Chișinău

With visitor numbers fixed at only a few thousand annually, Moldova remains among Europe's least visited countries, with the capital of Chisinau (Kee-shee-nau), by extension, one of its least travelled-to cities. It's a state of affairs bound to change withing the coming few years, so making your way to Chisinau while its naiveté remains unperturbed is a possibility that certainly won't be around for too long. There is plenty to do in and just out of Chisinau, and the impression one is left with following a city tour largely depends on the weather – the absence of sunshine can make Chisinau feel rather bleak and bring out the ubiquitous grey tones, wheres a bright summer day may highlight the Chisinau's abundant greenery and make for a pleasant walk in one of the parks, or people-watching at an outdoor cafe. An excursion many find exhilarating is a short, often one-day tour down to Transnistria, a self-proclaimed independent republic that feels a lot like an open-air museum of Soviet nostalgia, not least thanks to the ubiquitous statues of Lenin dotting the capital of Tiraspol.