Days 7 & 8- Cluj to Gura

17 March 2012

Our day in Cluj appeared as if it would be the busiest yet, but we were excited. We were offered two optional events: Attending the opera and/or watching a Romanian football (soccer) game. A few of us decided to wake up early that morning to attend the Magic Flute opera. This opera was created in 1791 by Mozart. It was originally made to be a children's opera but contained adult themes nonetheless. Just to give a quick description of the opera, the idea was that the main character, Tamino, wants to gain the right to marry a beautiful princess. The princesses mother, the Queen of the Night, has had her captured, and Tamino seeks to save her. Once she is safe, he asks her father to marry her, and he responds that Tamino may do so once he completes three tests. Tamino eventually succeeds in these tasks and wins the girl. The opera was held in the beautiful Cluj-Napoca Romanian National Opera House, which was built in 1905.   

After the play we frolicked out the building singing in mock opera voices. Once outside we noticed a mob of people who appeared to be protesting or celebrating something. Later we learned that these were Romanian nationalists who were parading the city in attempt to send a negative message to the Hungarian minority who, two days before on March 15, had been celebrating the Hungarian revolution of 1848. These Romanians took up the Romanian flag and imitated the Hungarian celebration in order to send the message that this was Romania, not Hungary. Essentially, the Romanians were protesting against the Hungarian pride being represented in their own country. This event gave us a bit of insight into the unsteady tolerance between ethnicities in Romania, most especially between the majority and the minorities.  

Following the opera we began our tour of the city. We started with a short drive to the top of a large hill. Here we got out and strolled the lovely park area where we learned this was generally a meeting place for lovers. The park had a magnificent view of the city, and we lounged as Ursula gave us descriptions of what we were seeing. 

Our tour continued as we strolled down the hill and back into the main area of the city. Here we stopped by the university which was hosting a science fair event for younger students. We enjoyed the presentations of various science experiments and even participated first hand with the students of the Cluj university who had put together the event. After our small tour through the university we continued our tour in a quaint area with many shops and cafes. Here we stopped for a nice ice coffee and sat outside in the beautiful warm sunny weather. 


After our tour a few people in our group attended the soccer game. However, I decided to remain behind since I had to finish my project. Our group met up again at night to visit some students of the Hungarian minority. We sat in a classroom and listened as the Hungarian professor explained to us a bit of background on how the Hungarian minority had come to be in Romania. We then had a question and answer session with the Hungarian students where we asked them what it was like being a Hungarian in Romania. One question that was asked was whether the students felt themselves to be Romanian or Hungarian. A girl responded that she felt neither, that she didn't feel truly Hungarian but did not feel Romanian either. She said they were their own entity. After the meeting we all went to dinner where we continued our conversations with the Hungarian students. Unfortunately, I did not sit next to any of the four students so I do not have any personal insights or stories to contribute. 

18 March 2012

The next morning we left for Gura Humorului, a small town in southern Bukovina. We would stay here for the next 2 nights because of its close location to the Bukovinian Monasteries that we would be visiting the next day. After a long drive we arrived at a tiny town. There were chickens and dogs running around, small Romanian homes, and normal Romanian people going about their daily business. 




We arrived late in the afternoon but had enough time before dinner to visit the pool, which we were told was nearby. Luckily, the bus driver offered to drive us to the indoor pool facility. The drive there was dark and treacherous and we were all frightened for our lives. When we finally arrived we had to cross a road, an extremely creaky swinging bridge, and a swampland before we arrived at the pool. Once we entered we were informed that towels were not provided for us, despite the fact that the front desk at our hotel had promised us they would be. However, none of this was enough to deter our enthusiasm. We got in the pool, had a blast, and got out so we could get back in time for dinner. After our swim we had the interesting challenge of drying off and putting normal clothes back on before going back out in the cold. We managed this by using hand dryers in the bathroom as well as paper towels. 

Once we got back to the hotel we quickly changed and rushed off to dinner at the hotel restaurant. We all ordered hot Tuica, after a recommendation by Luiza. We sipped it carefully and enjoyed the warmth that came with drinking it. As per usual, i ordered my two Romanian soups. This time it was a bread bowl of bean and sausage soup. It was beyond delicious. I was in love with all soups in this country. 

As we waited for our food to arrive, we let our hyper sides emerge and took a bunch of silly pictures. By the time our food arrived and we finished our dinner we were all beyond exhausted. I took a lovely warm shower to get the chlorine out of my hair and collapsed into the extremely comfy bed in my hotel room. By far the best bed i had experienced in Romania. =] Overall, it was quite a lovely day.