England U21 in Transnistria/Moldova

Moldova U21 0 v England U21 3

at FC Sheriff Tiraspol

Tuesday 9 September 2014

FC Sheriff has been on my sports tourism radar for a while. Mainly because of how some of my mates have described it to me.

Tiraspol is in a self declared Republic called Transnistria. That is a corridor of land in the East of Moldova bordering Ukraine. For footballing purposes it comes under the Moldova FA.

I've been stretching my brain to recall the last U21 away game I went to. I'm pretty sure it was in Shkrodra in Albania in March 1989.

I'd recommend Tiraspol to anyone. It was a very simple trip for us. We flew Basel to Chisinau via Munich on Lufthansa. The hotel sent a car to collect us. We stayed 3 nights in The City Club Hotel in Tiraspol. And we flew Chisinau to Manchester via Munich on Lufthansa.

The drive from Chisinau Airport took about an hour. At the de facto border we had to get out of the car, trot to the office, have our passports checked & get a registration document. The hotel handled the necessary extension of our registration. And we handed over our passports & registration document on the way out & back to the airport.

There are lots of Exchange Offices to get the Transnistrian Ruble. All essentially the same rate. But $ & € not £.

The hotel was superb. Start to finish. I needed a good few emails to sort stuff out. Every email was answered in very good English within minutes. And I got a real feeling of confidence rather than it'll be alright on the night.

It is not a cheap hotel. But it was perfect for us. It's a small boutique style place a few streets back from the main drag. The room was clean, bright & large. There was a bit of annoying all hours banging around in the kitchen underneath our room. And a cameo kitchen top of voice argument between a female chef & a male waiter at breakfast on the last morning.  But otherwise lovely.

Breakfast was OK. Although we never really got what we ordered. But, no worries, we just ploughed on with whatever was delivered.

It's an easy city to walk around. We happily jumped on trolleybuses to the nearby town of Bender & to Sheriff FC. We eat in Andy's Pizza. It wouldn't suit everybody. It's a chain we'd used on a previous trip to Chisinau.

I'm not a museums & galleries bloke. So, the football, a mooch & some Beer Hunting (separate post) was enough for me.