Word Count: 2319 Well folks, it’s been an interesting week. A few simple comments about Odessa led to a lot of exploration and research, and so I thank everyone who contributed because it really gave me the impetus to learn a lot more about Romania during World War 2, a subject I had previously avoided because it was so ugly. I got some rather trenchant … Continue reading The Odessa Tales, Pt. 2
WORD COUNT: 1240 Ever since writing my seminal piece about riding Romanian trains five years ago (with many follow-up tales, like this one), I’ve been burning with desire to ride some trains in (the Republic of) Moldova. Luckily, this week, I finally got my chance! There are a lot of differences, the most important being that Romania is a huge country with hundreds of train … Continue reading Choo-Choo! Riding the Rails Moldova Style
Word Count: 1743 I say tomato, you say tomato. I say Country X is a real country, you say it isn’t. I keep hearing “experts” throw the idea of Transnistria around quite a lot while at the same time being sure to emphasize its illegitimacy. But if you boil down all the treaties, debate and political maneuvers since the Treaty of Wesphalia into their pure … Continue reading When You Don’t Officially Exist
I’m currently restricted to prepay internet, which means that I pay for every byte, so I’ve spent a lot of time offline, plumbing the archives of my computer. As such, I’ve had the time and fortitude to re-read Herodotus, and it reminded me of the first time I went to Moldova. — As a brief historical recap, 665 years ago a minor prince of Maramures … Continue reading Women and War
I was innocently minding my own business when I saw this tweet flash across one of my screens last night: Good consultation in Bucharest with old friend Titus Corlăţean on the eve of Athens informal meeting of EU MFAs. Transnistria on our minds. — Radosław Sikorski MEP 🇵🇱🇪🇺 (@sikorskiradek) April 3, 2014 On the face of it, there’s nothing unusual about Raduslaw Sikorski meeting with … Continue reading Old friends in low places
All Things Romania 