Tour Stop: Cluj-Napoca

17 March, 2010. Universitatea de Nord din Baia Mare, camera șase, cāminul trei.

I just returned from my third tour stop -- Cluj-Napoca -- a city I've been to before, but nonetheless enjoyed visiting again.  I spoke to an almost full room of students at Babes-Bolyai University. Similar in some ways to Iaşi, Cluj is a lively little student city, and is considered the cultural capital of the Transylvania region. As seems tradition with my visits to Cluj, it was raining and cold most of the time I was there. But at least having been to the city briefly in the past, I had a better sense of my surroundings and spent more time walking about.  My talk went quite well, and inspired some good questions.  I am grateful to Professor Michaela Mudure for arranging matters at the university and with regard to my accommodation.

Trying to stay out of the wet weather, I dropped into a bookstore and noted two interesting books on Romania that I plan to invest in (I didn't buy them in this bookshop, as English books are VERY expensive in Romanian bookshops).  Leafing through the first of these, Romania: Culture Smart!, I was pleased to read support for a few of my own formal and informal observations of Romania and Romanians.  The second noted text, Along the Enchanted Way, was priced at more than 100 lei, which is as much as I paid for evening's accommodation in central Cluj....  But as I say, I intend on picking it up.