One of the more spirited rooms in the museum is what you might call the Gypsy room, and which is dedicated to one of Puskin�s greatest narrative poems titled �The Gypsies�.
Back in Pushkin�s day Kishinev was a market town and therefore many Gypsies would be passing though selling their wares, playing music, dancing, telling fortunes� stealing perhaps. It was in Kishinev where Pushkin first met the Gypsies and fell in love with their carefree style of life. These emotions he was feeling would become the model of the tragic hero Aleko in his poem The Gypsies. Aleko is tired of the hustle and bustle of city and hooks up with the unrestrained Gypsies and where he falls in love with the beautiful dancing girl Zemfira.
beyond the barrows as I went;
I bade him slumber in our tent.
He wants to share our own existence
And I shall be his Gypsy love;
For where he dwelt, the law pursues him
His name - Aleko. He will rove
He vows where I rove; and I choose him!�
On the wall in the �Gypsy room� hangs an early draft of this poem and which is covered in Pushkin�s doodles; one of a sour faced Gypsy man, tents, and a decimated wolf. (In other rooms hang similar doodle covered drafts) It reveals an interesting look into the restless mind of the author and what maybe today would encourage medication and maybe robed us of his art. Pushkin came about at just the right time.
In Pushkin�s time Kishinev was a market town, and the feel of those days can still be found at the old Bazar neatly tucked away behind the orderly main square of the downtown. It�s a confusing, crowded place, a kind of maze of interconnecting narrow alleys between little stands selling anything you can imagine all underneath a illuminated kaleidoscope of blue - red - yellow tarps. The sounds of Russian - Romanian fill the air. Just about anything can be found there in the way of your household needs but when it comes to gifts to bring home, something to show your family and friends, there is Vernisaj, just a short walk up the main boulevard Stefan Cel Mare. Vernisaj is the outdoor crafts market and where you can pickup sculptures, paintings, old communist relics (including some strong images of Stalin), a lot of kitsch, but it�s a fun stroll. And like any flea market no matter how junky the wares may be you�re always bound to find something. Me, I found Oxana Muratova and her unique brand of tatting (the craft of looping and knotting single colored thread into a material most commonly made into doilies, edging, even Christmas ornaments) but Oxana turns her colored strings into very creative necklaces and bracelets of all different shapes and blended colors going for just a few dollars.
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