Hello from Romania!
We made our way here last week for the incredible Untold Music Festival plus another two weeks touring Transylvania.
So far we have loved our time here – super nice people, beautiful and green landscapes, and a funky architectural mix of medieval castles, cobblestone streets, colorful baroque buildings, and Soviet-era houses. It has been reasonably cheap, easy to get around and most everyone speaks English.
Before the festival started, Brice and I were wandering through the main square of Cluj-Napoca, the second largest city in Romania. We passed the cutest mobile prosecco van set up next to some outdoor tables and restaurants – seriously, how cute is this?!
After seeing me take a ton of photos and hearing me exclaim how adorable it was, the owner kindly asked if we were interested in joining. They were setting up for a private party he said, but if we bought some gelato from the shop next door, he’d happily give us some prosecco to enjoy. Cristi then walked us into Bianco Milano Gelato, with some recommendations of his favorite flavors.
We came back outside where Cristi poured us – and himself of course – two glasses of prosecco. He kindly shared with us all about his business the Prosecco Van, that it was the gelato shop’s birthday hence the celebration, and gave us some great local recommendations of things to do and places to eat while in Cluj. As actually-invited guests started to show and food was brought out, we were then invited to stay and continue enjoying the party.
Like we were old friends of Cristi’s, he began introducing us to other guests and the musician for the evening. Over never ending glasses of bubbly and soft focaccia with cheese, with great music in the background, we enjoyed fun conversations about life in Romania vs the US, Dracula and the music festival with our new Romanian friends.
When we left, we kept looking at each other, smiling and saying “how fun was that?!” We don’t really know why or how we got invited. Perhaps it was because Cluj really is the nicest city in the world, or because we are a novelty being some of the only Americans that visit Romania, or maybe it was all because I was wearing a ridiculous shirt that stated Raised by Unicorns.
This was one of those moments that make traveling and meeting new people so fun.
