MallDova

I just got back from the biggest shopping mall in Moldova (and yes the real name is MallDova, very cute). Wow. I was blown away. This place is huge. 5 stories, and the first store I saw when I walked in was Swarovksi. There's a "Robert's Coffee" that looks just like a Starbucks and the menu on the board is in English. There are also German, Greek, and Japanese restaurants across from a food court that has Sbarro, McDonald's, KFC, and some Russian fast food places. I ate at a place that is just like Kroshka Kartoshka in Russia. There were also a few fresh juice stands and sushi places as well as a big grocery store on the bottom floor. This place is way bigger and nicer than the new shopping centers in Vladimir or even in Sofia, Bulgaria.

I was able to do some people watching today because there were a lot of people at the mall. Is that surprising considering this is the poorest country in Europe? Life in the capital is clearly very different from life in the villages. You definitely don't sense the crushing poverty of this country while hanging out in MallDova, the same way you can't understand how people live in Russia if you spend all your time in Moscow at clubs where you have to pay $2,000 to reserve a table. Still, I was pretty surprised to see how extravagant this place is.

Something else I noticed while people watching is how attractive the Moldovans were. The women I saw were pretty, but not in the Russian way. From what I've heard and read about Chisinau I expected all the women to be walking around in stiletto heels, short skirts, and wearing tons of makeup, but that's not what I saw today at all on the streets or in the mall. Granted, it's a Tuesday afternoon and pouring rain, but Russian women would still be dressed like they were going to an exclusive club. Also, almost all the women I saw had brown hair and darker skin than most Russians. The men were of that same coloring. I couldn't even believe how good looking the guys were that I saw! I mean in Russia, whenever you see a couple walking down the street the girl is almost always at least 50x more attractive than the man, who you can expect will be quite overweight, wearing a mesh shirt, smoking a cigarette, and looking kind of sweaty.

Well this was quite a superficial post but those are my observations for today.