From Kishinev to Yerevan: from the frightened blond to the young man “landing” the airplane
The evaporating rain is pleasantly freezing your face before reaching the asphalt. At 5 p.m. you are slowly walking through the dark city in order to reveal the colors of the capital of Moldova as a tourist.
During evening hours only the casinos’ entrance advertising posters located in every 20 meters and 4 times frequently noticed currency exchange signs light Kishinev.
By the way, in the exchanges offices, which are only five meters far from each other, there are different exchange rates, for example, in case of 10 euro the difference may be up to 3 leu (about 85 drams).
Already bare trees prove that Kishinev is one of the green cities of Europe. In late autumn evening you can walk through the park, but you can hardy recognize whose statue you reached: there is no illumination. There are also no bins in the city.
You must put some efforts in order to make fast walking Moldovans, especially women, listen to you for several minutes. The best way to understand the level of hospitality of the unknown city is to pretend to be lost.
You need five minutes to reach my hotel from the building of Moldovan Government. Behind the hotel, I am pretending that I can’t find my two days’ accommodation.
First I managed to stop young ladies: they listened to my question in Russian with a cold expression on their faces: they discussed it in Moldovan, then one of them, who was more gloomy, explained in Russian where to go. Then I approached middle aged women: they don’t now where the hotel is situated, but they are smiling.
Mrs. Yulia works at hotel cloakroom. Knowing that I am from Armenia, she remembers her young years: during Soviet years, she ate fish on the bank of Sevan, listened to music of Yerevan fountains. She says that she would like to come to Armenia again, but she is afraid, “I have heard that you hate blond women in Armenia,”- seeing my astonished face, beautiful woman over fifty explains that her mother is Moldovan and her father is Russian and she has been told that Armenians don’t like Russians. I explain that Armenia has entered the Customs Union. Now she is surprised and suddenly a citizen, whose country is associated to the EU, says that we have done right. Day by day, life is getting more and more expensive in Moldova, there are no jobs, young people see their future out of the country.
The man, whom I met by chance, has another opinion about the membership of the RA in the EEU. Without waiting for my questions, he tells that he followed the process of Armenia’s Eurointegration and he was very disappointed, when Serzh Sargsyan didn’t sign the Association document in Vilnius. He considers both Moldovans and Armenians to be the victims of Russian aggression. “Why? Why can’t we also live in a normal way like Americans,”- rhetorically asks the retired physicist. “I want to join neither Romania nor Russia. I am Moldovan,”- announces the man with accented dignity, and his other questions are mixed with the noise of his walking stick in a dark and empty street.
The symbols of Moldova are wines of different taste and quality: their price at the airport is 50 percent higher than in city shops. But even in this case at the airport you can buy Moldovan wine starting from 2.50 euro. I suddenly find out at the cash register, that 10 cents are missing and while I am thinking about returning the product, Moldovan girl hands the wrapped wine to me.
By the way, the workers of Moldovan checkpoint are the most friendly girls of this sphere I have ever met. Almost everywhere, including Armenia and Russia, workers check my passport with suspicion that I am a little bit different on the photo. In Moldova they returned my passport smiling for how many countries I have visited.
At Domodedovo airport in Moscow, I was again interrogated. I had to explain that I was in Kishinev in a two-day visit with the invitation of the European Council to take part in the conference dedicated to the fight against Cybercrimes.
Russian “discontent” was awaiting also on the airplane. The full airplane was carrying Armenians speaking in different dialects. Soon I understood the reason for Russian impolite attitude. The airplane was taking off but one of the passengers continued speaking on the phone in spite of the warnings.
In the middle of the flight there was a warning by the pilot: if someone begins smoking, we will make an emergency landing at the nearest airport. There was smell of a burnt match.
The second part of the flight was more peaceful. The stewardesses were laughing in the back part of the airplane. Suddenly fuss started in the central rows: one of the passengers felt ill.
After five minutes, the airplane landed at “Zvartnots” airport. Policemen were waiting for the young man, who lit the cigarette but didn’t smoke it.
Karine Asatryan
Kishinev-Moscow-Yerevan
