15/08/2026
I left my hotel in Brăila after reserving a seat in a small bus that should have taken me directly to the city of Comrat in the autonomous region of Găgăuzia in the country of Moldova. Unfortunately, the bus did not arrive at the advertised location at the appointed time, so I was forced to make a quick decision and opted to take a local train to Galați, a town near the border, where I hoped to find onward transportation to Comrat.
I arrived in Galați an hour and a half later just to discover that there were no buses scheduled that could take me to Moldova, so I decided instead to hire a taxi to take me to the Romanian border. Once at the border post, I was told that it was not possible to simply walk to Moldova and that I would have to find another mode of transportation to take me to the Moldovan side of the border. My taxi had already left to return to Galați leaving me without any obvious options. But, as so often happens when traveling, a kind stranger came to my rescue and offered me a place in his vehicle for the short ride to the Moldovan border crossing. I hopped in the stranger’s car and sat down in a seat next to his teenage son and daughter and together we crossed into Moldova without incident. The stranger then took me to an ATM to get some Moldovan money and even drove me to the bus station where I was able to immediately board a small bus to Comrat.
While in Comrat, I stayed at the Medelean Hotel for $54/night. Transportation from Brăila to Comrat totaled $56.50: $4.70 for the train from Brăila to Galați; $46 for the taxi from Galați to the border at Oancea; and $5.80 for the small bus from Cahul, Moldova to Comrat.
