I used to really like the Chisinau craft market in Mihai Eminescu Square, before they redeveloped it.
It was a great place to find old badges and medals from the Soviet space program, (Good linen too). I don't suppose you have any idea where these people went? I've poked around the market by the train station with no luck...
Hey Nick! great diversion actually. I also really used to like that market (though it's also nice to have the center of Chisinau developing). I don't have any answer for you as to where it may have moved, but I can share my suspicion / theory. If you enter the central market these days you'll often see people holding up signs with pictures of old soviet medals, etc. They are offering to buy them - and targeting the older people who shop there as the people likely to be willing to part with such things.
My suspicion is that development / business has come to this sector too. Someone or group is buying up these antiques at scale. Since we don't see them for sale anywhere in Chisinau, I bet they are getting shipped to some former Soviet city with a larger number of tourists that they can be sold to. It's illegal to export antiques like this actually... but I doubt that stops an enterprising marshrutka driver with a package.
Anyhow, that's my best guess. I bought a really nice old pocket watch there in past years and I kinda miss those fun shopping experiences.
Great article, David. I had a very similar experience when buying chains for my car in Tbilisi. After speaking with many of the vendors, I was convinced to buy some Turkish chains which they claimed were modern, light-weight, and (supposedly) reliable. After less than 5 minutes in the Georgian countryside they broke. The next week I was back in Tbilisi, so I went back to the market and demanded an exchange for some older Soviet ones. They weighed a ton, but they worked fine the entire time I needed them.
Yup! sounds right. I was tempted to start debating the relative merits of Turkish, Ukrainian, Italian and Soviet plumbing but realized I was quickly going down a rabbit hole haha.
On the other end of the rising / falling empire spectrum, I was shocked when I lived in Kazakhstan how much cheap stuff they got from China and how terrible it was mostly. Over time I figured out that China dumped sub-par goods in Central Asia which was pretty starved for options. It reminded me of a section of The Great Game where there is a discussion about how all these wars in Central Asia were partly caused by Russia wanting to capture markets for their inferior pots (people liked buying British pots).
Obviously, China makes much better things and I hear from Kazakhstan that that phase passed. Crazy world.
If you will forgive the diversion...
I used to really like the Chisinau craft market in Mihai Eminescu Square, before they redeveloped it.
It was a great place to find old badges and medals from the Soviet space program, (Good linen too). I don't suppose you have any idea where these people went? I've poked around the market by the train station with no luck...
Hey Nick! great diversion actually. I also really used to like that market (though it's also nice to have the center of Chisinau developing). I don't have any answer for you as to where it may have moved, but I can share my suspicion / theory. If you enter the central market these days you'll often see people holding up signs with pictures of old soviet medals, etc. They are offering to buy them - and targeting the older people who shop there as the people likely to be willing to part with such things.
My suspicion is that development / business has come to this sector too. Someone or group is buying up these antiques at scale. Since we don't see them for sale anywhere in Chisinau, I bet they are getting shipped to some former Soviet city with a larger number of tourists that they can be sold to. It's illegal to export antiques like this actually... but I doubt that stops an enterprising marshrutka driver with a package.
Anyhow, that's my best guess. I bought a really nice old pocket watch there in past years and I kinda miss those fun shopping experiences.
They sell for about ten times the price on E-Bay I notice...
There were a few military meals at the train station market, but nothing spacey...
Great article, David. I had a very similar experience when buying chains for my car in Tbilisi. After speaking with many of the vendors, I was convinced to buy some Turkish chains which they claimed were modern, light-weight, and (supposedly) reliable. After less than 5 minutes in the Georgian countryside they broke. The next week I was back in Tbilisi, so I went back to the market and demanded an exchange for some older Soviet ones. They weighed a ton, but they worked fine the entire time I needed them.
Yup! sounds right. I was tempted to start debating the relative merits of Turkish, Ukrainian, Italian and Soviet plumbing but realized I was quickly going down a rabbit hole haha.
On the other end of the rising / falling empire spectrum, I was shocked when I lived in Kazakhstan how much cheap stuff they got from China and how terrible it was mostly. Over time I figured out that China dumped sub-par goods in Central Asia which was pretty starved for options. It reminded me of a section of The Great Game where there is a discussion about how all these wars in Central Asia were partly caused by Russia wanting to capture markets for their inferior pots (people liked buying British pots).
Obviously, China makes much better things and I hear from Kazakhstan that that phase passed. Crazy world.