Cluj Napoca: capital of Dracula’s mythical land
I hesitated very long which country to visit for the last year’s autumn trip. I considered Sofia, Sevastopol and also Cluj Napoca a capital of Transylvania. I found some really cheap flight on kiwi.com to Cluj Napoca and that is why it was clear winner for this year’s autumn adventure.
Transylvania is a historical region in today's central Romania, bound on the east and south by its natural borders, the Carpathian mountain range, and on the west by to the Apuseni Mountains. It was an important historical and cultural region of the present-day Romania with significant Hungarian and Roma minorities. It was also a home land of Vlad III Dracula or also Vlad the Impaler a Romanian prince fighting against Ottoman Turks in mid 15th century. Known for his cruelty and his practice of impaling enemies he inspired the name of the vampire count Dracula in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula.
Cluj Napoca is a capital of Transylvania and also its cultural center. It is very interesting town with a lot of nice restaurants and night life. Romanian is actually a Romance language just like Spanish or Italian so one feels like in some Mediterranean country, but the Romanian Landscape resembles that of Slovakia. This very unique combination gives Transylvania a very unique spirit.
I would like to share some photos form the trip below from Cluj Napoca and also from nearby Salina Turda (arguably the biggest salt mine in the world).
I wish I could also share with you the taste of the delicious Romanian food and also Romanian red wine Băbească neagră, which is by far the best red wine I have ever tasted (sorry Bordeaux).
Is Vlad's castle still standing? I would love to see it in person!
Sure it is, but I didn't visit it this time. It is in Carpathians and the weather was not good enough...
Awesome! I am a huge history buff and I also love the legend of Dracula. Vlad was such an interesting and controversial leader. Some say he was just cruel...others say he was misunderstood. So cool for you to visit Romania! So why Romania other than the cheap flight?
Romania is really great country to visit; great wine, delicious food, breath taking mountains with untouched nature, nice people, very rich history and beautiful architecture. I definitely recommend it.
I think that Ottoman Turks he was fighting against were much worse than he was. They destroyed the whole kingdoms in Balkans. Just look what they did in Constantinople. They burned the city to the ground. I am from the Czech Republic and if we want to say that something stinks, we say it stinks like Constantinople, because the smoke of the burning city stank so much and so long. It was more than 500 years ago and it is more than 1000 kilometers away (which is a lot in Europe) and it is still in our language. So this is how bad it must have been.
Also impaling people in mid 15th century was no bid deal, it was a time of Spanish inquisition, which was much more cruel. Vlad was actually one of the very few successful resistance fighters against the expanding Ottoman empire. At least that is the way I see it... :-)
The pics are unique especially of the salt mining (we nowadays hear about bit coin mining) I’ve never tried out the wine Băbească neagră. Last word stands for black, I wonder whether the first word is also meaningful..?
Yes, this was a real mining... I guess salt will always have some value unlike bitcoin, but I may be wrong...
Thanks. Unfortunately, I don't speak Romanian, but the wine was really good and much cheaper than the wines from western Europe. I can also recommend Moldovan red wine.
Yeah, you’re right. We’ve been consuming salt since it was discovered. Form of money has been changing… bit coin is a newborn, perhaps it isn’t a toddler yet;