Hotel Confort Cluj-Napoca

... closed but I find the art museum open. Some of the paintings make me feel as though I am in Transylvania with portraits of people with white faces, coming right out of horror movies. <br><br>I spend the afternoon with the locals at a café, working on photos. Nightlife looks really good but I have to get some sleep for my early train.

Located out of town, but close to the economic area of the city, BLACK TULIP, a four stars hotel, represents the perfect destination for those wishing to rest. I have appreciated the room atmosphere, the quality of the services...and the high degree of refinement of the cuisine.<br>

15th June<br><br>Fine, mostly sunny 20 degrees<br><br>Brasov to Turda via Sighisoara<br><br>We left Brasov and drove through the hills of Romania past some rolling fields and rustic villages. We stopped at the lovely town of Sighisoara where we spent a couple of hours sightseeing. The town was originally settled by Transylvanian Saxons in the 12th Century and Vlad the Impaler's Dad lived in exile there ...

The train from Sighisoara to Cluj Napoca was another sauna experience. I had opened the window, but the elderly woman in our berth asked me to close it (though she herself was sweating).<br><br>The only good thing about Cluj was a brilliant candy store in which we spent a fair amount of money (for Romania).<br><br>Sighisoara to Cluj: one 2nd class ticket (3 hours) &#8211; 36.70 lei

... paikalliset isännät ovat laittaneet parastaan pitääkseen meidät rikkaiden maiden kasvatit tyytyväisinä. Tarjoilu pelaa pienintäkin yksityiskohtaa myöten ja meidät on upotettu lahjoihin. Ensimmäisen kokouspäivän jälkeen naisvieraille lyötiin jopa kukkakimput käteen. Ennakkokäsityksestäni poiketen palvelu Romaniassa on erittäin ystävällistä. Kohta alkaa suomalainen moi mitäs sulle-asenne suorastaan ärsyttämään verrattuna tähän ...

One of the classes I took at Eotvos Lorand University was on the ethnography of Hungary, or rather the ethnography of Hungary as it was prior to World War I. Included in the class was a weekend farm stay in a small ethnic Hungarian village of Kalota-Szentkiraly (Sincrai in Romanian) in Transylvania. That weekend was incredible, the village was like stepping into the nineteenth century, ox carts were more common than cars, the house we stayed at had an outhouse in lieu of indoor ...

Nachmittags (natuerlich mal wieder mit ner Menge Verspaetung) kommen wir in Cluj an. Cluj ist eine kleine Studentenstadt in Siebenbuergen. Wie bummeln ein wenig durch die Stadt bis wir eine Pizzeria finden. Da wir beiden ziemlich Hunger haben, wollen wir schnell etwas essen. Beim Blick in unser Portemonnaie faellt uns dann auf, dass wir ...

... Even after the band was finished a couple locals who had brought their instrument continued to play! They had a hand drum and I asked if I could play with them and we jammed for at least another hour. I didn't get back to Albert's play until around 4am...sorry man! Oh and earlier that day I met a fellow couchsurfer Raz who showed me around the city and gave me a personal tour of the Botanical Gardens. Thanks Raz! Super cool guy. Him and his girlfriend had traveled ...

... a photo of one... you can't miss one when you see it. They have lots of glittering things, and a mega-ornateness about them...and are huge and generally unfinished. They're pretty cool...but as I've been told, they're usually built on land without title and the construction is not trustworthy. But they are very beautiful if you like that sort of thing. And although their community is tight and exclusive (it seems you can't just decide to go ...

... stepping into the past, utilitarian communist architecture, nice to experience this part of Prague's history. The following day Lukas acted as a guide, showing me more places I wouldn't have seen otherwise. Czech cuisine was very nice but quite odd - I was eating beef stew accompanied with squirty cream! It doesn't sound too appetizing but the cream complemented the extremely sweet sauce very well. No dessert required! After spending two nights in Prague we travelled ...