Unlike ANY train I've EVER been on. The 'SLEEPER' from Bucharest to Chisinau...
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 เม.ย. 2023
- Join me in the unique world of Moldovan Railways onboard the sleeper train east from Bucharest to Chisinau. It will be an experience for sure, but what did I really think of it? Well join me to find out...
10 March 2023 Bucharest North to Chisinau 19:20 - 08:10
Train number 402 (sorry I can't remember carriage number and they don't let you keep the ticket!)
Price approx £42.00 oneway with single occupancy cabin
Map courtesy of Google Maps
Music courtesy of epidemicsound.com
('What's the Hurry' by Alysha Sheldon)
Be sure to check out the Moldovan Eurovision video from 2022, search 'Trenuletul' on TH-cam - it's fantastic and took place on this very service :) I wish I could've put a clip on the video but it's not allowed I'm afraid!
Hi, I’m Steve, a travel reviewer from Scotland. Join me on my adventures as I discover my own country, often visiting places for the first time, so hopefully it's as much of an eye-opener for you as it is for me! Don't expect expert opinion, just a very honest journey of discovery. Sometimes featuring my intrepid sidekick Alicja, sometimes featuring adventures beyond the borders of Scotland. Enjoy!
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#SteveMarsh #Moldova #Chisinau
As a new viewer, I have to say that I really appreciate your patient, calm, and respectful demeanour. Other travel youtubers are not so gentlemanly!
Thanks so much, really appreciate it (and your views!)
They think it’s all over…. It Chisinău
😂
😂😂😂
Beautiful!
Oh dear. 🙈
Respect to the railway workers and your patience!
Once again you show the oddities of travel unlike any TV equivalent.
I agree 100%.I posted similar myslef.
What’s ‘TV’ lol?
That Eurovision song?
The piles of clothes on sheets on the ground outside the station brought home just how poor people are there😢. Reminded me strongly of Paddy’s Market in Glasgow where we had to shop when I was growing up there many years ago.
A video like this is simply not complete without Moldova's 2022 Eurovision entry included somewhere. "Join the train! Be our guest! Chisinau to Bucharest!"
Hey ho, let's go! 😂
I wish TH-cam would let me include a clip in the video, totally love it!
Folklore and Rock N Roll, Chisinau to Bucharest!
I saw them live at Ia Mania in 22.
You really suffer for your art, Steve!
It’s refreshing to see a travelogue where the emphasis is on the journey and not about being on an ego trip.
Don’t ever change 👍
Thanks so much Billy!
Absolute classic. That is surely one of those bucket list train journeys you have to take if you are a train enthousiast. Can't help thinking that getting everybody onto another train might be a bit easier than physically changing the bogies!!! What an adventure though, as you said you got the full experience. You are living the dream m8.👍😁
Cheers Michael! So glad this kind of authentic experience is still available!
I thought the same, would have been easier to provide another train at the Moldavian border.
And maybe changing the schedule to make this train change happen at, say, 7 AM rather than 4 AM?
The most remarkable thing to me - in what was a remarkable journey - is that the station is such a fantastically presented building but which seems to have virtually no use! Love the video.
So true Nick!
That was a crazy, crazy ride Steve - but utterly brilliant! Hope your journey back was just as memorable 👍
wander how many beer glasses have fell through the gap between the sleeper and dining cars?
Steve, I think your channel is so underrated! Love your effort to travel far and beyond 😊
Who underrates his channel?
@@Digitall3 not me, I think he's great and has taken us to many places we would never go ourselves including all forms of transport!
Underrated by whom? Do you understand what the word means? Your comment makes no sense.
I think Adriana has it right. Steve is literally underrated at 55K followers. It deserves to be at 550K.
@@Digitall3 Nobody. It's just one of these silly 'underrated' comments that are polluting TH-cam at the moment.
The best travelogues on the Internet. Love watching Steve's travels!
Steve, I don't think you go purposely out of your way to find Europe's strangest journeys, but you do find them anyway. Thanks for sharing.
Imagine if the GWR remained as broad gauge and services from Scotland to the South West needed to stop for hours to swap the bogies 😂
Oh I'm so glad I found this one Howard! :)
They might have gone for something like the Spanish. Their trains have adjustable bogies and the gauge change takes less than a minute I think. The train just goes really slowly for a bit and then it's off again.
Amazing old school technology. I always wondered how they did that. A beautiful train as well. I loved the vintage style of your compartment. Great video. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Elizabeth!
“…and make it even heavier” 😂🤣😅 love your content!
Think I prefer a later arrival but not a 3am call, and we complain about a bus replacement service, love the train set and the train station. Thanks for showing us this special journey, glad you can deal with scammers. Take care
Totally agree thanks John!
I’ve decided to watch your travel vids in chronological order , and it’s great to see how your confidence and style has evolved over the past few years . Keep growing keep travelling .
Your followers will keep watching 👏👏👏
That's really nice to say, thank you!
Your blog today leaves me speechless….the architecture, especially those carved pillars and little courtyard areas at the church in Bucharest, is stunning! So much history there.
The whole idea of the bogie change is fascinating to me - never realized it was a possibility.
I don’t know how you’re smiling and functioning with two overnight train rides, including interrupted sleep. 😵💫 You’re a travel hero!
Haha thanks Gabriele! I have no idea how I stay awake either, just running on adrenaline I think :D
It's an amazing experience, isn't it. I travelled by train from Oostende to Minsk in 1970s and experienced the gauge change in Brest, along with the Soviet border controls of course. We were asked if we wanted to change money. I didn't and so stayed on the train. Otherwise I would have missed all the excitement!
Superb mate!
I don't know what's better in this video... Visiting my country (Romania), the fantastic old school train, your great accent or the fact that you're a Mentour Pilot fan as well... (I've also visited Moldova twice).
@Alex Macedonian In Chișinău și la un sat în afara orașului. Sincer să fiu, nu îmi amintesc numele. Aveam cam 15-16 ani și am mers cu un prieten să ducem niște ajutoare la oameni pe care i-am întâlnit la o biserică. Drumul de la Timișoara a fost lung, schimbarea roților la graniță a fost un eveniment interesant și vizita a fost bună. Chiar și acum îmi aduc aminte ce zgomot făceau garniturile de tren în Chișinău când le manevrau și se "întindeau" cuplele între vagoane - venea zgomotul de la îndepărtare și ajungea la noi.
Totally insane Steve, lifting the train while you are supposed to be sleeping🤣Chisinau station was incredible indeed, shame about the lack of trains but maybe its a seasonal thing? Cool video mate👍
chisnau has very little train service because they have no money
everyone uses busses
@@andrei19238 yes, I believe CFM even went bankrupt a year or so ago? We're lucky this train is running at all!
It's even better than the last few years, as this train is now daily, up until a few months ago, it was only 2-3 times a week. This area really is on my bucket list.
I guess they figure everyone will be awake anyway because of the passport check....
The video of you walking between the carriages bought back childhood memories of me doing the same on the old trains between Invercargill and Dunedin.... just as terrifying 😂
And there the similarities end... ha ha.
Fantastic video 📹
used to do that as well,the old man worked for the NZ railways so we only travelled by train
@@blj007 our train would stop at Clinton where there would be a mad dash to the refreshment room (no buffet cars then) for a 15 minute break to buy a cup of tea and a pie.
Passengers would take the pie etc back on the train for the rest of the journey, and the naughty ones would throw their New Zealand Railway cups and saucers out of the window when they were finished 😄
The discarded NZR crockery is now a collecters item, the cups etc were very thick and heavy.... no doubt in the hopes that the would survive they impact from being thrown from a moving train onto the tracks below 😅.
I certainly felt like a child :)
Very interesting video, Steve. Usually travel shows on TV just show the "good" bits but you've shown warts and all. Love it. This area would have been behind the Iron Curtain .Greetings from Australia.
Thanks so much Richard!
I had a month's work in Bucharest some years ago, and it is indeed a crazy place. Stayed in a hotel where I had an inch long cockroach in my bedside table (happily a dead one!) that was never removed by the cleaner. It was next door to fairly decent Irish pub, I remember, and that August it must have been 30C. Loads of outdoor tables to eat and drink at in the evening, enjoying the scenery - mostly stunningly beautful Romanian girls wearing very little and with a quite evident underwear shortage. Extraordinary place.
That trip was mind boggling what with the gauge change and all. It's not a journey that I would make but thanks for taking us along. Looking forward to your next adventure.
Ah! I loved this. That's how I remember the trains being in Eastern Europe 20 years ago, slow, rattly and dark. I'll have to do this run myself at some point.
Aye it's so good to know experiences like this still exist!
Czechia, Poland and Hungary now don't have this trains - but they are Central Europe.
This train to Moldova is a time travel back, but Moldova is pure Eastern Europe, as Romania also between Central and East...
Brilliant stuff Steve, what a crazy trip, like time travel! I went to the Czech Republic in the early 90s, before it was taken over by drunken Brits on stag parties, and the whole country was fascinating. There is something otherworldly about eastern Europe, that train was fantastic :)
Dark and depressing. Makes me glad I don’t travel anymore.
Czechia not Eastern Europe my friend, and Hungary also. They are Central Europe
Romania is South-Eastern Europe and Moldova is the real Eastern Europe...
You just see and feel the difference immediately.
@@kevhynaleks2631 No offence meant, I was using the description in terms of the Cold War period rather than geographically
@@lightanddreamsphotography7140 The Iron Curtain is still deeply ingrained in many people's minds. The Ukrainian border is closer to where I am right now than the western parts of my own country, yet Ukraine feels to us as if it was on a different continent. Slovakia and Hungary are less than an hour by train and they feel far away (by now you can probably guess where I am).
Loving your train journeys taking us to places we will probably never go. Laughed all the way through this one .
This is how you sort the "westerners" from the "easterners" - I bet my dad who grew up during the soviet union occupation could have slept through that whole border gauge change ordeal! 😂
Haha love this!
My Dad is from the Caribbean and I bet you he would have slept through it all too. 🙄
We had an eartquake about 20 years ago hit us and shake us good for some seconds, 45 ish seconds. He slept through it aaaall. Things were falling, we were shaking and we fell and screamed, chairs toppled over, and all the rest you can imagine. He woke up looooong after it was over stating that he felt weirdly strange. He did not even knooow we wete hit by an earthquake. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@zianeshkasparen4358 Hahahahaha, amazing!
Looks like you had a relaxing night mate 😂 like stepping back in time on that train. Thanks for sharing the experience Steve. Look forward to the return leg 👍
A beautiful, dark train ride. Moving between cars is a bit scary, but the train compartment is well furnished.
Thank you very much for sharing this great video. It is an awesome train journey to Moldova and keep safe, Steve. Looking forward to watching more of your adventures in Eastern Europe.
What a fantastic looking train and cabin Steve.. Stepping back in time.
Hats off to the train crews.
So true mate, and to think they need to do that twice a day!
Wow Bucharest has arcades Cardiff style!!!
Fantastic. Thank you
You're taking us to places most of us will never go, Steve! That was some journey, mind you. That station in Chisinau! Just a wee bit quiet just now, but it must have been a busy place in times gone by. Thanks for the ride!
Absolutely astonishing that they change bogeys. Great video Steve ! 🙂
Wow! I wasn't expecting them to do the change of gauge by lifting the carriages bodily off the old bogies and rolling new ones in! I was expecting a variable-gauge system, where they unlock something on the bogies, drive the train slowly through a special section of track, and lock the bogies again.
Me too; that's how they used to do it on trains between Paris and Madrid.
What a train of character! THat's real travelling--thank you.
Great and informative video. Thank you!
Nice inclusion of @Mentourpilot !🤩
13:49
That’s crazy ride indeed. But I believed that it would be an unforgettable experience 😄
Love your inquisitiveness and ability to rough out these train journeys. I really loved the old-fashioned train journey.
I love the music to go with the different parts of your video.....Thank you Steve for another really cool time !
😮 What an experience Steve! Surely it's got to be easier to get all the passengers to change to a different train at the border? I mean what difference does it make compared to getting everyone out of bed for an hour and a half to complete all that faff! Bizarre...
normally there would be a switch in trains but Moldova is Moldova I guess. Romania is very chilled - you have a lot of freedom to fk up if you want to
I was thinking the same!
I just got back from a two week cruise in the Mediterranean and saw some amazing and inspiring places (please go to Kotor in Croatia...one of the most scenically beautiful places I have ever seen). I sure don't travel to these older less visited places like you do. Some of the cities ,(as in this video) make me sad...the people there look so care worn...truly made me appreciate my own circumstances...which isn't a bad thing is it? But I love old and historic...and that train sure fit the bill.. beautiful.
Hope you had a lovely time Yvonne and I have heard often how amazing Croatia is, somewhere I NEED to get to soon!
Love your spirit of adventure and taking us places I may never get to see
Absolute classic Steve. Well done once again. Looking forward to the follow up.
My thoughts: I've never met anyone who wanted to go to Moldova. I experienced the bogie change when I went from London/Hook of Holland to Moscow, as we moved from Poland to Russia. We had to all get off the train then. Your dinner looked excellent. And the station in Moldova is outstanding. Your videos continue to both entertain and fascinate.
Cheers Barry!
I love that you were watching Mentour Pilot!!! 😂 He’s fantastic!
Looks great Steve , I really enjoyed the video . Keep up the great work. Look forward to seeing the next video 👍👍😀😀
Steve, that has to be one of your craziest adventures yet! Great to see you going to such places.
Great video. I was on a train to Chisinau back in 1994 from Kiev..same kind of train! I would love to go back and enjoy the experience again. Before the war the station served more trains like to kiev and Odessa. Hope peace will come again soon cause Moldovans are suffering a lot from it.
What a interesting journey Steve. Love that train looks like something that came out of the 30's. Question why do rain tracks to the station always have to be the ugliest part of the city lol imagine if they went through the nice parts. Thanks for a great video as always. Happy Easter
Enjoying the journey seeing places I have never seen. Moldova at first glance looks like you have stepped back in time. Eager to see the next video 🤗
wow now that train was impressive . well done Steve , i love your adventures .
Bucharest looks like an interesting city. Your train ride was epic, like going back in time. Loved it!
you can visit..
I left Romania with great memories after meeting some wonderful people and seeing incredible places (a video to come on this) It is a shame though for the train station to be such a poor welcome to a fantastic country, glad it will be refurbished!
@@mihaelafilipescu5818 ești din București?
@@mihaelafilipescu5818 ,de ce suntam primii care ne vorbim tara de rau?Bucurestiul e foarte curat comparativ cu multe capitale mari europene,e plin de istorie ,de arta si oameni frumosi! Cand mai veniti pe acasa ,veniti cu sufletul deschis.
Steve, you get the same problem with the gauge change between Poland and Belarus! Strangely enough they use similar sleeping cars (all ex-RZD from Russia).
That was a wonderful ground-level look at Bucharest and the train to Chisinau, I really enjoyed tagging along. Thanks so much.
Cheers for joining me!
Thank you of course for another fine video-well done too!
Now that seems like a proper good old sleeper journey, after watching this I feel like I will have to add it to my bucket list. Is it not possible to collect the tickets from Chisinau? Also was it hard to communicate in English in Moldova and Romania?
More about the fun fact, last year's Moldovan eurovision entry was not only filmed in the train but the whole song was about the train, which had a bit of political meaning hinting at a possible unification with Romania as some Moldovans think they might be the next Ukraine
Thanks Fran! Communication in Moldova was a bit tricky, I used the little Russian I have to get by. I bought my tickets on the Romanian website, hence the ticket collection in Bucharest only. I wasn't brave enough to navigate the Moldovan website :)
If you think it is crazy from Bucharest to Chisinau.... Wait untill you get to the Chisinau to Bucharest part! It will all be.... Folklore and Rock and Roll! 😂
Another great video. The work you do and the stuff you put up with to bring these videos to us is really greatly appreciated. Please be careful and don't fall off a train going from car to car. And yes, that dinner looked yummy. Thanks again for all the work that you do to bring these to us. Say hi to Alicja for me. Be well, stay safe, be careful of those trains, love from Texas.
Thanks so much Kate!!!
Bravo Steve! Epic train trip! You stepped back in time by perhaps 50 years!!
Went on this train trip in 1996 to watch Moldova v England in a World Cup qualifier for France 98.
Don't think much on the train has changed but we were 4 to a cabin, and the change of train wheels took 4-5 hours at the border so things have improved now it seems.
We were sold wine in old plastic bottles and there were about 20 English all together on board and will always be remembered as another great trip going unofficially and without England travel club membership
We couldn't stomach the same journey back so 4 of us got a taxi back to Bucharest, 7 - 8 hours trip, costing about 100 us dollars. The driver only fell asleep at the wheel once.
Next was Tiblisi, Georgia. We flew to Atlanya, then Trabzon and coach from there to Tiblisi. 37 of us travelling unofficially - Loaded magazine did an article on us; Georgian Mildred.
Great days
Superb mate! Haha the taxi sounds dodgier than the train :D
the meal looked great but all that hassle changing gauges at the border, no thank you!
Its cause of holland and austria😂
I absolutely agree with you - I would have LOVED that train ride; particularly getting to be in the compartment they needed for the change-over work!
It was good for the video anyway :D
Wow, how cool to see such a place! I learn so much by following your channel. I love to stop the vlog and read wikipedia about the places you travel through and then check the maps to get routes and geography... Keep up the adventures!
Thanks so much George!
Come home, Steve. I’m afraid you’ve wandered into a Cold War spy movie!
😂🤣😂🤣
And Agent Steve is loving it :)
You make Alan Wicker look a complete amateur
Haha cheers Robin!
What a different world - Steve love how you take us to places no one else would dare
Love your channel, probably your best upload yet, thanks for sharing.
Hey thanks so much!!!!
You should have went to the railway museum in the "Gara De Nord" station. That is one of the best places in that area to spend 1-2 hours before your train arrives.
Oh I wish I'd known!!!
Excelent! I plan to do the invers journey, from Chisinau to Bucharest, by early August. I look forward to that, thank you for this video, travel all you can!
what a beautiful railway station, great insight thanks Steve
That train. Wowzers. Like you teleported to the past! We love how you always find something positive to say, no matter. As always, really enjoyed this one. We're counting down to our return to Scotland in September and are doing some new-to-us things, thanks to your channel. :)
Superb! Thanks and enjoy planning the trip :)
I’ll be taking that train next week. Thanks for the video.
I'm happy to find a fellow traveler who enjoys the entire voyage! And to answer your question, yes I would, absolutely!
Love quirky things like this! Fab vlog, thank you 🙏
Totally nuts and brilliant at the same time. That journey was something else and how great to see modernity has not yet invaded everywhere.
So true!
Now that's a train journey!, more of an adventure, I LOVED it.
Absolutely fascinating vlog Steve!
Great video been wanting to go to Moldova for a while but been unsure it’s nice to have a video of the train as well
Glad you enjoyed it :)
That changeover of gauge in the middle of the night was crazy, and Chisinau station is a beauty. 👍
Excellent journey Steve.
So there is hope yet! This is the first reasonably comfortable sleeping compartment that I have seen on a train for a long time. Modern berths look more like supermarket disabled loos to me.
Looooved your video, was really informative and enjoyable - especially since I really don’t see a chance I’d make the same trip myself 😅 hats off to u n thanks for sharing it with us!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you!
Great video Steve.
Its a great ride, done this a couple of time. Gara De Nord is definitely full of characters! This train is a time capsule of the communist era, nothing has changed. I loved that though. I also did this ride the first time in winter and you may not have seen it in Spring, but each carriage still has coal burning heaters called 'soba' at each end and the conductor opens up and stokes the stoves with coal regularly and man it gets warm!...very effective. Even though its slow, a lot of it is during the bogey and wheel changes which is super interesting. Its nostalgic, its rustic, and that's what is great about travel. 👍👍
Another enjoyable & interesting video once again we’ll done now great content 👍👍👍
Brilliant, Steve, I love your sense of adventure. Not a place I'm likely to go to - too few holidays, too many other places - so look forward to seeing your next video so I can see what I'm missing. Hope you stay safe from all the hawkers. Take care
Cheers Daz!
What an amazing ( and clean ) railway station !
Just brilliant! Loved it, Steve. 🔥
Cheers David!
Just found your channel..was enjoying it..and then I saw your Seattle hat!
Now I'm loving it......From Seattle!😍
Safe journeys, mate..I'll be off binge watching your previous content! LIKED👍
Thanks so much, welcome aboard!
Excellent. I am full of envy of your travels. Loved that sleeper's ambience.
Thanks Olive! Amazing you can still have an experience like this!
Thank-you for taking us off the beaten track just loved it ...regards
Doc from Down Under
Cheers Doc!
I don't think I could have done that journey, Steve, so hats off! Fair play to the workers, must be a tough job! The station at the end was stunning😍
Thanks Sheila!
Mentour Pilot! Great video as always!
Fascinating video, Steve. It certainly opened my eyes as to the places I have never visited and probably never will.
Thanks mate!
Unexpectedly interesting video. Regards and good luck!