Vadim Chobanu

Apologies for not writing more often… I don’t know the exact reason, but recently, I found it difficult to focus on writing something about hardware and to be even more honest, I haven’t even played any games for a good few months now. I know, it’s a disaster, and some of you may say, I must be going mad, but I found myself preoccupied with the real world pleasures and to be more precise I took a trip to Moldova. For the purpose of this blog, I shall call it a business trip as it had to do with my next venture of which you will find soon enough

Until not so long ago, Moldova wasn’t even on Custom PC Map and what’s even more ironic, I was always forgetting to take a picture with me holding Custom PC when I am away… ok, ok, I am lying – I just find myself doing something different all the time and my magazine always happens to be left at home. However, I have nothing to blame my nature any longer as it seems someone called Nick Stevens has done it last week! 

So, while hesitating in writing my next blog, which was to be called ‘Building your own Vadim PC’, I just changed my mind and decided to write this article about my trip to Moldova. I guess it won’t be the last blog about the country , so I won’t go into much detail except that Moldova even though being a communist country (on the paper) it doesn’t need a visa for British and EU citizens. The other problem with Moldova in becoming a good tourist attraction is the fact that there is only one ‘direct’ flight per week and that ‘direct’ flight makes a stop in Paris (go figure out) to pick up and drop off some passengers there. So instead of paying £410 for a return flight I decided to make my way through Romania with BA. Daily departures from Heathrow, early arrival in Bucharest, twice as cheap (just something over £200), so cant complain. One tip for the traveller – avoid the Bucharest airport Taxi drivers like plague! They are absolute nasty rip offs. I won’t go into this one too much, but be warned – they can charge 3 times more than they should and won’t even blink. Knowing that, after fighting a few annoying taxi drivers to leave me alone, I took a bus to the Train station priced at just a few quid and then the train to Galati – a city on the border with Moldova, not far from where my parents live. The train was relatively cheap – less than 10 quid for the whole distance which is around 200 miles. I could have taken a flight to Kishinev – the capital of Moldova, but I was feeling adventurous and saving a bit of money is always a good idea if that involves seeing the country by train and having the time to do so

As my parents live in country side, all the food is home grown, so a few days there is always something to look forward for me, as you can see below – all is natural and indeed home made. As I arrived on a weekend, it was only Monday that I had to make my way to Kishinev for the planned meetings, which allowed me to fully enjoy the country.

Wont comment here, but was very tasty

Grapes - Moldova variety

Sundried Fish - perfect with beer

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