November's Festivals in Cluj-Napoca

November brought in town two festivals that we love: Temps D'Images and SoNoRo.

During 11-20 November, Festival Temps D'Images connects us to the reality and reminds us of us and of the time we live. Events will be organized at Tranzit House, Paintbrush Factory, National Theatre and Hungarian Theatre.

On 19, 20 and 23 November, SoNoRo will bring one Lisztomania evening at the Ehnographic Museum to celebrate the anniversay of the great piano virtuoso and composer (the actress Maria Dinulescu will read fragments of Liszt's writings), one Matinee with Dvorak, Antheil, Rolla at Tailors Tower, one New World evening with compositions of Philipp Glass, Edward K. Ellington, George Gerswhin and Antonin Dvorak in Diesel Club and Finale at Babes-Bolyai University with Dvorak, Bartok and Dohnanyi.

We hope that you'll be there again and  that you will have as much pleasure listening/watching all the artists as they have performing for You!

The boys are back in town (Cluj Arena update)

The new "Dr Mircea Luca" Stadium (aka Cluj Arena) was officially inaugurated.
"U" Cluj played at Home against Kuban Krasnodor. 

Welcome Home!

My cousin Andy was the representative of our family at this game. A representative with plenipotentiary powers:-P

 

Photos courtesy of Sanziana Craciun.

Earth Car Free Day in Cluj

If you have/rent a bike "be the change you wish to see" and join the Marching Bicycles, tomorrow, 22nd of September, from 5:30 PM. Starting point is in I.L. Caragiale Park.
The event is part of European Mobility Week and celebrates the Earth Car Free Day in our hometown.



Earth Car Free Day is an event organized in hundreds of cities and neighborhoods around the world, and there's not a government, international conference, or treaty negotiation in sight. Despite its somewhat drastic-sounding name, the goal of the day is not to take every car off of every street on our choking planet. The target is much more modest. It is, for those who wish to participate, a day of open reflection on the problem of cars and traffic in cities. It is also a day to encourage people and communities to learn about and even try alternative ways of getting around in their own cities.

Beer hunting in Cluj-Napoca

If you want to have some unforgetable beer experiences in Cluj or to taste as much as possible in the time you have, here are some places where you can go.


Boema - you'll be among beer geeks and you can explore the shelves or the menu to order some of the 100+ bottled beers on the list
Address: 4 Tasnad St., Manastur Neighborhood

Fabrica de Bere - if you want to drink URSUS from the source
Address: 2-6 Calea Manastur St., close to city centre

Ludwig Bavarian Bierhaus - to taste the beers that they make since it is VERY possbile that you will NOT have seen them anywhere else in town
Address: 4 Stefan Octavian Iosif St., city centre

Republic - for going deep into the fascinating world of Ceské Pivo
Address: 25 Emil Isac St., city centre

If you feel like having something to eat, you can also try the tasty snacks and food in all these places.

Here is a map with the locations.

This tiny guide was not intended to be authoritative:-) We just want to give you the possibility to discover as many places and beers as possible during your visit to Cluj. If you have any questions or, better still, suggestions, this is your space.

Chess in Central Park in Cluj

Some years ago, I discovered chess and the nice people who regularly play in Central Park in our town. On a good day you have 15-25 people playing chess (or observing the chess players). Much fun for everyone!
Games are normally timed but there are some players who play longer games.

I’m a duffer so I wish you happy playing!

Summer Nights in Cluj-Napoca

If you are in town for the summer, after surviving the hot days, the payoff is enjoying the Summer Nights in Museum Square. During week-end, the entire square is turned into a stage for music, dance, theatre.

Sitting in the outdoor cafés drinking cold rosé or just laying on the small steps of Carolina Obelisk or under the trees could be a reward for you and your friends.
 

St Michael Church tower is open this week (15-21 August)

The St Michael Church tower is no less than 80 metres high! After 166 woden steps, your athletic efforts will be rewarded with a breath-taking view of Cluj-Napoca and its surroundings.

Admission Hours: 11AM - 5PM
Free entrance!

Fish return to Cluj-Napoca river

Fish are perhaps better known for swimming in a chef's red-wine or white-wine sauce than in the Somesul Mic river.

Not anymore. The wide-ranging fish have returned to Cluj's iconic river and the fish renaissance has appealed to catch-and-release fishers in town.

Anyway, if you are not a streetfisher you can rent a bike for free (with your ID card), for two hours, near Sports Hall, and enjoy the river banks.

Saturday morning walk in Cluj-Napoca

This Saturday morning I had a little more energy than usual that blent so well with my current state of mind so I had a stroll through the city with a friend of mine.

First stop, the roving market near St Michael Church. Interesting market experience with local producers of vegetables, fruits, fish, honey and diary. Due to some political issues the market will no longer be organized there:-( but maybe you/we are lucky this week-end.

Second stop was for mixing a latte macchiato with an espresso in Museum Square. Jump around, jump around!!!

Third stop was to admire men at work:-) in front of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca. Respect!

Next, ohh well, we needed some green infusion and what else than the Central Park to brighten our mood.

On the way back to the city centre we were wondering who's that girl? We still do not know what the old man was wondering about.

Cluj Rally 2011- a review

The 3rd round of the Romanian Rally Championship, Cluj Rally , was held between 27 and 28^th of May 2011, in the mountains around Cluj-Napoca. The start list included 60 crews, that had to compete over 101 km of special stages, all on tarmac. Our friend Marius participated to this event and wrote his impressions for our blog.

The rally started Friday evening with a super special stage held in the parking area of Polus shopping center. This stage was designed to entertain the spectators with controlled slides of the powerful cars that had to run on a very twisted track.

But the most important part of the event took place on Saturday, when the crews had to compete over the traditional stages of Cluj Rally, Dângău and Mărişel. These narrow and twisted mountain roads are loved by both drivers and spectators, some drivers declaring that Cluj Rally is the only true tarmac event in the Romanian Rally Championship. 

The day was diveded into 2 loops over these stages. It was a very tight event, the rally leader changing almost after each stage. After the first loop, the leader was Valentin Porcişteanu followed at just 3 seconds by the local favorite, Bogdan Marişca. These 2 drivers battle with all their forces for victory in the last loop, in the end the best time was obtained by Porcişteanu, with a lead of just 9 tenths of a second over Marişca, one of the tightest finish in the championship. The battle in the last special stage was very intense, the winner declared at the end that it was the fastest stage he ever drove in a rally event. Unfortunately the champion en-titre, the Hungarian Gergo Szabo, had some technical problems and could not be involved in the battle for victory. 

A very good performance was obtained by the young driver from Cluj-Napoca, Vlad Cosma. He finished 5^th overall with his 2 wheel drive Citroen, in front of many more powerful 4 wheel drive cars. Unfortunately a long expected battle for the 2 wheel drive trophy with his rival this year, Bereczki Norbert, did not take place because of the premature retirement of the Hungarian driver.

Photos by Bogdan Pal.

TIFF 2011: 10 days for 10th edition

The 10th edition of TIFF, the city's largest cultural event starts tomorrow. It is not only a film industry meeting, it also enjoys one of the largest film festival audiences in the country. For ten days in our town and five in Sibiu, art, parties and business meet at TIFF.

Be ready to experience a ten-day cinematic journey in the festival's movie theatres and not only: Florin Piersic Cinema, Arta, Victoria, Odeon Cineplex, Ursus Open Air (Unirii Square), Art Museum Gallery and French Cultural Centre.

There is a great mix of genres in the sections and special screenings. The growing desire of the organizers to play with genres and push the boundaries of the medium means that the TIFF is in constant state of creative tranformation. This year film programm is divided into: Competition, Supernova, 3x3, Shadows, No Limit, What's up Doc, Focus (Belgium, Norway, Portugal), Wasted Youth, Back to TIFF, Hungarian Day, Educa TIFF - screening for children and youths, Romanian Days. More, Let's go digital brings again together young talents and experienced professionals.

This year festival is truly a mega event in Cluj-Napoca. Alongside the main programe runs some exhibitions and concerts. SoNoRo brings Songs and Dances of Life, on Saturday, June 4, starting from 7PM at the Ethnographic Museum. Nightlosers and Baba Zula perform on Sunday, June 5, in Euphoria Music Hall. Cluj-based band, Luna Amara has a concert on June 11, starting 11:30PM at Meeting Point Stage (in the courtyard of the Art Museum).

For the next ten days Cluj-Napoca will be totally enraptured by TIFF. Enjoy it!

Official program here, info ticketing here.

TIFF 2011 Promo

Cluj-Napoca City Festival

A one week festival (27th May - 3rd June) that offers a heady mix of music, dance, theatre, visual arts and culinary delights as well as other performance pieces, in various locations in the town centre, and not only, starts today.

Now the only thing left to do is to come to Cluj-Napoca and enjoy yourselves for an extended week-end/whole week and explore what our town has to offer.

Program of Cluj-Napoca City Festival here (unfortunately only in Romanian).

During this week some parts of the city centre will be closed to traffic.  

Photo courtesy of Tibi Antal.

One year of Traveller's guide to Cluj

One year has passed since we have decided to start our small project, "Traveller's guide to Cluj". We intended to give people who visit Cluj some useful information about our city, such as:

• How to get here
• How to get around here
• Where to eat
• Which places to see
• Which ice-cream is the best
• Where to drink tea
• Where to go from here
• and many other things

We had some nice experiences, met interesting people, found out a lot of things that we didn't know about Cluj, had fun writing and taking pictures.


Happy anniversary!

Connecting kids with nature at "Moara de vant"

If you want to connect your kids with nature or just want to see animals immersed in their natural habitat have a trip to the petting zoo near Cluj-Napoca. More than 200 animals live in a 10-acre wildlife preserve at "Moara de vant" where you can get close and personal with your furry of feathered friends and easily spend some hours.

 

Stroll along the pathways and enjoy watching animals at play: horses, deers, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, goats, ducks, sheep, miniature horses, llamas, donkeys and other domestic animals. Some of the creatures don't mind your gentle touch. In fact, some are probably just as curious about you as you are about them:-)

There is also a petting barn where you can pet and feed curious and friendly animals (sheep, lambs, rabbits).

Yippee, ki-yi-yay, you've got pony rides for children every day!



In order to ensure animal's health, the food is supplied by the zoo.

Opening hours
April - September: 10-19
October - March: 10-17

Prices
4 RON for adults
3 RON for children
1 RON for a bucket of grains and carrots (to feed the animals)
5 RON for a pony ride for kids

How to get there
We had a walking trip from Manastur neighborhood towards Lake Micesti but you can drive towards Salicea and before Salicea you turn left to Lake Micesti (you'll see the sign). From there you have 2.5 km on a dusty road.
GPS coordinates and a map here.

The zoo has a 30 seats parking lot.

May Events & Festivals in Cluj-Napoca

Speaking Architecture, May 4th - May 7th

By speaking architecure, the organizers propose "an exchange of ideas, new approaches aimed at leaving the boundaries of monotony. We count on the personal and authentic visions of each individual to incite to dialogue, in a single language: the architecture. We want to speak architecture. We want to conquer the city. We want visions, we want to experiment utopias in a dystopic reality, we want an exercise of communication and imagination. We want to inspire!".

Exhibitions, conferences, workshops and a street section are included in these days dedicated to architecture. Program available here.



Tres Courts (very short films) Festival, May 5th - May 7th 

The 2011 edition of festival in May 5, 6, and 7th with films of less than 3 minutes is organized by the French Cultural Centre. Movies were chosen for their originality, boldness, sense of humor, generosity and technical qualities.

May 5th, PaintBrush Factory
6:30PM  Around the Tres Courts Romania (national selection)
7:30PM  International Selection
10PM     Paroles de Fammes

May 6th, Cultural Town Centre (24, Unirii Square)
4PM   Tres Courts Familial (movies for children)
6PM   Paroles de Fammes
7:30PM   Around the Tres Courts Romania (national selection)

May 7th, Victoria Cinema
9PM International Selection

Free entrance for all events.


TransEuropa Festival, May 6th - May 15th

It is at once a cultural festival and a political event coordinated by European Alternatives. This year the main themes of the festival will be migration, Roma and traveller rights, media freedom and a more just economy after the crisis. Most of this year events are hosted by Tranzit House (16, Baritiu Street) and in Museum Square.

On May 10th, it is our pleasure to invite you at Sanziana's exhibition; our collaborator makes use of photography and graphics in her exploration of two cases of urban architecture: Cluj-Napoca and London.

Complete program of TransEuropa Fesival in Cluj-Napoca here.

Pictures courtesy of events and festivals organizers.

Cluj Arena

Cluj Arena will be the new home ground of "U" Cluj football team. The stadium is built on the same location as the old stadium Ion Moina, next to Somes River and close to the Central Park and is able to accomodate 30.596 spectators in two-tier covered stands.

You can get to Cluj Arena by various means of transport, from the bike right up to the public transport. 1500 parking places will be available there (300 underground).

Lets hope that the stadium will be done by July and "U" Cluj will play there starting this autumn.

Cluj Marathon - race revisited

I have no idea what does it mean and take to run a marathon. Not even a half marathon. I know only how far it takes and sometimes how long it takes.

We all heard about "Nenikekamen!". Also, about Pheidippides running from Marathon to Athens, Haile Gebrselassie winning 4 times consecutively the Berlin Marathon, Abebe Bikila running barefoot in Rome, Katrin Dorre Heining and, of course, Constantina-Dita Tomescu.

Lately, some friends put the work aside and started to run. That’s why, sometimes I know the heart rate of a runner and most of the times I hear about that great feeling of the blood pumping through the whole body during the run and about that awesome high you get about an hour after the run that you can tackle whatever life throws at you.

Last Sunday, our hometown hosted the Cluj International Marathon with 4 races: marathon, halfmarathon, popular race and children race.

Here are some old friends who took part in the running adventure. Chapeau, my friends!

Carmen, Anca, Andrei

Bogdan, Voicu

Vic

Tud

Mark

Razvan

The final results of Cluj Marathon are published here.

the winner - Ashenafi Erkolo

Photos courtesy of Tiberiu Antal, Carmen Marcu, Cociu Alexandra and FotoImageCluj.