Ala Vladica has reached the retirement age. In her spare time, she likes reading and baking for her loved ones. Half-jokingly she says that the best time of the year is when she gets to see her grandchildren Alex and Ilaria. Together with their parents Oxana and Alexander, the family has been settled for over 16 years in Tallinn, Estonia.
Until the liberalization of the visa regime with the European Union eight years ago, Ala Vladica could count on fingers the days she got to see her grandchildren “in the flesh”. She communicated with them online, via Skype. And she still remembers having tears every time at the end of the conversation. Moreover, she had to go to the Estonian Embassy in Kiev for a Schengen visa. Often her application would get rejected. It was the most painful when her first grandchild Alex was born. She went for the visa with all the necessary documents three times, but unsuccessfully.
Currently, the Vladica family gets all together several times a year. Grandparents go to Tallinn twice, and another two times grandchildren come to Moldova. Ala Vladica does not imagine it could be different now. Especially since the visa regime liberalization has brought not only more pictures for the family photo albums, but also a baggage of impressions from the countries she has visited.