark, silent and used by almost no one. The square before it is called piaţa gării and it was not illuminated. The trolleybuses did not enter this square, stopping at a distance, as if the train station was not inmportant enough. There were just six people on the square.

The darkness of the train station. Chisinau, Moldova

But the train station building turned out to be nice and clean.

Train station is «gara» in Moldovan and Romanian. Passer railway station Chisinau in Moldova

The first platform was clean, renovated and matching the color of the russian train going for Moscow.

clean, renovated first platform of the train station. Chisinau, Moldova

Matviy Andreyev

Chisinau