And Is There Actually Anything Interesting in Chisinau? Moldova, 2012 : Radka Rubilina /Bzonková/
Somebody asked me a question: “And is there actually anything interesting in Chisinau? I got into some thinking for a minute, also having a sip of beer together with a drag from a cigarette. “Nothing,” I said.
But a few hours later, I could already walk on the streets of Kishinev with my feet feeling the cracked asphalt underneath, bend down to pick up ripen chestnuts, and turn my body over toward the warm rays of September’s sun like a street-wandering cat. It’s all different. This city happens to have embedded something precious inside and all over itself. Laziness; it is this beautiful feeling that is spreading through my body here. The luxurious laziness which I barely can afford while at home. A rare commodity.
And all the falling down fences, the low small houses in the center of the city with a hidden backyard and twisting grapevines loyally decorating gates and windows – all that just emphasizes this feeling of laziness. And the bricks piled up on the backyard serving as a table already for a several years now and the old couch shaded by an apricot tree granting a meeting spot for all surrounding families. For several years now, in the morning, the neighbors just greet themselves only in a half-way manner, knowing the first and the last about each other; the women walk around with their carelessly tied up night gowns on and the men are in old-fashioned boxers.
I am sitting on a doorstep, I, the guest, and watching the crown of an old nut tree. Won’t the nuts start falling down soon? I never feel like going away from this backyard. My heart always hurts as I am picturing his disappearance in the years to come, being replaced by some hotel with jacuzzi and sauna - indeed, this is the center of the city and the agents with black suitcases knock on each door. The unstoppable expansion of progress and civilization is breaking my heart occasionally.
And that is why I tend to go to Chisinau. There is nothing interesting in it, just this unimaginable luxury of experiencing a slow, disappearing time. Do not rush when you enter the streets of this Moldavian city.
more photos from Moldova are in my photogalery