Day Four. The botanical gardens.

As our self appointed culture correspondent I was delighted to be given a tour of the beautiful Cluj-Napoca on Friday night and have a chance to ask all of the questions I was wondering about. Here is some of what I have  learned:

•Cluj means close which is a reference to the city's position in the valley, and Napoca is the original name of the Roman settlement here and so is retained as an acknowledgement of the heritage.

•There is no demolition industry here, culture dictates that buildings are not demolished. Also, planning regulations are not stringent like ours. These two factors account for the mish mash of architectural styles, ages and placement of buildings which creates a beautiful chaos.

•The monument near our hotel is an anti communist statement, and the wording therein questioning why some forces within parliament still oppose freedom.

•The main industry is the 7 universities bringing income in rents and fuel as many students drive cars (not hindered by the restrictive insurance premiums our young people face; insurance is, currently, charged at a flat rate.)

•Cluj was in Hungary until the border moved in 1918

•In Transylvania you will find Trovants, Romanian Growing Stones. They look like rounded rocks, the ones we saw were about 30cm across. When it rains they grow and then reform their hard shell.  You can find more information here: Trovants

•There are wedding traditions of stealing shoes and stealing brides, this may have been why we saw a bride, looking somewhat out of place in a shopping mall.

Our first task on Saturday was to return to the shops in Cluj centre, when we left England the first signs of Spring were breaking through and the temperatures were making tentative attempts to rise, we arrived into an early Romanian summer with temperatures up to 30 degrees and we have not brought the right clothes. Managed to pick up a couple of things, there are some still on the list, but there's always Suceava :)

After a quick lunch back at Klausen burger we were met by Voichita and her 2 adorable and very bright children for a visit to Cluj's Botanical Garden. The weather was scorchio! Lidia and Alin, and later Marius and his son, joined us there. The gardens were beautiful but it was the sense of togetherness and friendship that made the afternoon really special. We giggled at our attempts to fill water bottles from the unpredictable flow of the water fountain, chatted on shady benches, collected water snails, swapped vocabulary while reflecting on the nature of language & how we learn, and (the geeks among us;) shared wifii hotshots and car videos.

After a quick trip to one of Cluj's large shopping malls for some vital reservation printing and our first sight of a horse & cart since entering Romania (many more to come when leave the city on Monday I hope) we were safely delivered back to our hotel in time to contemplate where to eat dinner.

On our walk to the restaurant we laughed when we caught ourselves speaking to one another in broken English after a day of simplifying our vocabulary and syntax. We have since managed a few words to each other in Romanian - much more productive.

Dinner was taken alfresco. It's hard to describe the feel of the Euphoria bar. While unmistakably still in Romania there were comforting reminisces of modern life at home as people gathered on a balmy Saturday night to drink and chat and chill. It felt like a taste of what younger generations would like Romania to be.

I was craving something familiar so, to Kev's disapproval, went for a cheese and ham pasta which was very pleasant; Kev has been wanting to try confit duck for some time and at less than £10 this was an ideal opportunity. It was delicious. We were served all the while by a hero of a waitress managing about 50 covers single handed with a mixture of food orders and those just enjoying oft repeated rounds of drinks (its a big place, easily in excess of 200 covers in total). She collected and delivered 3-4 orders at once on her trips back and forth to the kitchen without a single hiccup. We made sure our appreciation was expressed verbally and financially, a gesture which we hope made the rest of her exhausting shift more bearable.