The entertainment budget is blown for the month!

Prior to us taking on this lifestyle of travel almost 10 years ago, we had a Christmas tradition with my (Kevin's) side of the family. Many years ago, we used to exchange gifts like most other people. But it got to  the point where everybody already had what they needed, and gift certificates were becoming the go to gift. I didn't see the point.

So we all decided that there would be no more Christmas gift giving. Instead, we would all get together at a good restaurant, and just have a really nice meal and spend some time together.

Trip costs...6 weeks in Romania and Moldova

Well, the numbers are in.

This trip was definitely more expensive than our previous trips. And most of it comes down to the time of year that we were visiting. We kind of compared this trip to when we did Czech Republic and Slovakia back in 2012. It was approximately the same length of time. But we had done that trip in the summer...and this one was in November and December.

We were gone for 45 days, and we spent a total of $4,953 CAD ($3,800 USD) including airfare.

Poor Sherman!

Made it on to our Montreal to Ottawa flight at 7:00am, scheduled for take off at 7:10am. It's just a little twin engine propeller plane seating 24 people. They fired up the first engine, but the outside temperature was -24C (-11F) and they had to warm up a battery in order to start the second engine. This took time, and then when that was done we had to go to the de-icing stall.

So, it was about 7:50am by the time we took off. I can't quite figure why they didn't start doing this earlier...they would have known about the deicing. In the meantime, the interior of the plane was also quite cold. Everyone kept their coats and hats on!

An unexpected hotel stay...

When we left you last, we were in Bucharest airport waiting for our flight to Munich. We're flying with Lufthansa for the first time ever, and it won't be the last. Excellent service from start to finish.

Landed in Munich right on time and found our connecting gate to Montreal. We only had an hour until the flight was expected to board, so we didn't have time to go into the city and explore, like we did in Zurich on the way over.

We don't like cutting things that close!

We had a few hours to kill yesterday,  and our AirBnb host Gloria asked if we wanted to go see the Military Moldova History Museum. Sure. We figured it would be a one hour deal and we would head back home. We probably shouldn't have though. We were still a little tired and wouldn't likely get much sleep on the train.

Anyhow, we left our bags at her place and the three of us hopped on the Chisinau city bus downtown.

A great end to our Moldova visit

It's hard to believe that we will be on the train late this afternoon heading back to Bucharest. And that tomorrow evening we will arrive back in Ottawa, Canada! Our six week trip is coming to an end.

Yesterday we did the drive back from Soroca to Chisinua. There were a few things we wanted to see along the way, so we left the hotel around 9:30am.

Exploring Soroca, Moldova

For breakfast, we went back to the same restaurant here in the Central Hotel. Marcel was off duty, and a woman who didn't speak any English looked after us. No problem, we can order breakfast in Romanian! Sort of!

Anyhow, we each had a cup of tea, and a plain omelette with cheese and salami on the side. Total with the tip was 90 lei ($6.30 CAD, $4.75 USD) for the two of us.

Back in Moldova!

Although technically, we never left. The country of Transistria doesn't really exist, and is still "officially" part of Moldova. But, when you have to go through border checkpoints, getting inspected, and showing your passport, and getting permission to enter...it sure feels like we were in a different country.

So yesterday morning we had to get out of Transnistria. I had read reports where exiting Transnistira can be more difficult that entering!

A country drive in Transnistria

Transistria is actually a fairly long country, at about 200 kms (120 miles) from north to south. But it's only a few kms wide.

Most people who visit only see the city of Tiraspol. But we are not most people, so yesterday morning we hopped in the rental car and went for a drive.

And then we heard a crash...

Wow, we walked about 15 kms (9 miles) yesterday. The temperature was pleasant, with a high of about 9C (48F) but there was no sunshine. Overcast all day,

The apartment where we're staying is on the eastern outskirts of this city of 100,000 people or so. We decided to leave the car parked where it was and walk into the city. We were due for some exercise anyhow. And, we've learned that you see a lot more when you're walking.

Pulled over by the police in Transnistria

After our Purcari wine tour, we had stayed the night at a small hotel in the town of Stefan Voda, only about 20 kms (12 miles) from the winery. It's a convenient location if the rooms at the winery are fully booked.

Not the greatest sleep, because the bed was hard as a rock...but other than that, for 500 lei ($35 CAD, $26.50 USD) a night it was fine.

Then yesterday morning, it was off to Transnistria!

It's not often we talk about politics...

But I felt it was important to give some background on the area that we are now visiting.

We're now in the country of Transnistria. Officially called the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. The problem is that this country doesn't really exist.

Oh, it's a country. It has its own border, its own border guards, its own passports, its own government, its own parliament, its own currency, and its own military.  Yes, it's a country.

The best wine in Moldova!

Yesterday, we drove about two hours south of the capital of Chisinau to the little town of Purcari, located on the Moldova - Ukraine border. There, we found the Purcari Winery.

Of course Moldova is famous for it's fine wines. When I began doing research about our trip to Moldova, the name Purcari kept coming up, and so it was one of the places that we really wanted to visit. Purcari is just a small vineyard...but they have a big history!

The largest wine cellar in the world

The other day we visited the underground wine cellars at Cricova Winery. They are listed as the second largest wine cellar in the world. Yesterday, we visited the largest wine cellar in the world!

Yes, the tiny, unknown country of Moldova has the two largest wine cellars in the world.

The one we visited yesterday at Milestii Mici Winery contains over 2 million bottles of wine.

November Expenses

I was going to wait and publish our expenses for the entire trip. And when we're finished maybe I'll do that anyhow, because it would be a good exercise to show how much we spend per day on a six week journey. But for now, here's where we stood for the month of November...

We started off the month of November in the city of Ottawa, and so I've included our travel expenses for the one way journey to get to Europe. Despite the fact that we actually paid for the tickets last June, they're being expensed in the month we use them to make it a more accurate representation of how much we spend.