Cluj-Napoca: Proof that friends can be found anywhere, and that I still love polenta.

Last Monday, October 5

View on the way to Cluj

My alarm goes off at at 5:45am, and I ready myself for my longest train ride in Eastern Europe to date. Six hours barreling through western Romania into Northern Transylvania, arriving at Cluj-Napoca in the early afternoon. What could be bad about that?

It turns out, nothing, save for the moment I allow myself to leave the carriage to go to the bathroom, and find myself in a developing country, smells and sights included. I resolve to limit my water-drinking on travel days from now on. For those of you who know I have a constant sidekick in my water bottle, this is easier said than done.

However, I arrive in Cluj on time and relatively unscathed. Lucia, my CS host, patiently guides me  over the phone from station to bus to bus stop to apartment, and before I know it I’m in her living room, drinking coffee (my first of the day! how did I survive this long?) and chatting about couchsurfing, international politics, and freelancing. Lucia herself has been a freelance writer for many years, working though a website to connect with clients across the world. She maintains a moderate income and flexible schedule, and enjoys the constant learning aspect of her job. She’s fairly new to Couchsurfing, and loves the idea of travelers coming to her and sharing their experiences. I think it’s inspired her to do some traveling of her own :)

Park in Cluj

With my CS host Lucia

I was curious about the Lucia’s work, and she told me one of her previous Couchsurfers is a writer for Trip 101, a newer website that employs freelancers to write small articles about their travels. The next day, while Lucia was working, I settled down in a coffee shop for a bit, to work on my blog and some other travel logistics. I looked into Trip101 more, and applied to be a writer. The pay is modest, but if it gives me an opportunity to build my writing skills and find a wider audience, then why not?

The day I arrived in Cluj was the night of the aforementioned Pink Martini concert. It was my fifth time seeing them, and my first time meeting them. They played my favorite song, “Hang on Little Tomato,” which I’ve never heard live. Sitting at the concert and listening to them, like I had done so many times in the U.S., made me feel almost like I was at home. It was the first time I've had that feeling since starting my travels, and I can't imagine it will happen very often. I waited around after the show to chat, hoping there would be less people than if I were in the states. I was right, and had a brief but pleasant conversation with the pianist and lead singer. It was incredibly rewarding, fortunately, because that ticket would be my largest purchase (and about a fifth of my expenses) during my time in Romania.

Glorious polenta

Besides talking with Lucia and the concert, the highlight of Cluj was all the cooking Lucia let me do. Namely, by buying a kilo of mamaliga (which came out to about 90 cents) and allowing me to cook a giant pot of it on the stove for an hour and a half. The result was a creamy, warm, comforting mass of deliciousness. I hadn’t cooked polenta since I left the states, though I ate it several times in Italy. Lucia couldn’t get over how excited I was about it. It’s just polenta, right? Nope. It’s my hands down favorite comfort food, and it felt so good to make some again. We had slices of polenta with eggs for breakfast, and for lunch I reconstituted it down to its porridge-like form, and ate it with eggs again.

Overall, Cluj was a great place to visit for a few days. I didn't feel much like a tourist here, owing to how casual I felt with Lucia, almost like I was staying with a good friend. We walked through the city a fair amount, but I also spent a lot of time sitting in coffee shops and working, be it on my blog, on my travel, or for the application for Trip101. This felt weird to me, as for the last week I was up and about and visiting things constantly, but it also made me realize that I need this down time to ground myself and relax a bit. Lastly, the concert with Pink Martini and cooking with Lucia made me realize that it's possible to make someplace feel like home, even just for a fleeting moment.

I've been running behind on my updates, so tomorrow I'll try to crank out another about more of my time in Transylvania. Today, I am in Bucharest, and I need to buy a coat!