Photos

The picture was taken at the central bus station of Tiraspol, capital of the runaway republic of Pridnestrowie. Backed by Russia this strip of land - 200km north-south and 20km east-west - declared its independence following a bloody civil war during the early 1990s. The few tourists going to Pridnestrowie mostly visit Tighana with its fortress on the west bank of the river Dnistr and Tiraspol, the main sights of which are a cognac factory, some old churches and an idea of what life was like under communism, since Pridnestrowie under President Smirnoff developed into what is the last communist stronghold in Europe, complete with old symbols, Lenin in front of the Parliament, the administrative "Dom Sowetow" and its own currency - Pridnestrian Rubl - with Hammer and Sickle on the back of each coin.
On this bank a couple of tourists meet some elderly women from northern Pridnestrowie, the tourists going there for couriosity, the women traveling home. Although, squeezed between Ukraine and Moldova, Pridnestrovie is technically still in Europe, on this one bank obviously two worlds are meeting.