My wife is from Cluj-Napoca, Romania; great town.

My wife is from Cluj-Napoca, Romania; great town.
by ferndog (2019-08-23 19:11:00)
Edited on 2019-08-23 19:12:38

In reply to: Budapest is fantastic. Bucharest fits more what you describe posted by CAFB4ND

It’s in Transylvania, and becoming a trendy off-the-beaten-path destination in Europe. It is a great town; lots of University students, with an old and lovely downtown contrasted with parts of the city that the Communists built “blocks” in, and herded the citizens into.

I love it there: we are going at beginning of Sept for almost 3 weeks. I love how rural things get in a hurry out of town: my in-laws have a beautiful little cabin there about 1/2 hour outside of town. My father in law keeps chickens: the neighbors have goats, cows, pigs, various livestock. The food is fresh, delicious, and the tuica (Romanian palinka) flows freely.

The Romanian people are an absolute blast: they have a great spirit, perhaps maybe because they’ve struggled more the rest of Europe / Eastern Europe. They really appreciate everything they have, appreciate life, and family. And are generous as can be despite not having much. In my personal experience, if a Romanian only has a single apple to eat, he’ll gladly cut in in half and offer it to you.

We did Brasov for 2 days back in 2009 timeframe.

Sandwiched in between Bucharest and then Budapest. It was a great little town and I’m sure we missed a ton of stuff. Took a day trip out to the Dracula Castle but whiffed since it turned out to be closed that day.

A great friend of mine is Romanian

Former colleague. If Laurentiu is any indication of other Romanians, I could not agree more. Fantastic guy, born and raised in Bucharest, emigrated to Toronto but returns to Romania to visit every year. Has fascinating stories about the time of the overthrow of Ceausescu, which happened while he was in college.