50 Hours In A Country That Doesn't Exist On A Map (Transnistria)

[Music] this really does feel like the final outpost of the ussr there's enormous statues of lenin and tanks and memorials and the amount of soviet pride is bonkers dude there are a few hidden parts of the world that most of us will be shocked exist today and when i heard about the region we're about to travel to i couldn't believe what i was hearing well transnistria is a uncontrolled region of moldova hidden behind a highly militarized border this region is in fact a country that doesn't exist but this isn't a made-up micronation like we've covered in the past this place has a population of close to half a million people they've built their own army have their own flag their own president currency and even national anthem they call themselves the prince drovian moldavian republic also known by outsiders as transnistria the country was founded in very shady circumstances but the strangest part about this fake country is that they consider themselves the final stronghold of the soviet union transnistria a small strip of land between moldova and ukraine has been disputed territory since the fall of the soviet union it declared itself as a soviet republic in 1990. the symbols of the old soviet union still have pride of place but nobody other than a few other unrecognized countries recognizes it as an actual independent country and so what is transnistria and who still lives in this strange little country well with conflicting information online about the safety of traveling to this region we began our journey to the country that doesn't exist on a [Music] map what's up dude the guy that checked our passports just subscribed to the channel really yeah he was like what are you doing here why are you going to transhistia and i explained everything and then you subscribe even though eric is american he grew up most of his childhood in russia speaking fluent russian and this trip will be his first one back into a russian-speaking country since he left at 15. to get there however we first had to find a cab that could drive us across transnistria's fake borders [Music] oh i said do a lot of people go there and he's like no he will only leave [Music] it's taken a while so it's technically not a border but they believe it's important money can appear there and then it can disappear so it's like you can do like sketchy stuff with money welcome to transnistria it's just the fact that it's a fake country makes it insanely strange and different so i guess we're gonna go explore and try to figure out if we can get an idea of what this place really is [Music] these are the old soviet water and drink dispensers only the time i've seen these were abandoned inside chernobyl half the city feels frozen in time in the soviet union i mean look at this car what even brand is this and there's military everywhere like i've never seen so many individual military officers just walking around like all over the place it's really confusing like some things here look ancient some of the signs and others look like they were just built it's so strange you take a couple of steps off the main street and then buildings look like they're completely falling apart it doesn't look destroyed it like is destroyed this is a street yeah that's a toilet look at that oh there's a guy right there hello [Music] it's so weird there's like on the main street it all looks new and then you take one step off and like this is after walking around for a bit and getting a confusing first impression we decided it was time to blend in with the haircut and some tracksuits no dude all my worst haircuts were by russian speaking barbers oh wow this is kind of cool i'm not sure if getting a haircut in a russian basement is a good idea or a great idea yeah just like like he has you know like that i genuinely have no idea if he understood is it good do you understand now all we need is [ __ ] clothes no brand deals unfortunately from adidas but go uh go get seek discomfort instead we definitely got ripped off apparently this is real which i have a hard time believing we ran into football players that apparently play for the team here that's playing real madrid tomorrow night which is insane so yes we discovered that the country that doesn't exist football team sheriff tiraspol recently miraculously qualified in the champions league where the best clubs in europe compete becoming the lowest rated team to ever qualify and by complete coincidence we just happened to be there the night that they were playing real madrid one of the greatest most renowned sports teams in the world and with the game being in madrid we arranged to watch it on a big screen in the city but first we wanted to get to know some locals how are you guys where are you from are you from here you guys like living here honestly goodbye goodbye peace brother peace brother peace brother goodbye he's brother have a good one [Music] [Music] this really is the last outpost of the soviet union i mean look at this this is a functioning government building with a communist sign at the entrance wow the amount of soviet pride is bonkers dude [Music] look at these coins it's like literally monopoly money i've never seen currency like this it's just like plastic chips what is the iclub is this like anyone who owns an iphone here gets to be a part of a club [Music] my friend i'm [ __ ] yeah very good a soviet cafeteria [Music] there's living land [Music] this is what a cafeteria is like [Music] i've never seen food like this what is this [Music] sorry porsche all right how come there's all this or like maybe we can talk a little bit about the decorations [Music] yeah so i think it's more of like an experiential thing than it is like we want to bring communism back it's more like the way she's talking about it sounds like it's more of like the experience and the memory of like what they grew up with i see why we're walking into uh one of the main markets there [Music] dude a merchant just gave me this what he just walked i walked by and said hello and he goes he starts talking to me in russia and i'm like and he's like have this that's what doesn't he said god will give him more oh spicy i see him [Music] this place is beautiful [Music] yes [Music] oh [Music] [Music] foreign she says you look that's the sweetest thing i've ever seen ah that made me so sad and emotional thank you elena that was very sweet after leaving the church we started talking to an old woman in her stand who insisted on giving us free socks no she doesn't have to give a song she's saying no yes [Music] foreign [Music] she at first was like very closed off and then like just opened up to us and showed us her her old home literally said like god sent us to her there's like a park here roller coaster park like there's a roller coaster in this park yeah you see that right there so when i was a kid in moscow there's this thing called which is also like a little park area and then they have these like tiny little roller coasters but these don't work right dude this looks like an abandoned amusement park dude i hear stuff moving dude some of it is still working this is so crazy there's no way any of this is still safe i mean look at this rusty old thing that one works yeah it does can we do it this guy is the guy in charge of the safety of this yeah hopping on a roller coaster that is half abandoned i would not recommend it everything is so rusty i'm getting really nauseous dude that is gigantic are you sure we're not gonna die yeah sure on this rusty little ride oh my god [ __ ] me dude oh i'm scared oh my god this view is amazing though i'm getting off i don't care if she's not stopping all right it's enough roller coaster for me today i'm going to go have a heart attack you want to take a shot we're doing a vodka shot yeah yeah we're having a vodka shot yeah these are the people guarding the bathroom and now they're giving us some money from the bathroom in this half abandoned amusement park and we're being offered vodka [Music] wow people everywhere here people are so giving like people here make nothing in money like everyone tells us how hard it is to make money here people just give this keeps happening when i when i travel to places that not many people go to and typically don't have don't people don't have a lot they're the most giving like you go to new york city people give you stuff at a market they're like pay me [ __ ] you know i'm in paris they're like where's the money at me you come to these places in the middle of nowhere and people just like give give give it's amazing no part of you was worried about what was in that cup they all came out to watch and i was like they're pissing you no they would never do that [Music] we're now in the suburbs of tiraspol the grandma wrote her address on a piece of paper told her to come at the end of the day so i think we're here did we just try and open up the door oh [Music] we've arrived at this very kind babushka's backyard oh my god oh my god there's so many there's bunnies everywhere she was going to give us a bunny she wanted to give us one she said we're going to work oh [Music] she says work [Music] and she said that everyone who's left wants to come back here and so she's asking us to come back here more often [Music] [Music] the stadium that's around the corner yes she lives right by the stadium the famous shitty football team that's playing real madrid tonight so after this we're gonna go watch the game and this is where they play and train i think in some ways being able to speak russian again brings eric back to his childhood in russia so it's um it's very sweet are you getting adopted as a grandson this is my new grandma [Music] this is like throwback to normal like endless amounts of food so that's why it's teaching me russian and giving me uh she saw me stretch for one second and she's like i'll give you a massage it literally has fed us so much and then she's giving us let's see what we'll show you guys we got after being adopted by our new local grandma it was time for us to watch what would become a game that the whole world would talk about the next day as the local team accomplished [Applause] [Applause] hey we came to a country that doesn't exist one day and it was the day that they played real madrid and won literally a country no one knows about just beat the best team in the world i think people are drinking tonight and i think we might join them it is time for us to leave but as eric befriended and got adopted by this grandma she told us that she has a very tricky eye surgery that's gonna cost her about seven hundred fifty dollars she said some people here make about a hundred fifty dollars per month in salary so if that's true getting eight hundred dollars would take about five and a half months to make and uh we wanted to surprise her with it she's probably not going to take it so we're going to have to strategize she said she thought we left around oh my god oh my gosh oh she got us breakfast this is crazy i'm gonna cry it's nice [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] yes [Music] it's honestly hard to describe the magic that we felt carried by on this trip we felt so welcomed by the kindness of the babushkas and the hopeful energy from many of those who still live there and then of course for their local team to create one of the biggest upsets in sports history while we were in the country felt completely impossible to fathom the economic opportunities in this country unfortunately seem very hard to find many live and survive in rough conditions but numerous locals we met also seem to have been able to maintain a positive spirit to continue living their lives despite their tough circumstances finally a local told us a tale elders share with their grandkids that when god made earth and distributed the land to all its nations when he got to transnistria he ran out of space and so he had to take a little piece of heaven and place it here instead now i don't know where this quote comes from or the intention behind why it's shared but if these people can look at their home in that way i'd hope that all of us could start doing that about our own homes as well we'll see you next week [Music] what are you doing what are you doing what time is it what time is it it's uh what do you do here what is your job and your assistant for two weeks then you know that at 905 i like to do what your phone your news yes sir yes there we go all i needed was morning brew because morning brew is actually the sponsor of today's video morningbrew is a free daily newsletter that takes five minutes to read and keeps you up to date on not only what's going on in the world but information you wouldn't normally see in the news for example this past week i learned that the us is installing 2.8 billion dollars worth of wind turbines off the coast of martha's vineyard which will generate power for 400 000 homes there is no reason not to subscribe to morning brew if you're interested in business finance or tech it's completely free and takes less than 15 seconds to subscribe go to morningbrew.com yes theory or click the link in the description below to subscribe to morningbrew today when i used to wake up in the morning my first instinct would be to grab my phone check social media and browse for 15 minutes i never really felt like i learned or gained anything from this routine until a friend mentioned morning brew to me now i feel like i'm discovering stories i wouldn't normally find in half the time i used to spend on my phone click the link in the description below to sign up for free and we'll see you next week what was it that you were doing getting you ready okay well keep doing that

Channel: Yes Theory

Views: 4,968,078

Keywords: yestheory, seek discomfort, yes theory strangers, yes theory travel, yes theory subscribers, getting out of your comfort zone, Amazon FBA, transnistria, sheriff tiraspol, country that doesn't exist, soviet union, 2021 soviet union, fake country, Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic

Id: HXzhcfYlKFQ

Length: 21min 50sec (1310 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 11 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/traviemccoy]

This was really interesting to watch. All the babushkas were so sweet and loving. Was intrigued to learn about this place after FC Sheriff made its way to the Champions League.

[u/LiveJournal]

My friend went here when backpacking his way to Greece from Russia. He spoke pretty bad Russian at the time and had to bribe the border guards with cigarettes to get into the country. He was only there for a day and just felt it was a slightly poorer version of Moldova

[u/A_Hale]

“Half this city feels like it’s stuck in the Soviet Union, I mean look at this car!” shows a pre-2008 Lada

Older Ladas are waning, but still everywhere in the Soviet Block countries.

[u/sillytoad]

Didn't expect to watch the whole video, but that was so great. Yes Theory has been churning out quality content for quite a while now.

[u/tunamelts2]

That one babuska from the storefront was so wholesome and kind...I almost broke down crying watching her interact with these guys and being so generous by offering what little she had. I've met many Eastern Europeans and a lot of them truly believe guests are like gifts from god.

[u/thehankinato]

Here's a list of states not recognized by the UN -

Kosovo.

South Ossetia & Abkhazia.

Nagorno-Karabakh.

Transnistria or the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.

New Russia or the Union of People's Republics.

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Taiwan or the Republic of China.

[u/SunnyGrassBeachRelax]

The part where the babuska fed them and got emotional because he reminded her of her son that passed away was so sad, such a lovely lady :(

[u/thepixelnation]

Taking vodka shots from strangers always ends up fine

[u/kinggimped]

Unexpectedly heartwarming. What lovely people.

Had to laugh when he pointed out the Lada as if that was a rarity, though. Travel anywhere in Russia or Ukraine and you will see more Ladas than you've ever seen in your life.