an uneventful trip to chisinau. at the border, they asked us to get out and go to the customs with our belongings, both on the romanian side and the moldovan side. and considering the awful state of the roads in moldova, the micro-bus driver was driving pretty fast, arriving at the autogara centralna around eight. a good introduction to chisinau, the bus station. dirty, delapidated, dodgy looking characters abound, awash with stray dogs and stray rubbish. i was happy when ira finally showed up. she and nazar were my hosts last year too, and it was like going home. and just like last year, i had not much time to settle in. a shower, asomething to eat and already we were in an marshutka going to an art-labyrinth performance of music and fire-show, where nazar and ira would be performing in the fire-show too. we were in time for the finale... there i met again some of the other good friends from last year's festival, sasha, serioja (the two principal organisers), misha...
and after the show, some drumming before preparing the stuff to take to the festival.
i managed to grab some kip, but the others worked on, and at six the van came. somehow, we managed to cram everything into the van before sasha took out the map and we took down precise instructions to get to the festival site. nick and i agreed to hitch together, and with arsenio and misha and tania, we got to the hitching point out of chisinau. same place like last year with ira and nazar and denis.
nick and i got a lift to orhei turn-off quite quick, and then another to 10kms after the turn-off to soldinesti. we managed to pick up misha and tania again on the way, and after a small picnic by a road-side well, we get a lift to the turn-off to poiana, the last village before the descent to the nistra river. we walked to and through the village and took shelter from the rain under the roof to a well. by phone, we found out the van had got bogged down some kilometres short of the festival site. i managed to cut my big toe by stubbing it on a large stone, and rested up under a tree with a view of the meadow below and the river, and the cliffs and woods on the opposite bank.
sasha had managed to co-opt some locals with their horse and cart to transport the gear the last kms to the site and it was sunset by the time all of it had got moved. i found a good flat place with lots of shade from the trees and pitched my tent.
an uneventful trip to chisinau. at the border, they asked us to get out and go to the customs with our belongings, both on the romanian side and the moldovan side. and considering the awful state of the roads in moldova, the micro-bus driver was driving pretty fast, arriving at the autogara centralna around eight. a good introduction to chisinau, the bus station. dirty, delapidated, dodgy looking characters abound, awash with stray dogs and stray rubbish. i was happy when ira finally showed up. she and nazar were my hosts last year too, and it was like going home. and just like last year, i had not much time to settle in. a shower, asomething to eat and already we were in an marshutka going to an art-labyrinth performance of music and fire-show, where nazar and ira would be performing in the fire-show too. we were in time for the finale... there i met again some of the other good friends from last year's festival, sasha, serioja (the two principal organisers), misha...
and after the show, some drumming before preparing the stuff to take to the festival.
i managed to grab some kip, but the others worked on, and at six the van came. somehow, we managed to cram everything into the van before sasha took out the map and we took down precise instructions to get to the festival site. nick and i agreed to hitch together, and with arsenio and misha and tania, we got to the hitching point out of chisinau. same place like last year with ira and nazar and denis.
nick and i got a lift to orhei turn-off quite quick, and then another to 10kms after the turn-off to soldinesti. we managed to pick up misha and tania again on the way, and after a small picnic by a road-side well, we get a lift to the turn-off to poiana, the last village before the descent to the nistra river. we walked to and through the village and took shelter from the rain under the roof to a well. by phone, we found out the van had got bogged down some kilometres short of the festival site. i managed to cut my big toe by stubbing it on a large stone, and rested up under a tree with a view of the meadow below and the river, and the cliffs and woods on the opposite bank.
sasha had managed to co-opt some locals with their horse and cart to transport the gear the last kms to the site and it was sunset by the time all of it had got moved. i found a good flat place with lots of shade from the trees and pitched my tent.
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