Day 10

Saying a sad goodbye to Bogdan and his friends after awaking with fuzzy heads, we made it to the Moldovan border where we luckily met Peter, an amiable Moldovan, waiting in the queue who imparted key info about where is best to leave Moldova and helped to translate between us and the border guards. Unsure whether we had or had not paid the Ecology tax we made it through and eventually pulled up at a campsite outside Chisinau to see if it was suitable for our evening stop. After five minutes we realised we had inadvertently crashed a 45^th birthday celebration after chatting to Nicolas, the sole member of the group who spoke any English, about our journey, his brief time in England and football. He said it was no problem for us to stay the night and, after introducing us to the rest of the group (including the night’s ‘security’), brought over a bottle of red wine and Ewe’s milk cheese for us to try, all home-made. Any hopes of a quiet night were smashed when it immediately became apparent that in Moldova it is custom to drink full glasses of wine in one. After managing to knock up a quick ham and sausage spaghetti we felt it only right to repay their generosity by taking over some of Hugh’s mother’s cake. The evening then rapidly escalated. The group plied us with never ending white wine, Cognac, lamb stew and Greek salad while we all laughed over jokes that at no time everyone present understood. With essentially two dinners and far too much wine inside us we managed to sweatily dance like fools and for some reason allow one of their party to pick us up, two at a time, and promptly drop us, grinning throughout. Stumbling into bed after some amusing group photos, there was no doubt a great night had been had by all involved.