Romania, Day 1

I must admit that Cluj looks as I had imagined, it looks very Soviet Bloc, especially some of the former Soviet Bloc apartment buildings that are still in use today. There are some storefronts that look a bit dilapitated, but others which look modern. The streets are certainly much cleaner than I expected, but many of the buildings are in poor condition with paint peeling and fixtures in state of disrepair.

I was very pleasantly surprised when we pulled into Parcul de sport si agrement Dr. Iuliu Hatieganu (Sports Campus) of Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai. It is a secure campus with a guard posted at the gate, with buildings in good condition, and a very modern looking building, the Juventus building, which houses international students. The accommodations are much much nicer than I expected. In fact, they are the nicest dorm-style accommodations I have ever had. We have a little foyer  with our wadrobes, a coat stand; the bathroom is off of the it. Then you enter the main part of the room, complete with a small separate kitchen area with cabinets, sink, counter space, fridge, and dual hot plates. We also have a small balcony. In the main room, there are two beds, a large desk, two chairs, two nightstands, and two shelving units. I really feel quite a home here.

Some of the other students who arrived early and I decided to head into the city centre to attempt to locate a grocery store. We took the tram which stops right outside the campus entrance. The tram ticket system is absolutely archaic. It costs 3,50 lei ($1.03) for roundtrip or two people one way. When you get on the tram, you have to manage to balance yourself while inserting your ticket stub into a hole puncher and punching it once. You punch one end for one trip and the other end for your return. The challenge is, the hole punchers don't work very well! You might end up with 4 holes in it. So shortly after we struggle with the hole puncher, a gentleman approaches us and indicates that he would like to inspect our tickets. At first he didn't speak English, and then he told us that our tickets were not valid. He asked for identification and we handed over passports or drivers licenses. At the next stop, he got off the train with our IDs so we all raced after him. Well, to make a long story short and leave out the commentary of language barriers and so forth, we ended up having to pay 25 lei each for him to return our passports. We did ask for his ID, and he did appear to be legit. However, we think that we were hustled - who knows? I'm just so glad that I got my passport back! How's that for my very first experience out in Cluj alone?

The grocery store was very interesting. You went in and the fresh produce stand was in the lobby of the store. There was not much to choose from, and some of it looked a bit awful really. You point to what you want and the lady behind the counter selects the fruit and weighs it and then tells you how much you have to pay. I got over a pound of grapes and an apple for less than $3 - incredibly cheap. Bought some things for the room, like a sponge, dishwashing liquid, and some laundry detergent. I also bought some milk, toothpaste (they had Aquafresh!), frozen mixed veggies (KC I know you must be so thrilled about my veggies!), instant coffee, and bottled water. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to decipher what kind of milk you want to buy?? Ok, I should be honest, do you have any idea how difficult it is to decipher anything without pictures??? There was a full butcher shop in the store, as well as a bakery with pastries and cakes and things. I giggled a bit that you could get yourself almost a full cow, but not any lettuce!!!

So to recap, in not even a full day of being here, I had an altercation with the tram police ... and found a brothel (we think)!!