More info on my Romanian post....

It looks like I might be spending my first semester in Cluj and the second in Bucharest, which would be pretty exciting! Here is some info I have found about both places....

Cluj:
It appears to be a small(ish) cute town in the mountains of Translyvania, close to Hungary and Budapest. A very college/university-oriented city, which is supposed to be a great place for the undergrads, so hopefully I can find some fun things to do there! It will be cold in the winter, but apparently not as rainy as Bucharest, which will be nice (my target rainboots might finally come in handy!). It also will be a good place to be to explore northern Romania...Maramures up near Moldova (where they wear more traditional clothes/costumes), Budapest in Hungary (where I have wnated to go for a really long time!!), Brasov with the black church, the Poiana to maybe just hang out or go skiing (the thought!), and lots of other places.

Quite the idyllic shot of Cluj - makes it look more like a village, which it is not!

Some great pictures of Cluj:
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-488022-cluj_napoca_vacations-i;_ylt=AgCQrjMlOCWtNrw9wbpqI3HDLmoL

Info about Cluj from the Romanian tourism department:
http://www.romaniatourism.com/cluj-napoca.html

Includes some nice info about museums, food, etc in the area:
http://www.clujguide.com/index.html

Here is a street view of Cluj - I think this will be more of my every day experience.

Bucharest:
I will have a lot of contacts here - people in the Fulbright office, those over in the U.S. embassy where they host a lot of interesting events, a great contact that my Romanian professor has in the American Studies department at the University of Bucharest, and an incredibly helpful contact who has helped me contacting museums across the country! It sounds like people from the Fulbright commission get together and go to the opera and other music events at the Romanian Atheneum, which is supposed to be absolutely beautiful. Also there have been some articles on the New York Times that talk about the burgeoning music and arts scene in the city. Even though lots of tourists and other visitors say that the city is post-communist, ugly, gray, blah-blah-blah, but it seems like it has changed a lot in the last few years.

An aerial shot of the city - looks huge!

Nytimes article about the "cool underground" (includes a slide show): http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/spying-on-bucharests-cool-underground/?scp=1&sq=bucharest&st=cse

Another nytimes article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/travel/08goingto.html

Nytimes article with another slideshow: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/25/travel/25bucharest.html?scp=6&sq=bucharest&st=cse

Pretty great video from the nytimes:
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/07/09/travel/1194817477518/frugal-traveler-bucharest-romania.html?scp=10&sq=bucharest&st=cse

Some blogs by expats living in Bucharest:
http://www.expat-blog.com/en/destination/europe/romania/bucharest/

Looks like a helpful place to find out about many different aspects of living in Bucharest:
http://www.inyourpocket.com/romania/bucharest/directory/category/56639-lifestyledirectory.html