After an action-packed time in Brasov, it was time for some R&R in our next destination. NOT. What is that.

We woke up at 7 on Thursday morning to hit the road for our last stop in Romania: Cluj-Napoca, the second largest city in Romania nestled in the heart of Transylvania. 

Before I begin, you might be wondering about the name Cluj-Napoca. Even if you’re not wondering, I will tell you about it because it is actually very interesting. Transylvania spent most of its history in the last 1,000 years as part of Hungary before it joined Romania in 1918. (I am also using language regarding this period that is as neutral as possible, because there are a lot of feelings around it, as I have learned). But it was originally settled by the Dacians before the Romans around 200 B.C. When the Romans occupied the area, they built a citadel in what is today the city center and named it Napoca. When the Hungarians occupied the region starting in the 9th century and the main language spoken was Hungarian, the name of the city was Cluj. Then, the communist dictator of the 1970s Ceaușescu wanted the city to be called something more Romanian, so the name “Napoca” was added to Cluj. And there you have it. People seem to mostly refer to it as Cluj colloquially, though.

Now, why did we wake up early on a beautiful Thursday morning to get to this not-Hungarian city? This was a very special day in both of our lives — we were going to our very first music festival! Originally, while I was planning our trip, I had no idea there was going to be a music festival in Cluj-Napoca. Then, I realized most of the accommodation had been booked up or was suspiciously more expensive than everywhere else we were going. That’s when I did some digging and found out “Electric Castle” was happening.

Electric Castle is a music festival about an hour outside the city at a place called Banffy Castle, held for 5 days. You can camp out there, although we just had day tickets.

I dragged my feet on getting tickets, but enough people told me to do it — and I am not one to resist social pressure when it comes to traveling, #yolo. Also, Limp Bizkit was playing that day and I had heard of them before. 

Seth was really excited about Limp Bizkit, since he was more of a fan.

The festival was really nice though, and we spent most of the day eating way too much  delicious, rich food from food trucks. Then, when we finished eating, we saw cannolis and ate more. The whole setup was like a big playground for adults: food and drink everywhere, a ferris wheel (the first of two in this post), very instagrammable places, a cool media exhibit set up in a castle using light, and lots of different stages where you could listen to different bands or DJs play.

I have no idea if this is all standard for a music festival, but it was really cool and I’m glad we went. Limp Bizkit was pretty cool, too. 

The festival was also super well-organized and we were back to our hostel around 1:30AM after taking a shuttle bus back to town.

Day 2: 🎵 Getting to Know Cluj 🎵

The next morning we really wanted to sleep in, but it was time to return the rental car.

And there was a lot of food to sample in the city that needed our attention. So sample we did.

We also checked out the national history museum in Cluj, which was interesting but mostly revolved around what rich people wore in Transylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries. 

After hiding from the sun in the national history museum for a few hours, we met our guide Eddy at Union Square for a city tour. We learned a lot about Cluj-Napoca and Transylvania, but it was hard for me to pay attention because the city was really very beautiful. I kept taking pictures and videos of the way the light was hitting the different, well-preserved and restored buildings.

In the evening we grabbed some drinks with some new friends from the tour, who live a few hours north of us in China. We really wanted to grab a drink under the lights in this one cool area downtown. 

Day 3: Turda Salt Mine

For our last day in Transylvania, we set off to Turda, a city about 45 minutes away by bus with a salt mine that operated for almost 300 years!

In fact, Romans also used the same mine for salt and paid their soldiers with it. The mine has been out of commission since 1932, and now serves as a museum for salt exploitation. We learned about how salt was mined using a horse to power it, and climbed down into the mine itself.

After the mine closed, its tunnels were used as a bomb shelter during WWII, and also as a cheese storage place, which is appropriate because the air is about 50°F. It’s also quite humid, and the humidity combined with salt produces a similar effect to being at the beach. So a lot of people go there for speleotherapy, for treating some skin and lung conditions.

There are two main sections of the mine itself, and both have been converted into a cool thing for tourists to do. In the “trapezoidal” area, about mid-way down (13 floors below the surface), there’s a ferris wheel, an area for badminton, putt-putt, and ping pong. Hell yeah we rode that ferris wheel.

13 floors below that is a small lake that has accumulated from water runoff, in a second mine that is bell-shaped. You can ride in a canoe there for 20 minutes. So we did. We also got dripped on, a LOT, from the salty water that still runs off the sides of the mine.

We left the salt mine and took a van back to Cluj-Napoca for one last wonderful Romanian meal. We went to a restaurant called Roata off a little-known road in the city center, and ordered the “Romanian” plate that came with a lot of the traditional food we’ve eaten: mici, polenta with cheese, sausages, potatoes, cabbage rolls, and Cluj-style cabbage. So, so good. 

Romania, we love you!

In the evening, it was time to leave the country via bus to Budapest! We took a Flixbus at 11PM and arrived in Budapest at 5:45 the next morning. More on that next time!