We spend almost a full week in Cluj-Napoca with family visiting the city multiple times with them, alone or with friends. To avoid repetition the description will start with the downtown area that was most visited and then with the unique side trips we have taken or that have impressed us the most. And from the downtown area the most famous part is the Corvin Square where we are staying the first few nights in an AirBnB.
The square is the central hub of Cluj anchored by the old Catholic Church and surrounded by good restaurants, the Art Museum, a good bookstore and the City Council building.
This Square is where people gathered during the Romanian Revolution and it is one of the best maintained squares in the city. All the buildings are well renovated and beautiful to look at, we always return to this square after almost any walking tour of Cluj.
At least once during our visit we try to enter the historical St Michael church. During this trip part of the church exterior is under renovation but the interior is not yet under renovation.
There is no one else inside which is nice as we can explore the historical altar and the other details we haven’t noticed till now.
We eat again during the visit at Rhedey Cafe where we also ate the previous year. This is because they have a very large selection of traditional dishes and the food always looks and tastes good.
This time it is no exception the food is very good and filling and we cannot eat nothing else during that day.
The confectionary shop on the square is one of our preferred ones as they have lots of selection and historically they always are very good.
We buy a few times from it during the trip and each of the times the sweets are very good and quite colorful.
The reason we are spending so much time in the central square is that our AirBnB directly overlooks it. After the concert the first day the stage gets dismantled but there is always something going on.
The AirBnB is on the last floor of a three story building and the climb is a good workout. Interestingly while the stairs are internal they are still relatively exposed to the elements and have doors to a few common balconies. It is a weird and interesting setup which is nice in the summer but likely quite cold in the winter.
In the few days we stayed downtown we had the opportunity to get breakfast in the downtown area. Once we ate at a cafe near our accomodation and while they were focused on coffees, which are quite good, they also has a few items to eat like croissants.
Other choices for breakfast we explore are the small baked goods stores that litter the downtown area. Those have a varied and very good selection that we could eat every morning if we would have the opportunity.
A major boulevard in Cluj that runs right in front of our accomodation links the two main squares each anchored by a church. We explore this boulevard a lot as it has lots of stores, restaurants and shops.
The buildings are also quite beautiful and mostly restored, it is quite amazing that there are quite a few people still living in these very old and beautiful buildings.
One of the most famous restaurants in Cluj is called “Varzarie” which roughly translates to the Cabbage Restaurant. It is one of the few restaurants that existed also during the Communist times which makes it quite renowned. While it has a varied menu at least one page is dedicated to cabbage dishes, as it should based on the name.
And of course we have to order cabbage items, rolls and cabbage a la Cluj. Who can resist an item that is named after the city? Both are quite good, the only problem is that we have to wait about one hour for the food to be prepared.
A few of the streets starting from the boulevard are a construction site. We really liked using them but now there is very little sidewalk left and reaching the stores is an exercise in gymnastics. Interestingly when you look at the excavations it feels like there are many hidden walls that were excavated, are any of them medieval or Roman we wonder?
Whenever the evening comes we see the crows flying over. This is a daily migration from the feeding grounds near the dump site to their roosting sites on the many apartment highrises which is relatively new, it didn’t exist in such numbers during Communist times.
At the end of the boulevard near the Orthodox Church square is a good bakery. It has many good looking items and you can see how the bread and croissants are made.
The Orthodox Church Plaza is newer but still historical. it has another good selection of beautiful buildings that house government institutions, are hotels or simply old apartment buildings.
The Orthodox Church is quite popular as there is always some event going on inside or outside. Given the amount of foot traffic it is here where there are a few stands selling souvenirs and of course religious items.
Here we see a group of women dressed in traditional dresses. While this is sometimes represented in literature as being quite common it is in fact quite rare especially in bigger cities. In this case one speaks at a mobile phone which makes for a fun contrast.
Continuing past the opera there is a series of colorful buildings with some interesting stores that are always changing so we always visit the area to see what they are now.
Then we arrive at the Greek Catholic Church which has been under constructions for decades. Maybe it will be finished in the next century. Nearby is the Tailor Tower one of the few towers remaining from the Medieval times. It is now a museum but we never saw it open till now, today it is closed for lunch break…
Going in the opposite direction as the Catholic church from the Orthodox Church you are entering the more modern area of town. In fact the farther away you get from the city center the more modern the buildings are….mostly.
Still the buildings can be quite cool in the area especially as the street we are on is still a major throughfare. We notice that they finally have hidden the old barracks that are abandoned and quite delapited behind some advertising for the major Cluj music festival.
Next is the very modern section of the city with a few major high rises and modern buildings. These have been built post Communism and look a bit out of place when compared to the other buildings in the area and it is interesting to pass them as it feels you briefly enter another city.
The end of the more preserved section of the city, excluding the modernist area, is at St Peter Church. From here the communist apartment buildings start and no matter how much you paint them they are still…well…ugly.
We wander a bit through them as we visit relatives and they have been remarkably well renovated. Even the illegal parking garages have been destroyed recently and now everyone has an assigned parking place, even though it can be far away from the actual building.
In the area flows the historic Mill canal that was used to power the mill historically. Now there is no mill left and is a bit dirty but a good place to look for wildlife. Historically we have seen mallards and rats but today nothing moves unfortunately.
When with relatives we have to eat typical Romanian food. Preferred are mititei a typical Romanian food that is very common everywhere and very good.
We visit relatives on the top of a hill near Cluj. From here the views can be quite amazing however the terrain is not necessarily stable which might make any house built here slide down slightly downhill.
The houses here all have some small gardens with some vegetable or in this case grapes, lots of grapes that we can eat.
A few times we explore Cluj also from the car. this is mostly while we move from relatives to friends or have to return to the downtown area. It is interesting to see the city from a car sometimes it is easier to take photos especially with large stoplight durations and sometimes it is difficult due to the number of cars.
One direction that we always explore at least once is up from the central square. This takes us past beautiful university buildings where one of us and our relatives studied and past the university church.
It is also interesting to see how the buildings change over time, some are renovated some change slightly. Visiting the city over time allows us the opportunity to see these changes in real time that you might not notice if you live there as they are quite gradual.
Some of the detail on the buildings are quite interesting with foxes, lions and other mythical creatures at least for this area. We really like these details and we enjoy discovering new ones whenever we visit.
Usually we pass this way whenever we go to the cemetery where we go to pay our respects to the tombs of our relatives. The cemetery we go to is the central cemetery of the city spread over a hill side which makes getting anywhere a bit of a effort.
One of the interesting features of the cemetery are the many historical tombs, there are quite a few famous people, rulers and nobles buried here and we explore them a bit every time while here. In addition this area is one of the best birdwatching areas in the city as it is the equivalent of a huge park in the middle of a very built area of the city.
One day we decide to explore the city in one direction we haven’t been before. It is a relatively long walk after we spent most of the day in town but the weather promises to worsen so today is the day.
Sometimes the courtyards of the almost fortified houses are open and you get a glimpse inside of the interior courtyards and the many pigeons that enjoy the garbage all around town.
Our goal is the Caving Institute Museum but it is closed by the time we get there. We still get the opportunity to see the building from outside and this part of the university we haven’t seen before. It is also in a small park that we enjoy to explore and even find a cache nearby.
We also decide to explore the university housing as we haven’t been in this area before. There are lots of stairs here which makes the students living here very healthy as they have to climb up and down every time they go to the courses.
We return through a different area of the campus finding a few statues that we assume were destroyed by students or are quite an original art style. And then it is the end of the day so it is time to return back towards the accomodation as the darkness falls.
On another day we explore the pedestrian streets in downtown Cluj. We especially enjoy the yellow alley where it seems it is a must to paint your house yellow…
One of the afternoons we go with friends into the forest near Cluj mushroom hunting. It is supposed to rain so we try to be fast but in the end it is just a cloudy day with barely no showers. The trail starts near a hotel with a cool pool that supposedly is used for parties but not today.
First we climb up using the logging road which is quite used by trucks and enjoy views of sheep in the distance while trying to find a good path into the forest.
Soon we start to find mushrooms and into the forest we go. There are quite a few boletes and some other mushrooms that we don’t necessarily know but our friends do and collect.
There are also lots of other mushrooms some of which might be poisonous as far as we know but they actually look quite beautiful and nature. With the rains there are mushrooms growing everywhere so we have to be careful not to squish too many as we walk on the forest floor.
We continue on for some time finding lots of mushrooms that we all donate to our friends as we do not have time to really prepare them all.
We also visit our friends home which is near one of the new apartment buildings that looks like a ship but has some beautiful views as far as we can tell.
And whenever we visit our friends we eat some homemade food, in this case it is our mushrooms collected the previous days. They are quite good, and we survive to eat the interesting bread pudding afterwards!
Another area that we explore from the Central Square is towards the Somes River, another historical quarter with a few more modern commercial buildings. There is another small hidden cobblestone square that is anchored by the Franciscan Church and few tourists likely ever see.
The Franciscan Church itself is historical and worth a visit. The interior is quite beautifully decorated and usually there are no other people inside.
We spend a bit of time inside enjoying the beautiful details on the ceiling, altar and around the church. But as our family was waiting outside we soon had to exit to meet with them to go to the next attraction.
This time we walked to the Matthias Corvinus house where one of the most famous Hungarian kings was born. It is an impressive house that was owned at the time by a wine grower and merchant. Nearby are some of the more famous restaurants in Cluj and we stop for a few drinks and desserts before continuing on.
Near the Somes River are four “palaces”, beautiful buildings built by merchants centuries ago. They are always fun to see and visit and every time we see new details on the intricately decorated buildings.
Today our visit is cut a bit short as it starts to rain. We steal a glance to the Somes River to see if there are any ducks on it (only mallards) and then we hurry to the attractions we wanted to visit which luckily is a museum so we can escape the rain.
The Steampunk Museum is a new one in the city and it really inflamed our curiosity. What exactly can be covered in the museum and how big is it? For certain we can escape the rain but will it be worth it? As we enter we find out it is spread over two floors and we start the bottom one with a guide that points the more interesting things before letting us explore.
And we can explore a lot, you can touch futuristic retro guns, play the mad scientist and look at lots of different objects, some real and some inventions.
There is also a horror element to the exhibits on the ground floor, especially seen with the madhouse patient. Or is something else? You can interpret a few of them in different ways which makes this quite fun.
The second floor leans more heavily into the fiction area with exhibits based on Jules Verne, other science fiction authors and folklore. Here we get another guide, she is quite knowledgeable and involved and it is fun to learn about the different exhibits and what they represent from her.
We have also time to explore a bit the room to look at the many details and meet the artist who is working on a zeppelin in a separate room. It is quite different from other museums we have visited and after the initial awkwardness quite engaging.
Especially interesting is the secret time travel room accessed via pressing the spine of a book in a large book shelf. Really mystery/crime book stuff. Inside you can sit in the time travel machine and travel some time in the future or past, as far as your imagination takes you. And so ends our Cluj visit with the highlight with our trip continuing on towards Hunedoara to visit the famous castle.
