Traveling to the “Worst” Country in Europe

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i want to be honest here and start by

saying that i don't love the title of

this story that much not because of a bs

pretense that every place in the world

is equally amazing but because i do

truly believe that one's opinion of what

the best and worst place in the world is

is so subjective mostly to one's

experience with its people recently

however the most common question i get

asked in unfortunately 90 of my

interactions is what is my favorite

place i have ever visited i don't like

this question because i don't have an

answer i've been fortunate enough to

travel to obscure places from the least

visited country in the world to the most

boring town in america and have found a

disproportionate amount of kindness

openness and hospitality in many of

these lesser visited places and so

choosing one place over another simply

doesn't make any sense to me as i

recently moved back to europe this led

my curiosity to eventually google the

strange question of what does the

internet believe the worst country in

europe is and i landed on multiple

websites with unfortunately the same

answer of moldova

now the answer to why is obviously

difficult as the soviet union fell apart

in 1991 a power grab led lots of

corruption in the country and a very

challenging time for moldovans with

country-wide economic strain this led to

a lack of government funding for wages

housing and infrastructure for decades

which resulted in many of the streets

and buildings becoming decrepid and over

one third of the entire population

leaving in the past 30 years and so as

an attempt to once again hopefully prove

the opinion of the internet wrong we

decided to fly the moldova for three

days and see what unusual adventure

we could find to commemorate our travels

from last year to transnistria the

country that doesn't exist on a map that

is technically located inside the

borders of moldova i brought my friend

eric who speaks fluent russian i'm very

excited that i get to go to uh

supposedly the worst country in europe

as we celebrate seekers day for this

entire week and an incredible seven

years of creating stories on this

channel our all-time best sellers on

steep discomfort.com are all 30 off

right now for only the next seven days

with the code seeker at checkout which

will be our only sale of the year we

decided to bring back one of our most

memorable strangers we met on the street

stefan from sweden who agreed to swap

lives with another stranger from the u.s

three years ago to join us today when i

woke up i was looking in my wardrobe but

i one t-shirt left and the t-shirt says

and so with the dream team assembled we

were extremely excited to discover what

moldova had to offer

baby yeah we're the all-new

foreigners coming here right now

everyone's staring at us

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i got a nice little tourist map i think

it'll tell us exactly what we need to do

here oh dude it says uh absolutely

nothing

look at this beauty

whoa

huh

oh how lovely

oh here's our hotel

look at this this is so nice

well our moldovan adventure officially

begins

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as soon as we step out there's like all

the buildings with graffiti on them and

like brand new

buildings right here every block or so

there's like a pretty big abandoned

building i see a lot of european flags

the flags of the eu so why are there

flags are they trying to become a part

of the eu

future

future great thank you

youtube they're trying to become a part

of the european union but they're not

they haven't been accepted yet we have

absolutely no plan right now we are

literally just trying just walking

around like an entourage we are just

looking to meet moldova basically and

although we walked out of the door of

our hotel with the only plan of finding

the rusty soviet amusement park the city

still has we could never have predicted

that the person we were about to meet

next was going to completely transform

our trip i'm gonna ask this one

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friend and talk tell me his whole life

he's singing in the background now great

listener i haven't met everything you're

listening for two hours we were just

asking if there was an amusement park

and we got stuffed for an hour and a

half why is none of this on the internet

what about moldova this is really nice

this is so beautiful i said it was like

the worst place on earth it's so

beautiful look at this little plaza oh

this is the pickup

he wants to show us something okay so

this wonderful man mikhail is just

taking us somewhere he's uh not taking

no for an answer and he's like i'm going

to show you some stuff

where are we going

this place is called drunk cherry okay i

said what should we order they said we

only have one drink

wait is he not joining us

i think we've just met the most

spontaneous

elderly man in moldova and while eric

was listening to mikhail's entire life

story we got recognized by two moldovan

subscribers i know we had people that

knew also

who gave us some insight into what the

youth think about moldova's future our

last president who was like very like

communist and with like russia like he

really wanted to blend our countries

together back today you are like uh

yeah but like our new president she's so

amazing with the leadership we have

right now if we continue on this path

we'll definitely like we just got

elected to be like hopefully in the

future to be part of the european union

i'm not all brainwashed we're not all

pro russians broke with him there's a

lot of us that like actually want to

change and actually hope for the better

yeah wow i'm getting like goosebumps

over my entire body you can like record

it right now

what is happening in mikhail's story

oh he's telling me a lot of stuff are

you guys telling me about his military

career

[Laughter]

hello

yeah

make a film yeah enjoy wow thank you

enjoy thank you so much see you moldova

kindness this is what happens when you

go to places that nobody visits everyone

is just excited to see that people are

visiting yeah mikhail had beef with that

guy

just arrived at one of the main

monasteries of the country

whoa

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is

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accept your

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i was asking him like if he knows that

guy that he clearly has beef with and

he's like yeah that guy like he tries to

get money from people and he always hits

him with a stick because he's like get

away like stop messing with my thing and

mikhail didn't want you guys to get

scammed by the dude he's really our

grandfather

grandpa is eating some food

how's grandpa doing

and he goes

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i just found out his family story

his whole family wearing a car got hit

by a truck wife his daughter

and her

husband

they all died in the same in one car

accident

it's the craziest thing his wife

his grandson daughter and her husband

but like he's like doesn't really want

to like frown upon that because it's

been a long time since this happened so

yeah

he's like a guy from up

he's really an adventurer

how could when why are you celebrating

away from him because he told us earlier

he loves to go on road trips to like

different places when he gets bored and

totally bailed on his plan today to join

us

after spending the morning getting to

know michael we said our goodbyes

we're not going to say goodbye we're not

going to say goodbye guys we'll see each

other later ventured off again in the

search of the old soviet amusement park

we were looking for at the start of our

day oh this is it it looks very

abundant it looks very abandoned i would

be shocked if any of these rides are

still working

holy

is this one safe

yeah can we do a quick lie detector test

this is the rustiest ride in this entire

place my mom is gonna kill me

look at this seat like i'm really really

scared of hiding stop shaking you're

shaking oh my god it's so hot

oh my god oh my god oh my

oh my god we're not doing this though

that's all stefan remember

safely

wow that goes fast oh my god dude oh my

god

oh my god

[Laughter]

well the park is closing we survived

another abandoned soviet amusement park

on our way out of the park we happened

to meet a family of ukrainian refugees

how has it been because it's still once

my parents and my wife parents at home

as well

we had the apartments there and this

apartments and just now it can be

bumped by one swept

hopefully man hopefully yep somewhere

soon

this is my

this is my older one

that's it

so real man their family like walking

here and

experience all this pain so

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you saw this suffering in the world

right for a new reason of all like it's

just so unfair so let's keep spreading

love guys right yeah

it's crazy to think about though i

didn't realize the amount of stress that

moldova probably has

because

if the war expands it comes

with that wow

people are gonna go in here

because there are ukrainians here there

are moldovans and then we just met a guy

who grew up in russia and lives here

conflict must be super strange because

there's so many there's so much overlap

right i really didn't expect moldova to

be such a

melting pot yeah you know but it but it

is really

it makes it like a very special country

actually at the moment right

real fun

family energy

well definitely yeah come from welcome

to moldova yeah this time everywhere

around the world it's just always the

most positive

kind and open-minded people it's it's

crazy it's crazy we thought this was

just a brief encounter with the

subscriber until moments later this

happened

i can go what are we doing we're gonna

have fun fun let's go

did you just abandon your friend no i

just sent him to him

there are some nights when we start

filming and we don't really know what

we're filming

this is one of them

we've arrived

this is very different than what it was

earlier today moldova in three one two

three

tell him that we're happy he's here

he said i'm really happy i found you

guys oh can you be our adopted grandpa

one more time

get that dress you can call him grandpa

grandpa the thing is we literally don't

have his contact we just keep running

into him he doesn't have a phone

he likes to swim are we going to the

beach with him tomorrow i think so

talking to mikhail i can't fully

understand what's going on but he kind

of seems a little bit like a nomad like

he doesn't really have a place to stay

tonight he's going to the doctor because

he's got an issue with his foot so he

was just going to sleep at the hospital

stay at our hotel tonight and he was

like yeah maybe let's see how the night

goes also something that i forgot to

mention so far was that at midnight it

would actually be my birthday and the

clock

just struck 12.

[Applause]

thanks for reminding me thank you thank

you grandpa we just met some uh really

nice girls and mikael is giving stuff on

dating advice he's like yo if you're

going to talk to girls you got to

entertain them you got to tell them

stories

we're going to joe's house tonight and

where is it joe

when you go out in other countries

sometimes they're like ah tourists are

here here it's like

buddhists are here it's like an

attraction it's like let's find out

where they're from look bro come with us

let's go party bro

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one

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and

i guess back to grandpa

we have two hotel rooms he's gonna take

one of them and the three of us will

share one little slumber party yeah

how do you feel about this keep

continuing to remind me mikhail thank

you the hotel is gonna be so confused

these three young tourists came they

went out until two in the morning and

they brought back a 74 year old local

grandpa

there's a bunch

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he's such a funny man he just like takes

life as it comes like there's no level

of like oh i'm in this hotel now like

guys this is a crazy thing he's just

like okay i sit here and this is my life

this is my room he just she's just here

now

new level

literally he's a kung matata he's just

taken as it comes

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he's just butt naked showering

no he's naked

don't touch it it's dry okay is this how

you imagine your

birthday is going on right now

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mikhail hasn't had a phone this whole

time so we haven't been able to reach

him he doesn't know what time it is so

we're just going to get him a phone

exactly he said i used to i used one to

call people i used to know the time yeah

that's only once but but he was also

like i'm gonna buy it we were like we'll

get it for you he's like no i'm gonna

buy it i'm like no dude let us get you

this nokia no store okay

you got a phone

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it really does feel like he's the real

life up character by the way he's he's

very sweet and kind of grumpy eric is

like the little character and a little

scout who like keeps trying to take care

of grandpa and grandpa's like ah

whatever he's super smart i just can't

piece his life together

toyota

see i don't know what to do with that

information sometimes i can't

so far mikhail's life was really one big

mystery to us so we decided to sit him

down and ask him a few questions

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i think trying to understand how does he

survive right

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can you ask him if he's comfortable

telling us a bit about what happened

foreign

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is

tell him like we know that um

like pension here is not very high and

what not and we just wanted to

help him and give him this letter and he

doesn't have to open

um he has no idea but we just gave him

five hundred dollars which is ten

thousand of the local currency so you

just gave him uh

eight months of his

account he won't know that until he

opens he probably has no idea what he

doesn't probably doesn't even know that

there's money in there no i don't i

don't think he thinks there's like a

letter yeah we're we're really grateful

that you've been such a big part of our

experience

absolutely

literally we're just following this man

we just asked him for directions to a

park and now our entire life depends on

him yeah is this the right bus we're

going an hour away from here

what is he trying to do oh he was trying

to pay for our ticket

no

hi man

he's always like just leave everyone

alone he's like anyone who's not a part

of the boys

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each day with grandpa

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this is the best birthday ever

freaking crazy grandpa taking us around

the least visiting country

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with our beach adventure over it was

time to get mikhail a fancy new outfit

for a party at a castle that a stranger

had invited us to tonight we're in like

a really nice italian tailor right now

we're a little bit out of place

however with only three tickets to the

event we had to sneak in grandpa

while we've arrived at a traditional

festival at a castle

that's really good wine

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so we are here completely on our own

without the people who invited us today

is my birthday and somehow i ended up at

a castle in the least visited country

from europe

going along with the flow

and after four hours of enjoying the

event at the castle we once again lost

grandpa where is mikhail yeah we're

looking for michaela mikhail mikhail

where is he

grandpa have you seen this old grandpa

oh

miguel is lost it was like like three or

four five hours ago three four hours ago

grandfather grandpa's missing and he's

had wine that's not good

he might have gone down maybe he went

down that way okay let's cut through

that thank you

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he was on the dance floor

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other pieces

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while you pet his hands it's fully

comfortable that you get him i'm a

complete stranger all right grandpa

we love you

love you man

he said i love you

yeah he did say he love you

not

and what i'm finding so fascinating

about him is that he's always like

telling us let's go you would think that

someone who's 74 and doesn't really

happen

he said this looks like a piano he likes

to observe he's very observant but

he says let's go stand up like he's

telling let's march outside

isn't it

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he can have mine he can have mine

did he have fun

of course

he just

fell asleep on the bench

we

[Laughter]

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you're so excited he's like you got to

read this thing this is his organization

that like created this whole monument

for this famous captain in the war we

actually couldn't have had a better

guide to the city i know the dude knows

everything grandpa was saying missions

are done everything on his checklist is

over now if we want to just hit the bell

here at the cemetery then we can go home

we can do whatever we want his job is

done once this bell is ringing

michelle's mission will be accomplished

he just whistles away

there's a story here

[Laughter]

oh

what did i say what did i say

and thomas oh

grandpa

i mean yeah

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grandpa's taking us to the airport he

wants to send us off and

that's the weirdest thing ever

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heading to the airport with bonnello and

i said how are you gonna get back to the

city and he said what do you think i'm

gonna end up in paris or something i'm

gonna i'll figure it out we also gave

him the number to the grandma we met in

uh transnistria so he's excited to maybe

meet her as well when he goes to

you said i'm grandpa and she's grandma

grandpa is dropping us off

putting his shoes

on

yeah

but yes

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need i'm gonna love you to the end of

time

because a love like us is hard to find

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that's the saddest thing i've ever

experienced

you really feel that

this is exactly why i don't like the

question of what i think the best and

worst place is because at the end of the

day it is impossible to predict an

experience like this one for a place

that seemed pointless to visit according

to the internet moldova really had so

many great things to offer and is

seemingly on track to a brighter future

but we ended up discovering this place

through the eyes of mikhail and had a

much more meaningful trip than we could

possibly have ever orchestrated

ourselves

if you do decide to go visit moldova

there's plenty to do and see but my

personal recommendation would be to try

and go find michael roaming around the

drunk cherry bar take him out for a

lunch and make his day and your own a

little bit brighter

as an unusual addition to the strangers

we've gone on adventures with we

couldn't have imagined a better way to

celebrate seven years on this channel

final reminder that seekers day is live

right now for this week only on

seekdiscomfort.com using the code seeker

for our only sale of the year with 30

off our all-time best sellers it would

mean the world to us if you went to

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clothing you loved and repped wherever

you go we are about to take our yearly

break in august so we will probably see

you in september

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