I hope you don't mind me making this into a super-thread for my trip? But I have some questions about the Moldova and Romania leg, if I may?
Sure, why not )))
I would like to travel by train from Chisinau to Iasi, on a Thursday. How accurate is the Moldovan Railways site? It states that a train runs every day (105, the Chisinau to Bucharest train), from 16:56 - 22:21. Do you have any feeling if this info is right, or more or less right at least?
It looks a bit weird indeed, but if one knows how to use it, then it's possible to extract all the necessary info. Regarding the overnighter Chisinau-Iasi-Bucharest info is correct, it's basically a flagship train for Moldova Railways.
I assume that I will be able to buy some sort of ticket a day or two before?
Actually it's possible to purchase ticket even online on their
website (however the interface is either in Moldavian/Romanian or Russian). Since this train is kind of expensive option for locals (frequent minibuses & buses are much cheaper) you hardly will have any problems buying your ticket at the counter already in Chisinau.
And do you know if the train has the classic Eastern Europe set-up (every carriage a sleeper)?
Yep, it's pretty short & only sleepers (i.e. 2nd class 4 bed compartment ("kupe") or 1st class 2 bed (SV/Lux)), you can see the price difference yourself (see link above).
I think this train goes to Iasi station proper, and the weekend train only goes to Iasi Socola - am I right?
Yes, it's related to the fact that weekend DMU runs on wide gauge, while with 105 they change the bogies to 1435
the link for Moldovan Rail schedule on the main page is broken (no problem to click through from the main site though) just FYI and maintenance.
Thanks for pointing it out, fixed it
I know you said that the Lviv to Odesa route sold out quickly in summer, but ALL the decent (i.e. not aisle) 3rd class berths sold out by 9 am on the day of sale. Crazy!
Well, that's what happens when you have super cheap rail tickets & summer peak season. Which date you are looking for? There might be a few tricks in order not to hunt for a good tickets right after the sale starts