Cluj Central Park (parcul central)

Cluj has not too many green spots inside the city center so usually if people want to take a rest they rush over to the central park. Inside the Park there is a really interesting looking building which is abandoned right, now. Still 20 years after communism there are quite some abandoned buildings in Cluj (and Romania). Sometimes people do not have financial resources to renovate buildings or at least to conserve the current state but more often claims and property rights are still disputed. This occurred because after the revolution documents about property rights were destroyed or forged, allowing people with access to those documents to get rich at the expense of others.

Not far away from the abandoned building you can find a small pond and a restaurant (Chios). In the Summer this is a very popular spot also for weddings and and other kind of festivities. Of course you can also take a trip on the lake.

Romania 2006 in Film

The first time I came to Romania was in November 2006 and on this occasion I also visited Cluj for the first time. Back then I wasn't so well equipped and I had only a 20€ film camera. Nevertheless I tried of course back then to take my very first panorama of Cluj. Taking into consideration the poor quality of the camera and the lack of controls I find the results quite pleasing though it can't be compared to HDR version of course ;).

At the time of my visit, Sibiu was in the preparation for the European cultural Capital 2007. The city saw a huge investment program prior to the event. As result it is now one of the most beautifulest city centers in Romania but it was also said that older people could not afford to live in the city center anylonger.

Close to Sibiu is the small town / village Rasinari and I really liked it lot. For me it felt in a very positive way like in a real Open Air Museum something that is difficult to find in Western Europe.

Sighisoara is a major tourist spot because of its fine medieval old town.

I finished my trip back than with Bucharest. It was once called Paris of the East but unfortunately if you stroll around the city center there is not much left of it due to the destructions in the communist times. Nowadays, the capital is major recipient of financial aids for conservation and reconstruction. If you take a proper walking tour you might recall the spirit of the "interbelic" period (the period between the two wars).