good talk

I took the overnight train from Bucharest to Chisinau the capitol of  Moldova, had my own sleeper compartment.  Moldova is 3 and a half mil and the poorest in Europe.  When my Grandmother immigrated to the U.S. by herself at "14" (must have been terrified) after her parents died in an epidemic there were a lot of Moldovan Jews on the boat fleeing the Pograms, she always liked Jews.  I stayed at the Hotel Cosmos my favorite flop on this trip, kind of worn it was real big with a friendly Staff and I had a nice big room for only 25 Euros, there was a big supermarket across the street.  There was a European Bodybuilder Championship in Chisinau and a lot stayed there, ha, ha.  There was a big parade and celebration for May 9 their Victory Day (over the Nazis), their Central Market is big and fun, their Natural History and Archeology Museum has a mass of coins from the Golden Horde, I enjoyed their History Museum.  Bucharest has a replica of the Arc de Triomphe which is two-thirds of  the actual Chisinau's is teeny.  A fun relaxed atmosphere lots of good-looking girls (I know what you fellows like).  I went to the Pushkin Museum where Alexander Pushkin spent 3 years in a cottage kept the same way as 1820-1823 when he lived there and composed the classic poems the "Captive of the Caucasus" and "The Fountain of Bakhchisaray" amongst other literary works.  Always considered among the greatest in Russian Literature Pushkin was one-eighth Negro, known to be very high strung he'd fight at the drop of a hat and was killed in a duel (1799-1837) at "37."  Always mourned by Russians for his untimely death.  To be at his former abode was very exciting.  I took a day-trip of several hours to the breakaway Republic of Transniestr their capitol of Tiraspol was 45 minutes away by buy.  Declaring Independence in 1990 backed by the Russians they won Independence from Moldova in a bloody uprising in 1992.  I count it as my 113th country, a half mil population it's a Communist enclave with a very tall statue of Lenin prominent, I went to their War Memorial and their History Museum.  I had never heard of it until I read the Great Book, T has their own Army, National Anthem and everything else, their national Distillery is pictured on the back of their 5-Ruble Bill (since 1897) it exports to 19 countries and I bought a bottle 80% the size of a pint for 2 U.S. and drank it that night while watching TV and philosophizing to myself it was mighty good.