city life. chisinau doesn't seem so scary anymore as my initial impressions at the autogara had led me to believe. the last ten days have shed a new light on this place and it's people. chisinau has a charm of it's own, despite moldova's reputation as the poorest country in europe, (i always thought that was albania). but there are lots of nice new cars driving around, there is a mobile phone shop every 15 metres... and it seems that stefan cel mare street in the centre of town is like a catwalk for the fashionable set of chisinau. of course, it is just a mask... you don't have to walk far to see the old soviet high-rises crumbling slowly away, the roads away from the centre are pot-holed and warped, the trolley-buses are from another age, as are some of the brightly coloured tractors. hot and humid days. and then comes the thunderstorm and rain, and the roads turn into rivers and trees and cables are brought down... and life goes on. busking has been so and so. first with misha and nazar, drumming... then they left to ukraine. next with nick, and also with sasha, one time with five of us drumming together with flute and jew's harp players... and it was a little chaotic, too much like a bad jam session. the pigs don't bother us, and the young men in the paramilitary black uniforms and boots going around in threes also don't hassle us. the money is ok considering it's moldova; for example, sasha and i made 140 lei between us in a couple of hours on a very slow hot saturday when most of the city was probably in the countryside, near the rivers, or enjoying the sea near odessa. my birthday the other day, just another day. i spent a few hours with the hare krishnas at their temple in the centre... great food as always! and then at serioja's studio on bellinski. alexandra (sasha) had baked me a cake, and nick got me a garland of garlic (for future travels to transylvania!), his friend olga also got me some flowers. it was film night, kusterica's black cat white cat badly dubbed in russian... i left early to catch the last trolley bus to rishkanovka, where leusha has been hosting me in his flat the last week or so. now i'm at nick's place in botanica, enjoying full internet service to update the blog, photos and all! next stop is the european rainbow gathering in ukraine, and i'm looking for a hitching partner to take all the hassle out of communication.
