Filed under: EuroTrip | Tags: best cities, Cluj, home, Lupoiaca, Peace Corps, Romania, Timisoara, Transylvania
In the last four weeks, I’ve had the blessed opportunity to travel across an astoundingly large amount of this country– in 30 days I was away from my site for 22. I’ve rolled repeatedly on rails through the deep grooves in the Carpathian swoosh that huddles Transylvania into a tight corner on this wild edge of the world. I have seen :quick counts: about ten cities (and half that many Lupoiacas) in the last thirty days– some cities felt like old friends and some were brand-spanking new.
There aren’t many major cities left in this country that I haven’t experienced. Hence, I feel I can make this proclamation stating which of Romania’s metropolises are my absolute favorites. There are two that immediately hop to mind:
Timisoara is the second largest city in Romania, and a major cultural center. Unlike Romania’s capital city, Bucuresti (which has a negative reputation amongst Romanians and foreigners alike), Timisoara is an extremely attractive place to visit, and instils a certain sense of refined pride in its inhabitants. It has wide-open pedestrian places, cheap coffee cafes, preserved pre-war architecture, and pockets of quirky counter-culture. I once met a poet at a New Year’s Eve party, and he assured me (repeatedly) that Timisoara is the best city in Romania.
In Piata Unirii, I realized that I am a little bit in love with Timisoara.
However, for me, Timi is second to only one place in Romania, and that place is Cluj-Napoca. These are some of the things that I like most about Cluj:
- There are about 300,000 people in Cluj. I have heard that as many as one third of those people are students. The result is a city that feels young, fun, and extremely progressive.
- Cluj feels international– my first time there I sat on a bench in front of the student center down-town and in 15 minutes I heard handfuls of native English speakers wander by. This is typically a rare occurrence in the Ro, but Cluj has enough of international appeal that it collects wanderers from across the world.
- Cluj is green. It is set into the hills near a forest, and has massive parks and gardens spattered across it. Its botanic gardens are mind-blowing. Any city well connected to green blade and leaf makes me feel all sorts of alright.
I'd live here, and love it.
I am grateful to find cities here that have made my soul sing. They reaffirm what I might ultimately search for when I’m ready to settle down (whenever that may be) into a place called ‘home.’
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These pictures are amazing. I’m starting my junior year of college and as such getting ready to start working on my application(4 years of planning and I’m finally approaching the chance to go). Romania is my top choice and I wanted to say thank you for having this blog and sharing your stories. I’m currently going through your old posts to learn as much as I can about life there and am loving everything I read.
Keep up the awesome posts. I recall reading somewhere that for every comment there’s about 20 people who read but don’t comment and I wanted to say from all of us that we truly appreciate you giving us the chance to experience all of this.
Comment by Rory May 27, 2010 @ 8:02 pmThank you, Rory– both for reading and for posting.
Comment by thejoempoem June 1, 2010 @ 11:51 amGood luck with your application process.
Numai bine.