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Tranquility in the Valley

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

Last weekend was full of events. Both Saturday and Sunday we did trips visiting interesting places nearby (max. 1.5 hours with a car). In this post I would like to describe the first trip, the short one, which we made Saturday. The actual goal of the trip was a little bit work related: we needed to check two inns suitable for organizing trainings for a small group of people. One of the two inns is situated close to the gorge of Ramet, so after checking out the inn, we decided to go a few kilometers up in the mountains to check out an interesting site: the Monastery of Ramet.
Ramet Monastery
Accessing the monastery is really easy: from Cluj just follow the E81 road towards Alba Iulia until reaching the small town of Teius. In Teius one must take a left turn following the indicators towards Stremt commune. From this point it is really simple: follow the road passing 1-2 villages until you see the monastery. One thing I want to stress out is the fact that the road is really narrow. I cannot imagine two buses passing next to each-other, so careful: the roads are of good quality (zero potholes), but there are barely two lanes…

The monastery itself can be visited freely, there are no entry fees at any point. Just go in, stay quiet and take your pictures… that is, where you are allowed to take pictures: in the church itself it is forbidden to take photos. In any other place, we did not have problems, even while photographing the nuns, working at the bee-hives or just arranging the small gardens which provide their daily food.

It is not a big thing, but if one just wants to get away for an hour from the big city life, this is a great place to go to: it brings a little bit of peace in peoples’ hearts 🙂 . Photos can be seen here.

The rest of the trips? Well, I will write about them later 🙂 …

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Posted in Cluj, Romania, Travel | Comments Off on Tranquility in the Valley

Details

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

The past two weekends have been spent by visiting places I have already been at. I was re-living some of the highlights from last year… from a different perspective. This weekend we have visited another great thing in the neighborhood: the salt mine from Turda. The last time I have been there, I was so amazed by what I saw, that I totally forgot about all the activities that can be done there. For this reason, this second time was dedicated to the details.
Salina Turda
I was really amazed about how different the place looked like at second glance. Immediately when we arrived in the first chamber, the “Echo Chamber”, I understood where its name comes from. Last time I was there I did not really hear echoes… well, I was doing it entirely wrong. Luckily for me, I did not have to struggle this time, a kid was there who was already having a good time shouting into the darkness and enjoying the echo… The kids sharp voice really got the thing going: the echo lasted for quite a few seconds and it was very, very clear. Cool chamber 😉

Afterwards, when we arrived to the main chamber, we decided to try out the Ferris Wheel: it costs 5 RON (€1.20) per person and it does a slow turn inside the big chamber giving a better view of the surroundings… totally worth it.

Another thing we did, was that we rented a boat, for 10 RON (€2.40). One boat can be rented at most by 3 persons, but I have seen some families with 4 persons (parents + children) also renting a boat. It has been a while since I last rowed in a boat so it took a while until I got the hang of it. There are some places where the water is quite shallow and the way is too tight, but it was not a big deal. Make sure you have some clothes which can be washed easily: the salty water falls in small drops from time to time from the ceiling above in quite random places.

All in all it was a quite interesting new perspective. This time there were not so many people as before, so the visit was much more enjoyable than before.

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Posted in Cluj, Travel | Comments Off on Details

Some Hope

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

I haven’t been able to write anything lately on by blog. I guess I could say I was bit lazy, but hey, I did a lot of things and I promised myself I will write them down as soon as I get the time. Well, I now have some, but I am not going to write about anything new: this post will be kind of like a follow up for an earlier post and it will be short.
Banffy Castle
Because I was really curious how things have evolved around the castle ruins I visited last year, we made a visit to the Bánffy Castle last weekend. I was really hoping to write about all the great things that were changed on the castle, but unfortunately to my disappointment, there is not much advancement since last year. The castle looks exactly the same, no improvements have been done to the building itself.

I have noticed, however, other things that seem better: there is much bigger publicity now. A lot of posters proved the presence of conferences and special events that have been or are planned to be organized at the castle. The results of this were visible in the number of tourists at the castle: maybe I have caught a better day, but there were a lot of people at it, and more were coming as we were leaving. One thing is for sure: the castle now does not seem to be so abandoned as it did last year.

This little detail above, which seems insignificant at first sight, is, I think, very important for the castle. People are starting to notice it, people really seem to be interested in this old, but magnificent ruin. This gives hope: a hope that the seemingly abandoned walls will maybe be restored once in the future. So I hope this will not be my last post regarding the ruin, I hope next year I’ll be able to come back with brand new photos of a part that was fully restored… 🙂

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Posted in Cluj, Travel | Comments Off on Some Hope

A Big Leap

Friday, February 4th, 2011

Last year me and two colleagues of mine have decided to do a trip which is a little bit out of the ordinary: a West Coast to East Coast road-trip in the U.S. 🙂 . Well, our plans started to develop and develop right to the point when we have started to take our first steps to get there: get a passport and then apply for a visa.

The passport part was fairly easy: my new biometric passport was ready in a few weeks and I was really surprised of the promptness and speed of the authorities this time. But this was the first and easiest step of all, the biggest was the one that followed: apply for a U.S. travel Visa.
Big Leap
So how does one apply for a U.S. Travel Visa nowadays in Romania? Just follow these steps:
– Step1: Pay 141$ at BT for the interview
– Step2: Pay $11 at a BT for a scheduling-code
– Step3: DS-160 application form (upload a photo also)
– Step4: Print the confirmation page and put it into a folder
– Step5: Arrange a meeting (scheduling-code+application ID)
– Step6: Make another photo, different from the one used for the application
– Step7: Add any other helpful document (e.g. proof from your company that you work there, previous visa etc.)
– Step8: Go with the folder and passport to the U.S. Embassy
The exact information can be found here.

So far simple, right? Well, after following these steps, on February the 2nd at 9:15 me and my friend (the third person had to abandon 🙁 ) arrived promptly to the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest. I was actually “happily disappointed” by the changes they made since my last visit 5 years ago (J1 Visa for 3 months). Now there are lockers for your bags and for your phones which are kept secure while you are inside the building. There is also a reception where you can hand in the most important documents (DS-160 confirmation page and passport) so you don’t have to carry it in. It seems they really have developed over the past 5 years, something I cannot say about Bucharest: unfortunately now it looked much worse than before (I honestly cannot even compare it to Cluj).

After two halls in which I had to wait to be called into the next one and after a fingerprint session (even though I had them taken 5 years ago) I finally arrived to the agent. This was the moment of truth: could I apply for a U.S. Travel Visa without an invitation, without a contact person or without even any proof of having any real-estate which assures that I will get back? The answer is: YES, the words “Your Visa has been approved” never sounded more reassuring: getting to the U.S. is not a big thing anymore. I can travel there anywhere for the next 10 years 😀 .
In my case having had previously a visa helped, but my friend has never had one and yet he received the visa even so. A few things they liked: we have both traveled a lot in Europe already, we had stable jobs back home and we spoke English fluently (although the agents spoke also quite understandable Romanian <= respect 😉 ) The next day we already bought the airplane tickets: on Expedia our purchase has been confirmed. This means that the big step has been made: we are off. If nothing goes wrong, I might just have quite a few things to blog about 🙂 .

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Posted in People&Society, Romania, Travel, U.S.A. | Comments Off on A Big Leap

Schässburg

Monday, August 30th, 2010

… is the German name of Sighisoara (Hun: Segesvár) the city through which our way home from Sibiu was taking us. We thought of stopping also in this city, just to stay in the German style-context of Transylvania.
Schassburg
The most interesting part of the city is the citadel on top of the hill in the center of the city. It is an old medieval neighborhood still inhabited by the locals. There are many roads up to the citadel from different parts of the city, but we thought of approaching it from the back side. At the bottom of the hill there is a parking lot, where for 10RON(2€) the car could be parked for an unlimited time. It is a parking lot guarded by cameras, so I guess that is the reason for high price.

From the parking lot a short climb following an improvised staircase leads up into to the old city center on the top of the hill. Most of the walls and towers are still intact, so it really gives a good picture of what the city looked like in the past. Once through the city gates the surroundings immediately change from modern to an old medieval cityscape.

There are many interesting places which can be visited for free, like the covered staircase leading up to the school and church on the very top of the hill. Up there one can enter the church for 2RON, but no pictures can be taken: case closed, did not enter…

Another interesting place is the bell-tower, which is also a museum. The entry fee in the tower is 8RON(1.85€) for adults and 2RON(0.5€) for students with a valid ID (even for foreign students). The museum itself is interesting, but the most important part is the clock with the moving dolls in it. From the top of the tower a beautiful scenery opens up for the visitor, so I think it is a must for every tourist in Sighisoara.

The whole place I think has MUCH more potential than Sibiu, but sadly the buildings themselves need much more work to be transformed into a nicer place. Contrary to these problems, I think there have been a LOT of tourists from all over the world, so I guess nobody really thinks now of investing too much into renovations.

It was a rainy day when we visited, so the pictures I have taken are not very colorful. I have taken a few samples and uploaded them to my Picasa account. Enjoy.

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Posted in Romania, Travel | 2 Comments »

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