Getting Back to The USSR on The Peretenia Express

Some of you might think, from the name of this post, that I had a negative experience traveling to Moldova by train. This is not the case. Some aspects are merely reminiscent of the Soviet era. The train is operated by the Moldovan State Railways. They lack the resources to update the cars but they do what they can to brand the experience, and generate some excitement about taking the train. The curtain are hand sewn and say Moldova on them, and your sheets are embossed with a red label saying (in Cyrillic) “Moldova 2010”.
The cars are rather old, but in good condition. I got an entire first class berth to myself. It was decorated in a rather Slavic fashion. When I embarked in Bucharest, the cabin was oppressively hot, as it did not have air-conditioning. However, we soon got moving and with the windows down the cool night air quickly cooled down my cabin, though I was only able to get about three hours of sleep as the train rattled over the Transylvanian Alps.
No one on the train spoke English, or any other language that I can reliably speak. I had a bit of a scare when the steward came by and took my entire ticket portfolio, including my ticket, and reservation for my return trip, and did not come back. Speaking Russian, I was able to get my reservation returned to me. The staff told me that they had to keep my ticket, but promised to return it to me next morning.
At five thirty next morning we were awakened for the border crossing. Romanian passport control went quickly, only about 30 minutes, and the train crawled the few hundred yards to the Moldovan side of the border.
After crossing the border the train pulled into a train yard, and each car was separately jacked up on hydraulic winches to have the gauge of its wheels changed. The experience is not nearly as interesting as it sounds, and takes an hour and a half. As part of the geographic former USSR, Moldova has a different gauge of railroad track than the more western parts of Europe. The track was apparently changed during an especially tense time of the Cold War, with the intent of slowing the pace of a possible invasion from the west. The track remains different in the former Soviet Union to this day.
Moldovan customs smacks a bit more of bureaucracy. The whole ordeal takes about an hour. First a doctor comes on the train and examines everyone for serious illness. Then a Customs Officer has to inspect every compartment on the train (although the thoroughness of the search varies with officer). Finally they stamp your passport. While I was warned that the police were corrupt and would try to extort bribes from you, they were never anything but polite to me. The entire train ride takes between 13 and 14 hours, and three are spend at the border.
For the last two hours I got to see some of the Moldovan country side. It is beautiful, and very rural. Some of the horse carts still have wooden wheels.
One final note, the “Peretenia” means girlfriend in Romanian. At the office we have a running joke that the last two interns married Romanian girls and it’s up to me to keep up the tradition. Unfortunately it seems that this train is closest I will come to a girlfriend on this trip. And when you think about it, the Peretinia Express isn’t much like a girl at all— she’s more like an old babuszka that just won’t quit. Taking this train was a mostly pleasant adventure and I’m glad I chose to take it.