Of course, if you’re a Western European or American academic or a Western media news crew, you are not allowed to say anything good about Pridnestrovie. Not once, and not ever. And if you’re Romanian, that goes double true for you.

But many tourists somehow make their way to Pridnestrovie without any expectations, and they nearly universally love it.

I certainly like Pridnestrovie. But maybe I’m crazy. Maybe I’m weird. Maybe I’m a total idiot who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Fair enough.

But if you listen to what other people have to say, you can see that I’m not alone. There are many travelers who have visited the country and been blown away by what they saw and experienced.

I personally met a lovely German woman who came to Pridnestrovie three years ago as a tourist, and she befriended a family in a village near Tiraspol, and every year, she comes back to visit them.

Here’s one of my all-time favorite images from Pridnestrovie – a police officer (traffic division) helping out a motorist last week when we had some really wintry weather:

In 20 years of living in Romania and the Republic of Moldova, I’ve never once seen or heard of a cop helping change a tire. Never.

For those of you who refuse to believe there could ever be anything good about Pridnestrovie, well, you’re going to believe what you want to ;)