A wild ride to a forgotten corner of Europe’s least-visited country

Our Travel Editor Alice Murphy explores a place most have never heard of (Picture: Alice Murphy)

It’s 7.15am in a hotel in Chișinău and I am nursing a hangover inflicted by Moldovan wine.

But there’s no time for that: I need to get to Comrat, capital of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia for the market that finishes promptly at 3pm.

Google Maps tells me there is no public transport route to the southern bus station, but that can’t be right so I ask the receptionist, Diona.

She taps her acrylic nails into her phone and shows me the screen with a flourish: ‘You need three bus. Not good.’

Time not on my side, I order a taxi through local...