When travelling through the countries of the former USSR, one place often comes up in conversation with fellow travellers. For sheer nostalgia value, the breakaway republic of Transnistria, otherwise known as the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica, is a fascinating place to visit.
What and where is Transnistria?
Official name: Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica (PMR), translated in English as Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, but referred to as Transnistria in the West.
The name Transnistria means “beyond the Dniestra River”. This is a major geographical feature of the country as it runs down its entire length, separating it from Moldova, with Ukraine on the other side.
Transnistria is a breakaway republic in the east of Moldova, recognised only by 3 other breakaway republics with strong ties to Russia: South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh).
Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Transnistria declared itself independent in 1991. A bloody war was fought against Moldova from 2nd March 1992 until 21 July 1992, with over 1,000 deaths.
It has its own government, currency, police force and stamps. The stamps can only be used for internal postage and Moldovan stamps must be used for international mail.
If you would like further information, refer to Wikipedia. Note that the entry incorrectly shows the flag of Transnistria / Priednestrovska Moldovska Republika with a sickle and star. This was the flag of the former Moldovian Soviet Socialist Republic. The current flag of Transnistria / PMR does not have a sickle and star.
Visiting Transnistria between dental appointments
We’d spent an amazing couple of weeks in Bucharest, where I was having some much needed dental work. My dentist, the wonderful Dr Anka, advised I needed to allow 1 month for the gum to heal before the next stage of treatment.
This seemed the perfect time to visit Transylvania and head east to Moldova. Whilst in that region, it was easy to carry on to Transnistria.
Moldova to Transnistria
A popular way from Moldova to Transnistria is from Chisinau to Tiraspol by train. We did things differently however. We decided to head down to the autonomous region of Gagauzia first. Luckily for us, we were in Comrat, the capital, during the annual Wine Festival. Check out the link to our YouTube video to see how much fun we had!
Whilst in Comrat, we were happy to discover that there were marshrutka going directly to Tiraspol, saving a trip back to Chisinau. These leave every couple of hours and a ticket was 62,40 lei = US$3.50 / UK3 / 3.23 euro / AU$6 / NZ$6.13
Crossing the border into Transnistria
Yes, there is a border crossing between Moldova and Transnistria so make sure you have your passport!
As the only 2 foreigners onboard, we were ushered off and taken to a small prefab office. A very polite border official took our passports and asked how long we planned to stay.
We were unsure so asked for 5 days. As always, we forgot that we need at least a week to get the feel of a place, so that was never going to be long enough 😉
IMPORTANT TIP: make sure you check the sheet of paper that you’re given as it will show how long you are allowed to spend in Transnistria. We were given the 5 days we ask for – a German guy in our hostel was only given 10 hours and was supposed to be out by 11pm that night! Read on to discover how to fix that problem!
First impressions
To get to Tiraspol, the capital, we drove through the town of Bender, with its historic castle. There we saw firsthand the bridge crossing the Dniestra guarded by Russian soldiers.
We then drove past the massive Sheriff football stadium, past old and new tower blocks, and a market, before being dropped off in front of the famous Kvint brandy factory.
First impressions were very Soviet indeed – relatively compact and an interesting blend of old and new buildings.
How to extend your visa
When we were chatting to the Canadian guy in our dorm, we mentioned we were only given a 5-day visa. He checked his migration card and realised he had to leave the following day! He went to the Migration office the next morning and was able to give us detailed instructions, which differed to the advice from our host!
- Go to the OVIR office in the centre of town – see the video for the address and location
- Show your passport to the security guard inside the door if he’s there (wasn’t when we went)
- Go up the stairs to the Immigration office
- Request an extension of your stay from the helpful Immigration officer – ours spoke excellent English but have Russian downloaded on Google Translate just in case
- Hand over your current migration card and receive one with a new date
Where did we stay in Tiraspol?
I’d arranged to stay with a Couchsurfing host, as we’d had such great experiences in Sofia and Bucharest. We couldn’t meet him until much later in the day though, so I contacted him to cancel and we ended up staying in a great hostel instead.
We found “Our Home Hostel” on Booking.com. It is in an excellent location and has friendly owners and great Soviet decorations! They live there with their 4 children, and were excellent hosts. Breakfast was included in the price. I must say I preferred it when the husband cooked as his portions were simple but large. His wife’s portions were lovely but smaller 🙂
We were in a 6-bed dorm with the funniest Canadian guy. We were the old travellers’ dorm… lights off at 11pm. The other dorm was more the party room 🙂
It cost US $8.50 each per night, and was a great place to stay! Check out the Soviet decorations in the bathrooms 🙂
What did we do in Transnistria/PMR?
This was one place we were inspired to shoot a lot of video footage… so for a good idea of what we did during our stay, check out our Frugal Travellers YouTube channel. In list form, here are the things we did during our 7 night stay in Tiraspol:
Walk along 25 November St. to soak up the architecture and monuments
Going to a concert
We decided to go to a concert one night as Mozart was on the playboard, and opera was featured as well.
The cheapest tickets were a bargain at only 25 MDL = US$1.40 / UK1.20 / 1.30euro / AU$2.41 / NZ$2.46! We still had a great view of the stage.
We had an excellent evening and would definitely recommend going to see any of the arts in Tiraspol as the standard was excellent.
An excellent souvenir – plastic token money
Bought a set of the 4 brightly coloured plastic token money, created to be easily used by the blind but now treated as a novelty item
Buying and sending postcards
Unlike many other countries we’ve visited in the past 2 years (I’m looking at you, the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan!), postcards were readily available in Tiraspol.
They seemed to be cheaper at the Central Post Office on ?? , with many different images to choose from. We ended up sending ?? postcards and all arrived… the one to my mother in New Zealand was in a terrible condition but at least it made it.
Sent postcards – international postage = Moldovan stamps, domestic postage = Transnistrian stamps
Excellent flea market near the Suvorov monument
We stumbled upon the excellent flea market near the Suvorov monument on 25 November. Lee had been talking about buying a hat as the temperature was dropping in October.
He was very pleased to find a secondhand Russian ushanka. This black hat with ear flaps was made in a factory in Belarus that we were planning to visit in March, until the coronavirus closed borders and stopped our travels for a while in Krakow
It cost ????
Walked to the Aviator monument, Park Pobeda and Kirov Park
What we ate in Tiraspol
Went to the excellent nearby supermarket every day to buy different foods as it was cheaper, more diverse and tastier than going to a restaurant, eating shwarma or cooking for ourselves. No photos inside the supermarket unfortunately as it was not allowed!
More photos of our amazing stay in Tiraspol!
**Blog post coming soon of our day trip to Bender!**
One of the main things to do in Tiraspol is a day trip to Bendery on the trolleybus. We went to the CCCP Cafe (USSR in English) and visited the Bendery fortress.
I plan to write a blog post to cover this fun day trip so keep an eye on your emails 🙂
To learn more about our travels, read Our Current Journey
Check out the following YouTube videos:
- Things to see and do on 25 November
- Visiting Bender
- Gaugazia Wine Festival
So much fun at the Gagauzia Wine Festival!
