luni, 22 august 2011

Iasi- Kishinev

Finnaly, the awaited day has come...
Train for this leg of the journey:
R 402 “Moldova” Bucharest- Kishinev


Iasi dep 03.10 a.m- Kishinev arr 08.52 a.m



Train 401/402 Kishinev- Bucharest- Kishinev is a very interesting train. It is served by CFM (Calea Ferata din Moldova- the state railways of Moldova) and in it`s composition it has one 1st class carriage, one carriage half bar, half 2nd class and four 2nd class carriages.  The carriages are "soviet" type, large, ugly, but clean and comfortable.

Also, the train staff is Moldavian. The only Romanian within the staff is the man who  accompanies the train until it exits Romanian territory. The CFR train engine is replaced at Ungheni Moldova by a one beloning to CFM.
This is the only train which connects the two cities, Kishinev and Bucharest. This interesting train departs from Bucharest at 19.10 p.m and arrives in Kishinev at 08.52 a.m. At station Iasi, it will arrive at 02.50 a.m and depart at 03.10 a.m.
            Therefore, I was present at 02.30 a.m on the platform together with my friend who brought me to the station, and i was feeling ready for this adventure. My friend told me that in Kishinev, somebody will wait for me on the platform with a sheet of paper with my name on it, and gave me a book which i must deliver to that person when i`ll arrive. As we talked and talked, I saw somewhere in the distance two headlights. I said to my friend: “This is the train”. Nobody was in the station at that time in the night. The train arrived smoothly, nobody announced it through the speakers. “Like a ghost train” I thought.


Waiting for the "soviet" train to arrive in Iasi...



I already noticed from the distance that the last 6 carriages are different than the first two. The first two were Romanian carriages which will be detached in Iasi. The "soviet" types are wider than normal cars.
Below there is a short film i managed to take as the train entered Iasi (The "soviet" cars can be distinguished from the other ones)

           Once the train arrived, I asked my friend to take me a few pictures  with the train board. Suddenly, a door open (“The door to Moldova”, I thought) and a lady popped her head out and asked me: “Do you have a ticket for this train?” “Yes, I do” I said, and I gave her the ticket. After a short time, the lady open the hatch that blocked my way into Moldova and let me in.


Near the train route..."the door into Moldova" wasn`t opened yet...



The first impression the carriage gave me was that I entered into the past. Was a smooth smell of coal (coal is used to heat those type of carriages, at one end of the carriage there is a stove on which the coal is thrown with a shovel).
            I was led into my compartment and I opened the door. And there I met a French guy travelling all the way from Paris to Ungheni by train and a Slovakian girl who i`ll travel together with until Kishinev. 


2nd class sleeping car compartment of the "Moldova" train, 402, Bucharest- Kishinev...




Upper and lower bed in the 2nd class compartment...




Corridor on the "Moldova" train, Bucharest- Kishinev...








A photo for posterity...this is the first time in my life i travelled with this type of carriage...and for sure it won`t be the last...



Nobody was in a mood of sleeping, so we started talking and the French shared a bottle of Cola and some cake with us. The train already left Iasi and 5 minutes after I heard the carriage attendant (“provodnitsa” in Russian) teeling us to start preapare the passports and luggage for the customs control. “This is it, let`s do this” crossed through my mind...

Romanian border controls were easy and not worth mentioning against what was about to come. To be very short it was like this: “Where are you going?” “Kishinev”…”Have a pleasant journey”…”Thank you”. And then we waited…for about 1 hour and 15-20 minutes nothing happened. We looked through the window and saw a barbed wire fence. This is the place were EU ends.
The signal shows yellow now and the train is ready to cross the Prut river and for me to write history.  The train started to move very slowly and all three of us looked out of the window. A French, a Slovakian girl and a Romanian are crossing the Prut river into Moldova. Imagine that.
Below is the place where European Union ends. The bridge marks the border between Romania and Republic of Moldova...the picture is taken by a friend of mine, Robert, and i agreed with him to post the picture here...




As we exited the bridge, we already had Moldavian ground under the wheels. Out of nowhere, the train  stops in front of a signal which was red. The Moldovan border guards are entering the train. Some barks could be heard outside, a sign of dogs around or near the train. And shortly after this, the show starts.
When they got to my compartment, they took my passport, put it into some sort of small laptop and a green colour could be seen on the monitor. “Green is ok, I guess” I thought… And then the questions arrived: “Where are you going?” “Do you know someone in Moldova?” “What are you doing in Moldova?” “How long you`ll be in Moldova?” “When are you coming back?” “Guns, drugs, values to declare?”  “Which are your luggages? Please open them”.  The answers were like this: “Kishinev”, “Nobody” “Sightseeing in the capital/Tourist” “Just today” “Tonight i`ll come back” "Nothing to declare" “This is my backpack, have a look”. He already had my passport, he looked at it, turn it on all sides, turning every file within. Then the other two companions are next. No problems with them also. Seeing this, the border guard is looking like he`s feeling sorry that he can`t find anything out of the ordinary at all of us so he puts the stamps in our passport and says in a very bad English, “Welcome to Moldova”.
Now I had officially entered the Republic of Moldova. The French left the train here, once the customs were finished. After some back and forth moves, the train is shunted to the regauging facility.
The European gauge is 1435mm while the Russian gauge is 1524mm, so the train has to have it`s wheels changed here, at Ungheni Moldova, as The Republic of Moldova uses Russian gauges. So the Romanian wheels are replaced with Russian ones. This procedure is done by lifting the train on some poles and it takes about 2 hours to be done.



During the regauging operation...



Regauging facility at Ungheni Moldova...


               After the wheels are changed, we depart to Kishinev, without stopping until the Moldavian capital. Landscape is hilly, few villages and the average speed is somewhere around 50km/h. There are no electrified tracks in Moldova, therefore the trains are running with diesel engines, and for me, being in the first carriage was a little difficult to endure the smell, but how often do I travel to Moldova? :)


Dawn in Basarabia...


Moldavian village...

Moldavian landscape seen from train Bucharest- Kishinev...


The first photo with suburbs of the moldavian capital city of Kishinev...


Passing Ghidighici station some kilometers before Kishinev...


Train 402 is approaching the capital...


Un comentariu:

  1. It is very interesting crossing the border from Romania to Republic of Moldova. My kind regards to you!

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