The New Year dinner was at the Back to the USSR restaurant. When we came in, the tables were laden with entree dishes – pancakes with red caviar, cold meat cuts, fresh salads, stewed vegetables, and a lot more, every was looked and tasted delicious. The drinks were champagne, Moldavian wine and cognacs. Besides ours, there were 3 other groups.
Once we were done with the entrees, live music began playing. We danced taking short breaks to have more food and wine and returned to the dancing floor. Waitresses kept bringing new dishes.
At 11 p.m., local time, when it was midnight in Moscow, we listened to the Russia’s President New Year address and the chimes of the Kremlin clock. We continued eating and drinking and dancing until 3 a.m.
I don’t think I had so much fun at a New Year party since I was a college student. I went to bed filled with excellent food and wine and overexcited expecting issues with falling asleep but I was sleeping soundly as soon as I closed my eyes.
In the morning, the group had breakfast at the hotel at our usual time and we went to the city of Bendery to see more memorials and monuments.
We returned from this unrecognized state to Moldova in the evening and entered a no less interesting region, the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia.