- So, I'm heading to
Bucharest train stations today because I've got to catch a flight. Hang on a minute. No I'm not,
I'm getting a train today. Okay. So I may have
underestimated slightly just how far away from
the center of Bucharest this blooming train station is. It's miles. I've been walking
for about an hour now. Still, I've no idea where I am. I'm down some kind of
backstreet of Bucharest. Doesn't seem the most
salubrious of part of town I have to say. But, yeah,
I'm trying to find my way to this flipping railway station. Hopefully I get there in time. That will be a bad video, wouldn't it? Noel misses his train, 'cause he's stuck in the
backstreets of Bucharest. Looks like one of the
taxis I normally get. By Jove, I think I found it. The railway station, that is, not the shop I just realized
I just walked passed. By golly, gosh, there's these
shops everywhere around here. Every street corner it seems. But on the other side of the road, well that is the Gara Nord, the main train station
here and the Bucharest. And it's from there that
we're gonna go inside try and get our ticket and get on board the long distance overnight
train to Kishinev in Moldova. Yeah, can I collect from here? - No. It's the other side. Office one. - Office one. Thank you. Okay, so this could turn
into a bit of an experience. I need to get my train ticket collected. I ordered them online, but you have to come to the
station and collect them. And I've got no idea where I need to go. So this is gonna be fun. See if we can actually
get our tickets after all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Well there we go then. Kishinev in Moldova. It's quite straight forward. So you can kind of buy them online, then you have to sort of come
to the ticket office here and collect them. And now I need to try and
figure out where I need to go. I've got a couple of hours to my train, but I wanted to make sure I was here. So I got my tickets early just in case there are any issues. And as it turned out it
was pretty straightforward. So, I'm trying to find our
way through Bucharest station, trying to find our way to the train that's gonna take us across
to Kishinev, Moldova. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. So the train has
arrived on the platform. Look at this beast of a train. Retro Soviet style train
that's going to take me into Moldova. How cool is this? Yeah, I think we're about down this way. Car number six tonight. Thank you. Beautiful train, yeah. Crikey, it's a bit retro, isn't it? 31, 32. This is us. Ooh. Here we are. The Prietenia. This is very retro Soviet
chic, isn't it? Look at this. As I look around I'm gonna drop me bags, get comfy and get ready for
the ride over to Moldova. So then, in me room on
board, The Prietenia train, it's gonna be my home for
the next sort of 13 hours. And look at this, isn't it cool? This rather nice retro-style
curtains. Love this. Moldovan railway logo
emblazoned all over the windows. There's a little table with a fancy table cloth of course. Yeah. It's all right. This is the first class room, actually. So first class on the Moldovan railways, this is what you get? Yeah, you've got the old
style luggage racks up here. They're pretty cool, aren't they? And then up here, we've got some kind of storage. So I'll put my bag up
there in a bit, I think. Nice mirror. So I can look
at myself in the mirror. Yeah. That's pretty much it. Lovely, lovely Soviet light
fittings over here. Very nice. Yeah. The carpet. Look at the carpet. Just incredible, isn't
it? Absolutely incredible. Seats? Well, I'm trying to find a side to sit on that isn't quite as hard. This is like sitting on a bench with about that much padding on top. So yeah. Don't know what it's gonna
be like to sleep on it and it sort of creeks and
bends as you sit on it. So I think that's gonna be
fun to sleep on tonight. But, yeah. How cool is this? Looking forward to tonight's journey across Romania into Moldova. Right, so on the move
out of Bucharest now. Tanking through the northern
suburbs of Bucharest as we head across Romania. We're gonna be going
through Bacau and Ioncy. Eventually over to the border with the Moldovan border basically where we spend four hours there. I don't know what they're
doing for four hours. I think if I remember right part of it is a passport check, obviously the border
guards will come through. But also they need to change change the wheels on the train because the railway gauge over in Moldova, basically it's a little bit wider than the railway gauge
here on the European side. So, effectively what they'll do is lift the carriages off the
wheels with us on board, swap the wheels underneath
and plonk us back down onto the new set of wheels. That's gonna be pretty interesting to be woken up by that at
four o'clock in the morning. Will have to see how that goes. So yeah. Then eventually
we get into Kishinev at half past eight in the morning. It's about a 13 hour journey all in all. Just had my bedding dropped
off by the really kind girl. Look at this. Beautiful English rose.
Look, English roses, hey. He must know I was English. I think let's go with that. We've got some more up here. Let's have a look up here. I'll have a big pillow then. And a blanket. Not quite sure which side
I'm gonna lay on tonight. I mean, both sides are pretty lumpy. As I mentioned earlier, it's like a board with
about that much padding left on top of it. So not the most comfortable. But that's okay because this
is just such a cool experience to ride on this train. It's just absolutely incredible. I've been wanting to do
this for so long now, The Prietenia. I really have and it's
just not happened at all. Every time I've had it booked, it ended up being canceled through one reason and another. But now, finally on board and we're heading across to leave Europe behind
and head into Moldova. So cool. Right. So, seat lifts up and
under here we've got storage. What we also have under here is, a mattress, so. Some kind of thosty, but anyway. But it'll do. Try not to think about
what's actually in there. There we go. What a lovely, whatever these are. It's a sheet I think. Lovely. We've stopped. Yeah. Pillow case. Hey. Nice retro tea towel. What's that for? Yeah, I tell you. This isn't
like the Caledonian sleeper, where you pull it down and
you've got nice freshly made bed. Gordon Bennett. There we go. That'll do. Made me bed,
throwing it together. Ready for later. All right, let's go have a
quick look around the carriage. See what we can find. Retro corridor. Okay. Shaving socket things. I'm trying to find a toilet actually. I don't know where it is. Let's have a looksie in here. There's no toilet back there. Ah, WC. There we go. You know what it's time for. - [Announcer] It's time for
the Noel Philips Loo Review. - Right. Ye he. The Loo Review. On board The Prietenia train and yeah. It is interesting. We've got, what we got a sink? Some sort of plug thing. 100 EL. What that is. Very Soviet looking
bathroom here isn't it? Wow. Look at that. Soap. Incredible. Empty bog role. And a lovely Soviet toilet. Nice. Yeah. Instructions for the Soviet toilet. In Russian. What does that say? Don't know. Something in Russian. Wow. There we go then. The Soviet toilets on the Soviet train. So, one thing about this
train is that it is so bouncy. You're being thrown around like one, on this flipping train. Crikey O'Reilly. We're only an hour out of Bucharest and it's already really,
really, really bumpy. I don't know how much
sleep I'm gonna get tonight on this train. Who knows? But we'll find out. We're trying to get to sleep since I know for what I'm gonna get
woken at about 4:00 AM for the passport check the wheels being changed on the train. Although to be honest, if the rest of the journey is like this I don't think I'd notice any
difference as we're getting swung from a crane and dropped
onto a new set of rails. But anyway, I'm gonna try and get
a little bit of sleep. And yeah, I will speak to you
later on in the journey when we get to the border with Moldova. Good night for now. Still not been to sleep. This train's just so uncomfortable, aside from the bed bing kind of the most uncomfortable bed
I think I've ever slept in, it's like sleeping on a hard floor, but it's just so bouncy. This train like every time
you start nodding off to sleep you get bounced around a bit. And then when he comes to stop, I think we stopping now actually. But every time we come to a stop that happens every single time. So you'll just be getting off to sleep and then you'll stop at the station and about be thrown out of bed. And then when we release the
brakes again in a minute, the same will happen. And in a way this is just, it's not comfortable. I want to try my best to
get some sleep, I think. But I know full well that in a few hours we'll be getting woken
up for the border checks and everything anyway. So we'll see. Another hour in, I'm still awake. This train is like riding
inside a washing machine, that's on a spin cycle. And the washing machine's on a trailer, on the back of a car and the car is being driven down a really bumpy road. And then every now and then
you just sort of get used to the motion, and start to nod off. And then the washing machine stops and starts working the other way. It's just horrendous. Oh. Good Lord. It's like midnight now. Be getting to the border
in a couple of hours. So I'm just baiting, just staying up. For the rest of the train I don't know. We'll see. Hello. Oh, sorry? Thank you. All right, so it's 3:00 AM. We've just arrived at
the border with Moldova. They've just come around,
took our passports, of everybody on the train. And customs have just been
round and searched it as well. So yeah. Just waiting for that to come back now. I then I think we're gonna progress across the border into Moldova. All right. So they brought my passport back with a exit stamp from Romania in it. And then another guy came back, grabbed my passport, took a photo of it, and said, "Is problem. Is problem." I was like, "Is everything okay?" And he went, And then like the, off the train and now we're moving into Moldova. We're on the bridge now across to Moldova. So quite sure if it's a problem. It's kind of a bit late me, just kind of got off the train and we're heading into Moldova. So who knows what's gonna happen? We'll see in a minute, I guess. All right, so we're on
the Moldovan side now. And they just took my
passport off to be stamped on the Moldovan side. And it looks like they're
about to start swapping the wheels over there,
this is pretty cool. Worth waking up at 4:00 AM for. Got a massive crane out there
and a load of spare wheels and I think they just
lift it onto a new set. So let's watch how they do it. Okay. So Moldovan customs have now been in and been through my bag,
which are sort of okay. My passport is still with
the Moldovan passport lady and the train's kind of
moving backwards and forwards. I'm really hoping she comes back and brings me my passport back. But we are kind of maneuvering
back into the yard now I think we've been pulled out. I think we're gonna be backing it in now. And waiting for them obviously
to change the wheels. So that we get front row seat. Taking the floor up in my room to do something with the wheels. That's it, we're lifted up now. I think we're going up. This is so unbelievably cool, isn't it? Just look how high that
wagon is over there. They've literally just slid
the wheels out underneath it and they're about to roll
the new ones back under to fit obviously the
Russian gauge as we get to the wider gauge to
move east into Moldova. So cool. So there we go then. Wheels all changed. We are now running on Russian rails, slightly wider than the European ones that we were on before. Doesn't seem any smoother. I was hoping that these wheels might be a little bit
smoother than the last lot, but they're not. And I got my passport back
as well, so that's all good. And yeah, we're just
doing a bit of shunting backwards and forwards in the yard. And I think we're on our
way down to Kishinev. About an hour later,
it's like 5:00 AM now. Oh, I need sleep. While I'm traveling
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the link on the screen now. Well, good bye retro Soviet train. Welcome to, Kishinev. Well, welcome to Kishinev. Capital of course of Moldova. Interesting little
railway station this one. Look what I found. Mr. Bolt will be impressed. An old Soviet mosaic, we're at Kishinev railway station. That's probably quite cool, isn't it? Right. So, I'm trying to
find my way to this hotel. Another 10 minute walk, I reckon. It's a nice day for it as well. Might wake me up a little bit, hey? Doggy, hello. A little doggy down there, aw. I'm gonna have to say, based on my limited
experience of Kishinev, in the 10 minutes it's
taken since I've got here, it's not as bad as I
thought it was gonna be. I've seen all sorts of videos
online and articles online about how rundown the city is. Now it's all a bit rough and
everything, and you know what? It seems quite nice. It's a little bit rough
around the edges, I suppose, but it's an Eastern European
city and lots of them are. It's relatively pleasant, quite nice so far. I have to say boulevards and
things and quite nice buildings and yeah very nice. Here we are. Found it. The hotel, about 10 minute walk. It's bitterly cold
though in this wind. Wow. Let's go see if we can check in. Hello, good morning. Can I check in, please? Thank you. Thanks very much. Thank you. As always, I'd like to say
a big thanks to my Patreons. You can join them at the
link on the screen now for access to my WhatsApp group, live weekly zoom calls
with me and much more. Hey, well, there we are then. Kishinev, The Birds Hotel. No relation to Birds Bakery
back in the UK, I don't think. But this is all right, isn't it? Wow. Look at this room. It's quite nice. We've got like a corner
room and a separate bathroom of course through here. Ooh, snazzy. Fancy, fancy for a hotel in Kishinev that's
cost me like 40 quid a night. It's not bad is it really? I even get a dressing gown,
just might try that later. In a pair of slippers
and relaxing my boudoir. Yeah, well here we are. I'm looking forward to
getting some rest now. Seeing as I didn't get any sleep at all on the sleeper train over from Bucharest. But it was really cool
ride. I proper enjoyed that. Even though I got absolutely zero sleep, it was an amazing ride over
on the old Soviet express from Bucharest to here in Moldova. And well, I've got a
couple of days here now and then onwards and
upwards to the next thing. Well at the moment I don't really know what I'm going to be doing? I was supposed to be heading
across to Transnistria and then into Ukraine,
through Odessa and up to Kiev. Unfortunately at the time
of making this video, my phone has been going bizzerk because there is a lot of
military buildup and stuff over in the Ukraine at the moment. NATO was sending troops there
and so are the Russians. So at the moment who
knows what's gonna happen? I'm thinking it may
possibly be better to look at do something else instead
now to carry on with this trip. But I dunno. What am I gonna do, I
don't know yet, actually. So I'm going to have a look and find out. And if you hit that subscribe button, you find out on the next one, just where I end up on my next video. But in the meantime, thank
you so much for watching. Take care and I'll see you on the next one. Bye for now.
