Cluj Napoca. Apparently it's just me, but the name of our new town (for 7 whole nights) makes me think of Neapolitan icecream. Just sayin' is all. This is in fact 'History City' by Romanian standards. Size wise it is the second largest city both in area and population to Bucharest, but time and development wise, it goes waaaay back. To the Dacians and then, for a short period of only 100 years or so, to the Romans who arrived around 100 AD to snag all the salt and gold. This area has (or at least used to have) a massive gold deposit - in fact we even saw some of Transylvania's gold when we visited the National Bank of Romania all those weeks ago in Bucharest. Our arrival into Cluj was somewhat delayed. It was snowing when we departed Sighisoara but the train left right on time and it was an InterRegio (not quite an intercity fast train... but certainly faster than the all-villages/all stops Regio). Unfortunately it seemed our plans for an on-time arrival were to be thwarted as the train made at least 3 stops of around 20 minutes at a time. So 4 hours turned into 5 hours and a stressed Air BNB host waiting for us when we finally arrived into Cluj. We think we broke the land speed record getting off the train, to the taxi rank and fighting our way through peak hour traffic to arrive in the absolutely best spot and the best apartment in Romania so far... comfy big bed! comfy big sofa! big bath tub! and, the piece de resistance - a Chinese restaurant downstairs. We actually walked right past it in the rush to pay off the cabbie and meet our host but as we settled in, we said out loud - 'Wouldn't it be great to have a Chinese meal' - and our fairy godmother obliged and there it was when we went downstairs. Magic. In fact out of a 7 night stay, we ate there 5 nights and worked our way through the menu. It's been around a year since we've eaten Chinese properly - too salty in Spain and too expensive in Ireland. In fact for 5 lovely dinners out, we're lucky to have spent A$90/€60 which really does put the focus on why we love Romania... because we can. We can eat out, we can go to operas, ballets, symphonies, we can stay in apartments that anywhere else would be €100/night. Definitely going to miss these prices. Well, having left the apartment on Tuesday evening and discovered our magical, mystery Chinese with lanterns swaying in the breeze, it was time to meet Cluj. It rained. It's actually the first rain we've seen since we were in Spain (snow - sure! sun - sure! Just not actual rain). It's pretty much what Cluj is known for apparently - it's like the Seattle of Romania (you know... Annual Rain Festival - 1 Jan to 31 Dec - every year). Wasn't torrential, just damp (and every day it's fine and sunny in the mornings... just turns in the afternoons). Turns out our location really is just perfect - Cluj is a hopping University city, we're 5 minutes walk to the main Square and the pedestrian high street and 2 minutes into the very heart of old Cluj - where one of Romania's kings was accidentally born as his mother went into labour when she was returning to Hungary. Now known as Mathias Corvinus house, it was a small guesthouse built in the 15th century. On 23 Feb 1443 baby Mathias was born there and in his later years as king, was so grateful to the people who gave his mother shelter, that the building was protected in perpetuity from ever having to pay taxes - which the fine arts university ensconced within since 1950 is surely happy about. Having already decided by Wednesday morning that we really (really!) liked Cluj, we had a quiet day. Hit the info centre which is always a good start and strolled around the big square. The highlight of the day was our free walking tour - absolutely the best way ever to get boots on the ground and learn some local folk lore. Our tour didn't kick off until 6 pm and though the guide was hopefully holding a rather small sign advertising the free tour... we were pretty much it. And we'd pre-booked. What can we say, it was raining. They don't officially start the tours until April as it turns out - so it was essentially a 90 minute private walking tour which was fun and we certainly covered a lot of history - right from the beginning of the tour when he showed us some tiny remnants of the Roman period - columns and such protected by glass right in the grounds of the main square. We'd already walked past them twice that day... but in our defence there wasn't a lot and it did rather look like a skylight for an underground car park. But still - we appreciated seeing it because it never ceases to amaze us how diligent the Romans were in the travelling far and wide. From the big square we proceeded down an alley near our apartment, passed through the narrow end where one of the original city gates once stood, passed by the king's house and arrived in the small square - now full of cafes and restaurants and their tables and chairs, this was the original market place for the town of Cluj. There is an obelisk there which has a huge amount of history - essentially a Cluj town big-wig who wasn't actually a noble man, was dead keen to be enobled by the ruling Hungarians (or was it the Austrians... soooo much to remember). Anyway, the people of Cluj wanted a nice monument to the lovely queen of the time who'd been for a visit. There wasn't enough money to do it (that theme comes up a lot in the far distant past and also in the more recent history of this country). This bloke donated a shed-load of dough to see the obelisk monument built, but when it was all done and dusted and people found out his motivation, they were collectively miffed. There was no enoblement and he was kicked out of town and died poor and lonely. But they still had the monument they'd been carping on about - ingrates! From the small square it was back to the big square (Piata Unirii) - essentially where the market moved to as the town grew larger and larger. Not more than 5 minutes stroll - for a big city it has a comfortable small centre. The thing you can't help but see in the big square is St Michael's Church. It essentially is the square (well that and the posh sculpture of King Mathias on the other side). It was started in 1390 ish and final works and a new tower were done in the 1860s. It had a bad run with towers. There was a fire (face it - for about 1000 years of human history, fire was pretty much responsible for everything that war didn't destroy). It was Roman Catholic, it was protestanised, some extremists got it for a while, the Catholics got it back. They were busy times with religions of many stripes arguing over who's god was the bestest. Well whoever's god won, he should have tracked down the architect and smote him mightily. Due to towers having issues (got one, was meant to have two, the one it got came down, another was built in a different style) and doors being too expensive for the space allocated and statues being designed off site... and being too big (so the coat of arms of the holy roman empire had to be cut in half)... it is a monument with seriously bad chi if you like your monuments to be symphonies of symmetry. Which we do. There are also a couple of cracking cannon balls still embedded in the side of the church. What can we say... Ottoman hordes (or Tartars... it was a busy time). Quite beautiful on the inside with glorious vaulting which has stood the test of time... it was mass when we visited so we stayed in the glassed off airlock and looked from afar. From the Church of St Michael we walked down the Street of Heroes to the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral - not particuarly old as it was only built a little over a 100 years ago, but still beautiful and many glorious mosaics. It too is plagued by whoops-itis. A few years ago the king gave the cathedral a massive and beautiful chandelier to hang from the dome. And it was. And then the dome started falling down from the weight. Arrrgh! up went some incredible scaffolding as a temporary measure to hold up the roof and the chandelier. Well temporary is a relative term and we think it now has the look of modern art (let the photos speak for themselves). From there we crossed the road to the Romanian National Theatre (rather interestingly there's also the Hungarian opera house and theatre). As it turns out the cultural outing for this town is definitely at the Romanian one as we saw the billboards for the Barber of Seville up outside. From there it was back to the square and we heard the history of King Mathias's statue in the square. With all four hooves on the ground we could determine from the code of horsey statues that he died of natural causes. Well we suppose Arsenic poisoning is natural... definitely not battle related at least. There's a bit of a story that when it was unveiled a little girl asked the sculptor if the horse was wearing proper horse shoes - and he said Yes! Of course! Turns out he was a lying scally-wag, as they cleaned and restored the statue a few years back and they investigated the story/myth. No horseshoes. Suspect the king himself is probably not even wearing underwear under his armour... The final part of the tour was devoted to a couple of beautiful palaces just off the main square (remember - nothing to do with royalty - just very grand buildings). In this case it was two almost identical stunners opposite each other on the colloquially known 'Mirror Street'. We've seen many palaces around Cluj and unfortunately most are crumbling which is a huge shame. On Thursday we visited one of the few open to the public - the Banffy Palace/Castle also on Piata Unirii. It was built in the baroque style in the 1770s and is now home to the Art Museum of Cluj. We enjoyed our visit and saw some great pieces of Romanian art - but simply refuse to pay a fee for photography of the permanent exhibition. The temporary exhibitions were free to photograph (woo hoo!) Later on Thursday after the compulsory lunch at home and a nap, James took us on a self-guided tour of the Old Walls, the university area, the Tailors' Bastion and a stunning cake shop along the way which we frequented. The highlights were the remnants of the old walls and the most stunning Reformed church which is 450 years old. Apparently. They restored it a couple of years ago and now, whilst very pretty, it looks like it was built literally, last week. Which is a shame - obviously don't want it to fall down during a service - but a teensy bit of patina couldn't hurt. We ended up doing a much longer walk than expected on Thursday - positively wore our feet out. Friday it was back to the Banffy Palace/Art Gallery as there was a Mineral Expo on (no fee as exhibits were for sale) - lots of rocks and rock jewellery - heaven! The market for Martisor was also getting under way in Piata Unirii (AKA - the big square). We had a quick look on our way to the cultural hightlight of Cluj - a night at the opera with the Barber of Seville. Honestly? Stunning opera House but no where near the best acoustics as it was originally a theatre (but that seems a bit weak) and the performance was not up to Bucharest standards... but there it was - a nice night at the opera for €10/A$15. We even ordered our Chinese food before we went out to have at 10 pm when we got back (they roll up the pavements at 8-9 pm here... even on a Friday). Saturday, after our post-opera sleep in, we headed out for another of James's well-researched walking tours and looked at some crumbling palaces (so sad) and lots of little markets that have sprung up like mushrooms after the rain. All selling little trinkets for Mărțișor and red and white cords to hang them on. We eventually gave in when we got home and googled it. Apparently Mărțișor is an old tradition celebrated all over Romania every year on 1 March. Mărțișor is a diminutive of March which is Martie in Romanian. The belief holds that the person who wears the red & white string will enjoy a prosperous and healthy year. In the countryside the strings would be hung at gates and windows and on cattle horns and in sheds in order to protect against evil spirits and invoke nature's regenerative power. According to archeological research the Mărțișor goes back more than 8000 years. Thus may have Roman and even Dacian traditions. In ancient Rome, the New Year was celebrated on the 1st of March. March ('Martius') was named in the honour of the god Mars. Mars was not only the god of war but also the god of agriculture, which contributes to the rebirth of vegetation. In the old times, Mărțișor were made of small river pebbles, coloured white and red, strung on a thread and worn around the neck. They were worn from March 1 until the first trees came into flower. When this happened the Mărțișor were then hung on the tree branches. Once we knew what all the little trinkets were, we had a jolly good look at the stalls - so many different kinds. We read somewhere that the current tradition is to buy lots of them and give to female family members, friends and colleagues. Obviously a very interesting tradition... managed to buy a couple of necklaces from the Mineral Expo and the lady threw in a couple of the red and white cords - so that is us participating! Sunday was officially a day of rest - well after we went for a walk to Central Park and enjoyed the Spring like sunshine - right on time for the change of seasons. Even the lake in the park is thawing - so no more iceskating will be done there this year. Monday unfolded as Packing Day (all together now... arrrgh!) Before we knew it it was Tuesday and the highly antisocial hour of 5.50 am and we were up and getting ready for our early flight to Timisoara - our last stop in Romania. Also known as the Venice of the North or some such fancy... Can't wait to explore!