People I met in Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania

True to form, I either write too much or nothing at all. I’ve realized that my personal emotions are getting too personal to share. So what else to write and share? I once suggested that a man who worked in a hostel write about the people he met. People are one of the main reasons I travel. And let me tell you, on this trip I have met some interesting characters. I of course will not be writing about those I actually spent time with or plan to stay in contact with in the future. Just the random strangers I meet, have a brief encounter with, whether it be good or bad, who cause you to think about life in a different way.

Dude from Cali: So I’m standing in the line to get a shwarma at 1:00 am on a Tuesday night/ Wednesday morning. The guy in front of me is struggling to explain that he wants meat and cheese. So I step in with my Russian: “Mojna sir I kuritza pazh-al-oosta.” The guy asks where I’m from, because it’s clear I’m not local with my day pack out at 1am. We start a conversation while we wait for our shwarma. And it turns out he left for a 2 week long back packing trip to Thailand 5 years ago and just hasn’t gone home. These people fascinate me, and I’m so jealous of their extreme love for the journey and courage to face the constant unknown. He, also marvels at my life. In the end he buys my shwarma to say thank you for the help and is on his way.

Couchsurfing Dudes: I’m not sure if you all know about couchsurfing, but it is an amazing app that brings together travelers and locals to learn about culture and exchange travel tips. I like it for when I’m feeling lonely, need a night out, and just haven’t met anyone worthy of a whole beer worth of my time. I’ve had only good experiences with it, though sometimes you can tell a guy is after something else. Which is why I prefer large group meet ups.

I did not know what I was getting myself into when I decided to organize a couchsurfing group of 6 to meet in the middle of a busy square and find somewhere to watch the world cup match. What I got: A student from Libya who graduated 6 months ago, but can’t seem to face the idea of going home, a super nice Hungarian currently living in Germany, an extreme partier from Amsterdam who has been out every night at the hottest clubs in the city, a Japanese man who is super interested in obtaining drugs and prostitutes. The rest are no shows. When the conversation turned to how easy it was to pick up different girls in different countries I started to get uncomfortable. Then it went to the cost of prostitutes. I tried to steer the conversation, and the dude from Germany tried to help, but no luck. I knew it was time to make myself disappear.

The guy who really hated America: I was already sick of talking about American politics, and then this guy appeared at the hostel. We started off just fine, talking about Romanian wine and beer.  Since he was from Slovakia, I told him I had greatly enjoyed my time in his country and that I found the Tatra mountains incredible.

“Oh really! But do you know what America did to former Yugoslavia in the 90’s?”

I assume he is talking about the Nato Bombings. “Yes, actually I taught Yugoslavian history. And I’ve visited all the countries in former Yugoslavia and learned the history of each.”

“Really? So what did you do to stop America from ruining us?”

“Um…..I wasn’t even 10 years old.”

“So nothing then.”

“Okay. I need to use the restroom.”

“Which restaurant did you say had the craft beer?”

Yes indeed. A strange one.

A Ukrainian bus driver: I decided to go find the Darth Vader Lenin statue. After some thorough research I found the location and needed to hop the number 8 bus. I got to the location, managed to flag the bus down and hopped on. However then the bus driver asked me where I was going. I tried to say the name of the stop, but he laughed at my horrible pronunciation, was shocked I was going that far out of the city, and told me to have a seat. We then exchanged a conversation in broken Russian/ English in which he asked if I was Christian, my age, where I was from etc. He kept looking in the rearview mirror and smiling at me. Then he asked if he could be my boyfriend. After kindly declining he stopped the bus and urged me to get out. I was pretty sure he was going to rape me, as I had been the only person on the bus and we were now in the middle of nowhere. However he kindly said, “No pay,” escorted me to the #3 trolley and directed me to get off in “one, two, three stop.”

The dude from Michigan: I walked into the hostel at about 11:00am after a night bus and a short 3 hour nap. This guy immediately greeted me, so I assumed he was in charge in some way. I noticed a bottle of vodka and a bottle of orange juice, both half gone. He wasn’t in charge, however he did escort me to the correct place to check-in, and then came to have a nice little chat about where I was coming from and what I was doing. He was shocked to find out I was from Wisconsin and living abroad. When I asked how long he had been in Moldova I assumed he would answer with a number of days. However he responded that he was sort of stuck here, and I asked why and he said Visa issues. He then proceeded to tell me that the reason he left the states was really that he couldn’t manage to find any girls that interested him there and that he wanted to fall in love. He explained that all the girls seem to be of a certain political stand-point and that this caused him to become interested in politics. Also, he was sick and could not afford medication in the states. At this point my friend arrived to go to lunch, so I told him goodbye. Later that evening when I returned, the bottle of vodka was gone, and another was started. The next morning I awoke to him chugging back water and prescription pills, while rubbing his head.