The Night of the Living Babushkas: A Moldovan Wine Tour & B-Movie Adventure

Welcome to Moldova.

After checking into your hotel, you'll meet your fellow cast members, co-directors and future victims. At tonight's welcome dinner you'll be informed that you're no longer simply a tourist. You're now part of a film production.

Admittedly a very bad one.

You'll receive your character card, filming schedule and official Babushka Survival Guide. Roles may include:

🎬 Hero

🎬 Soviet Scientist

🎬 Village Mayor

🎬 News Reporter

🎬 Conspiracy Theorist

🎬 Person Most Likely To Scream

🎬 Future Babushka

The evening concludes with acting auditions, terrible improvisation exercises and awards for Worst Accent, Most Unconvincing Death and Outstanding Achievement In Looking Confused.

As the night ends, rumours begin to spread about strange events occurring deep beneath Moldova's famous wine cellars. Nobody takes them seriously.

This turns out to be a mistake.

Today you'll descend into Cricova's vast underground wine city with hundreds of kilometres of tunnels, millions of bottles and one terrible decision.

While exploring the cellars and enjoying a delicious wine tasting, the cast discovers an ancient barrel sealed for decades. Naturally someone opens it and the curse is unleashed.

Filming officially begins.

Every guest receives a half-day directing slot during the trip. This means you're free to introduce plot twists, create scenes and generally make the movie significantly worse.

By dinner:

• One guest has introduced a potato-based subplot.

• Another insists Boris the Lada is sentient.

• A third has rewritten the ending.

• The movie is already becoming unmanageable.

Excellent.

The infection spreads. Reports emerge of grandmothers appearing throughout the countryside carrying suspicious quantities of food.

The first attacks occur. The babushkas don't want your brains. They want to know why you haven't finished your soup.

Today's filming takes place among vineyards and rural villages.

Expect:

• Vineyard chase scenes

• Wine tastings

• Terrible acting

• Emergency placinte

• Unexpected potatoes

As the day progresses, guests begin showing symptoms.

Common signs include:

• Carrying extra food "just in case"

• Asking strangers if they've eaten

• Criticising people's jackets

• Possessing an endless supply of sour cream

With Moldova overrun, the survivors flee east. Destination: Transnistria. A place where time appears to have stopped somewhere around 1987.

Today's adventure includes:

• Lenin statues

• Soviet relics

• Local wine

• Filming among some of Europe's most unusual scenery

During lunch at the fantastic Back In The USSR restaurant, the group uncovers classified Soviet documents revealing the shocking truth. The Babushka Virus wasn't an accident. It was the unintended result of a secret Soviet hospitality enhancement programme. The project succeeded far beyond expectations. The only known cure was lost decades ago.

Or so everyone thought...

The cast discovers that the cure lies hidden deep within Moldova's wine country. Not in a laboratory, not in a military bunker but in a village cellar.

There, an ancient recipe is discovered.

The cure consists of:

• Homemade wine

• Fresh placinte

• Potatoes

• A babushka’s head scarf

The final showdown takes place in a vineyard. The Supreme Babushka emerges and the survivors prepare for battle.

Everyone expects explosions. Instead, the confrontation becomes a giant Moldovan feast. As glasses are raised and toasts are made, the babushkas slowly remember their true purpose: Hospitality & Not domination.

The curse is broken. Mostly. One babushka still insists everyone takes food home.

The apocalypse is over and the the editing is complete. Humanity survives. The movie probably doesn't.

Tonight after a busy day discovering the best craft beer in Chisinau, you'll attend the world premiere of your masterpiece. Or disaster. Possibly both.

Walk the red carpet. Pose for photos. Watch six days of chaos unfold on the big screen. Then compete for the most prestigious awards in cinema:

• Best Death Scene

• Worst Acting

• Best Director

• Most Convincing Babushka

• Most Unnecessary Plot Twist

• Outstanding Achievement In Running Away

• The Golden Rolling Pin

• One Epically Bad Movie

Every guest receives a copy of the finished film, behind-the-scenes footage and lifelong bragging rights as very few people can honestly say:

"I once flew to Moldova, drank wine, starred in a horror movie and saved humanity from an army of zombie grandmothers."

Yet somehow, here we are.

The apocalypse has been defeated and cured. The wine has been consumed and the movie has somehow been completed.

As you enjoy a final breakfast, you will have one last opportunity to relive the week's highlights, including the vineyard chase scenes, acting choices and the moment somebody thought adding a time-travelling potato subplot was a good idea.

Airport transfers depart throughout the day, giving guests plenty of time to exchange contact details, share embarrassing behind-the-scenes footage and promise to never speak of certain scenes ever again.

As you leave Moldova, you'll take home:

• Memories of incredible wines

• A copy of your cinematic catastrophe

• Potentially a Golden Rolling Pin Award

• A completely irrational fear of potatoes

• A newfound respect for Moldovan grandmothers

Most importantly, you will leave with a story that sounds entirely made up. After all, not many people can honestly say:

"I flew to Moldova, drank wine, crossed into Transnistria and helped save humanity from an army of zombie babushkas."

Before you leave for the airport, a lone babushka will be smiling at you in the hotel reception where she will quietly slip a parcel of placinte into your hand.

The curse, it seems, was never completely broken…