Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast. It's Wednesday the 29th of October.

I'm in Kishinau now, the capital of Moldova, and I'm in the very good company of Irina Jakobian,

who is a guide organizing walking tours of the city.

I think the first thing when you're thinking about Moldova and Chisnell,

we have to say good food, great wine,

and very kind people and welcoming people.

These are the first three things, or four things, actually,

that people would notice when they

are visiting Kishinau and Moldova in general.

Is it at all dangerous, given the proximity of Ukraine?

I wouldn't say that it's dangerous. Considering the proximity to Ukraine, for now it's safe to travel to Moldova,

even though we know that our neighbor is facing every day some attacks or some issues from the other side in Moldova,

it's safe to travel.

And we see that from many people,

many visitors on the streets,

especially that we have many beautiful events,

cultural events that people are visiting.

And even today, we walk together

with so many amazing visitors.

And sometimes I'm so happy to see so many people visiting Moldova.

Let's look at this. There's an awful lot of places in Eastern Europe that British people could go to

and capital cities, you've got Prague, Warsaw, Bucharest, all these places, a bit nearer than Moldova.

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