Some things in Moldova certainly aren’t up to standards of western Europe while other things like the roads are in great condition. I’ve no idea why but one thing that always seemed to be in need of serious maintenance were the country’s elevators. Every single one of them seemed to be cursed! The one in my hotel was dated 1982, nearly as old as I am and about 10 years before the collapse of the Soviet Union. When I first arrived to Moldova I found myself broke because my bank had decided to shut off my credit card after I had used it in Ukraine. Normally phone hotel rates are heinous so I went out into the city hoping to find an internet cafe with a phone center which seem to be pretty popular when I travel. I had absolutely no idea where I was going but decided to aim for some large building and ask for directions. There I found a woman by the front door who appeared to be working there. She didn’t speak a word of English but when I made what I thought was the universal sign for a telephone, (mimicking a phone with my hand and holding it up to my head), she seemed very confident of what I needed. She led me into the most dangerous elevator I had ever been in all the way to the top floor. This didn’t make sense to me since I figured phones would be ground level and not in a random office on a higher level. Finally she took me to a random door and flung it open where we came across a dentist operating on a patient! I never found a call center, or the stairs out of the building for that matter, so I had to take the dangerous Soviet elevator back to the floor lobby. Speaking of Soviet Union, the hammer and sickle sign seems exists all over Moldova and I saw it often when I was walking around. The picture above was taken from the window of a car. I assumed it to be some political party symbol but instead I was told it symbolized the unification of the Soviet Union, western Europe and the United States in the fight against the Nazis.