Cluj-Napoca & Oradea

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Before leaving Romania, we had two more stops to make to see a bit more of what the country was like when free of tourists.

Cluj-Napoca is on the edge of Transylvania, pretty scenery on the way there of course, and a nice town when we got there. Despite the taxi driver who 'misunderstood' where we wanted to go (and made some extra money) it was a nice stop. A good hostel for the night, lovely buildings of course, and green parks. It cost to go into the botanical gardens, go figure, so we enjoyed the other parks for free, eating lunch and watching the locals. Wandering around a town is the best way of discovering it I think, and this place was no exception.

Oradea is on the border of Romania and Hungary, and wasn't quite so uneventful. After a well-delayed train, a 4.5 hr journey instead of 2, we arrived at Oradea in the dark and rain. And got a wee bit lost with the lack of street signs and confusing intersections. We eventually found our street, but no hostel in sight! After walking up and down, checking every door for an hour, and being spat on by gypsy boys (yuck) we gave up and went to a Lonely Planet recommended place. Bless that traveller's source! The Hotel Parc was a large ageing edifice that once had been grand - testified to by the high ceilings, romantic styling, beautiful plasterwork and the art deco facelift it had had last century. And cheap for backpackers, even bettter. We were just glad to get a bed!

Oradea is beautiful, when this part of the world gets more fashionable, it will be one of those places to go. The town is getting a facelift and everything is clean, shiny and newly painted, without being disney-esque. A great place to walk around and appreciate the history of this area of the globe.

The lack of tourists made us somewhat a novelty, and when changing trains on the way to Budapest, we had several locals all trying to help us and made sure we had the right train, knew what the announcements said and so on. Love the tourist-free zones!

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