I Went Into a Gypsy House in Moldova…

I Went Into a Gypsy House in Moldova…

Welcome to Soroka, Muldova. [music] This is Soroka, a city with barely over 20,000 people located on the border of Europe’s two poorest countries and incidentally the gypsy capital of Muldova. But why are there so many gypsies here? And how and why did this become their capital? Well, we traveled here to find that exact thing out. At first glance, Sorroa seems like a typical dilapidated Soviet town that even God has abandoned. Gray poor, lotas everywhere, and a war torn country across the river. Walking through the city, there doesn’t appear to be much to see or do other than war memorials. I didn’t really know that there was like Muldovenans that actually died in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, but I mean I guess of course cuz it is in the area. And here you can see the victim from it. Honestly, this aesthetic goes super hard. You have the Orthodox cross here and then the atom. I don’t know if there’s anything more that screams Eastern Europe. I don’t think it exists. So right here we have the memorial for the 1992 Transnistrian War uh from the Romanian side. Well, Muldovven side that is was a devastating war that took around between 1,000 to 2,000 lives. It’s not really known and devastated basically the entire region over it with unseen destruction in the region since essentially World War II. And right next to the Transnistrian War Memorial, we have the Afghanistan War Memorial. What’s a bit confusing about it is I can’t tell if the guys who are commemorated here were Muldoven or Russian because what’s interesting look at this their names. So up here we have them in Romanian which is written the Romanian way but underneath there we have it in Russian. So they’re rustified names. For example, we would translate to milanton Mikail, which Romanian, but then Milantin Ivan Mkhovich in Russian. And also here, Gitan Victor Vasil, Romanian, and then Gitlan Victor Vasilovich. I don’t know what’s going on here, but uh it kind of comes to show that during the USSR times, basically no matter where you were in the empire, they picked people to go and fight in this war. And even from regions as far as Muldova was, they still went on to fight. With such a diverse army, communication was probably hella difficult. Having to learn Russian in the trenches, as shells are hitting all around you definitely wasn’t an ideal language learning experience, which is why today we have FluentU. FluentU is an app and website that makes the language learning experience much more enjoyable and seamless by using real videos, movies, TV shows, music videos, news clips, everything and anything you’d want to watch. Want to learn Russian so you can actually read the monuments in Soroka? FluentU has you covered. If I just log in, put some anime in Russian, I can get interactive subtitles. Don’t know a word problem. Just hover over it and FluentU instantly gives me the definition, an image, pronunciation, example sentences, and even shows me other videos where the word is used. Easy. They also have a Chrome extension that lets me do the same thing on Netflix movies and shows. How am I able to watch anime in Russian and learn from it? Fluent You, that’s how. Or I can do the same with YouTube videos that have subtitles. I can even scroll through the app’s curated video library suitable for beginner and intermediate level learners. Currently, FluentU supports 10 languages, all major European and Asian ones. If I’d want to really hone in on learning languages efficiently, FluentU has this really smart review system with quizzes that builds me up from understanding words to actually forming sentences. It’s available on web, iOS, and Android, too. Click the link in the description and get a free 14-day trial and a 40% discount after. If you’re serious about mastering a language like me and want a way to stay motivated using authentic content, I can’t recommend FluentU more. It’s a true gamecher for learning any language. So, don’t waste any time. Check out FluentU today. But none of that is why Sarroa is famous. No, the real reason lies 1 kilometer east of the center. A neighborhood so bizarre that it has attracted people from across the globe to this town in the middle of nowhere just to see it. Gypsy Hell. [music] On top of a hill, hundreds of ginormous flashy mansions lie overlooking the town. adorned with golden domes, Soviet rockets, marble statues, neocclassical pillars, and some recreating iconic buildings like the American White House and Russian Bolshoy Theater. These extravagant homes are in stark contrast to what you might imagine when you think of Eastern Europe. Immodderate as hell and screaming power and money, we decided to go into the neighborhood and check out what was going on here. of course help with the clock. Their clock is Pentagon yesterday. >> Oh, Mexico. >> I don’t know. support. After helping out the old gypsy woman on the street, we went over next door to fix the other one’s clock. Uh, okay. Perfect. She said she wishes for you to live a long life and uh for you to be loved. >> She’s asking for some money. Do you have like still like a layer or something? 10. He’s like, “She wishes for you to have three kids. [laughter] After that whole debacle, we continued down the neighborhood and found the Bolshoy Theater house. We mistook as the Pentagon we were looking for. Outside, we saw a woman cleaning her yard who saw us admiring her home. She invited us to come inside and take a better look, which we did. >> [laughter] >> Wow. Yes. Mhm. [music] So the gypsy community that lived here, they got first hired working at steel mills and steel works where they started amounting a little bit of wealth. However, through time they weren’t getting enough. So, they started getting paid in other goods that weren’t money, such as fruit, food, and well, other tradable goods. But the problem was these goods were meant to be used just for personal consumption because in the USSR [music] profit was a big no no. So, what did the gypsies do in this community? They decided to travel across the USSR [music] and sell the goods they were getting from the state as payment for profit. foreign. [laughter] >> [laughter] >> travel through the USSR. car was highly restricted. So they would tell the officials they were going to visit relatives but when in reality they were going out to sell these goods and they were doing it from Muldova all the way to Pakistan in uh Russia uh Ukraine hell even the Baltics. They went all over the place and started amounting profit from the sales that they would make. They uh amount a decent amount of money with which they would use to build these houses here. Now these houses in the beginning they couldn’t afford that much. So it was essentially around two floors at most but when they really became villas was during the 80s and the ’90s. Now the USSR was basically falling apart. So uh what they did was they started trading different goods. They started getting cotton from Usbekiststan and then manufacturing underwear and other clothes in their homes here. But with these goods, they would then go house to house to sell underwear, which at the time of Dresnv, the USSR was getting relatively stable and wealthy, not wealthy by any western standards, but they definitely had some money to spare. And uh they started selling underwear and clothes and amounting more and more wealth. And with the wealth they mounted, they basically brought it back here and built up these ginormous villas. >> [laughter] >> She uh can you ask her what is she studying? [laughter] >> But then came the ‘9s. So, in the ‘9s, disaster struck. The USSR collapsed. The economy went to It was anarchy. So, because the economy went to the construction of these houses stopped because sales weren’t being made. So, if we walk through this neighborhood amongst like the big grand villas, we’re also going to see a lot of unfinished houses like these here, which were being constructed from the prophets, but when they dried up, they were left unfinished, and the gypsy community reverted back to poverty. Mhm. No. for serious. Roman [music] for months. So come [laughter] [laughter] Going into one of these houses was absolutely fascinating, as was meeting the people who lived in this community. Growing up in Eastern Europe, my friends and I were constantly hearing only negatives about gypsies. How they’re dirty, they steal, they’re going to beat us up for no reason, etc., etc. Hell, when we went to Kishnau, a random woman started calling Maron a gypsy in the middle of the street. [music] >> But coming here, we were greeted with nothing but the warmest of hospitality. When I talked to people in Romania about these gypsy villas, I’d often get a response along the lines of, “Oh, they got the money via stealing and cheating people, which is just baffling considering that these houses were erected from just hustling under communism.” Something everyone did irregardless of race. But nevertheless, these stereotypes still prevail. All in all, going to Sarroa was one trip I’ll never forget. Hopefully the city and the people in Gypsy Hill will see better times again and eventually be able to finish all these houses. [music] >> [music]

#moldova #romania #gypsy
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Description: In this video we travelled to the Moldovan town of Soroca, colloquially known as the Gypsy / Roma capital of the country. On top of “Gypsy Hill” lie hundreds of unfinished mansions that started construction during the Soviet Union. Built by the local Gypsy / Roma community these houses sprung up due to the wealth accumulated by selling goods across Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and many other Soviet Republics. But when the Soviet Union collapsed the money for these houses went away as well. We went to explore this community & entered an interior of one of these houses and tell you the story of the Gypsies living here.

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