Benderi
Бендеры
March 26, 2004
Our diplomatic mission arrived at the border of Transnistria and Moldova at about
10:30am. Long story short we couldn’t find the place and got bad directions a number
of times so we saw the whole city about three times.
The downtown is small but very interesting. As you enter there is a very tall Soviet-type
monument, near the base of which there are three signs, each with a different language
(Ukrainian, Russian, and Moldovan in the Cyrillic). As we continued we saw a big
tank with the Transnistrian flag on it. Nearby was the eternal flame and a monument
dedicated to the victims of the '92 war/conflict. Across the street, near the
river is a huge fortress with a trench/dry moat and tall stonewalls with another
pile of dirt on top of this. It’s very old and historic – they say that a Finnish
prince found refuge here after escaping from the Russians and found home as a mutual
trading partner with the Turks/Ottomans.