One growing metropolis. A student heavy population of 700,000 (about 1/3 students). An abundance of bars and clubs. A 1 to 3 USD: LEU conversion rate. 27 American students living in 1 hostel with plenty of free time………Welcome to Cluj-Napoca, and believe me MTV is missing out
Cluj is a lively college city with a rich history dating as far back to the ancient Roman Empire, but no one knows about it. This probably explains why the locals stare us down wherever we go. But in their defense they probably don’t witness a pack of American college students daily and we’re a rowdy group.
Our daily scheduled itinerary is as followed: wake up, lecture, lunch, lecture, free time. In reality it’s more like wake up, lecture, drink, be tipsy for second lecture, booze all night long, maybe grab one or two hours of sleep, and wake up still drunk for the next day. This has been our daily routine for the past 12 days. On some of the days we hop on a coach bus and take a 3-4 hour trip to another historic Romanian location. We love these days because we catch up on sleep in the bus. So far we’ve traveled to Sibli and Sighisoara. Both locations were interesting to experience. I intend to get a more detailed description posted soon with some pictures.
The night life in Cluj-Napoca is lively and exciting. The big hits are the underground bars set in the foundation of the city’s establishments. They are enormous, some stretching as far as two and half football fields in length, and thanks to the strong conversation rate a standard beer in a bar costs about 4-5 Leu, equal to about $1.35-$1.60 for a bottled 50cl (one pint). Needless to say, we take full advantage of our currency’s strength by ordering in large quantities, daily.
I have plenty of pictures and daily journal entries to accompany my adventures thus far in Romania and intend to post them in the near future.
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