Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday to all!

Ciao Cluj!

Paris-Cluj; It's a small world after all.

I guess you can see from the pictures below that I was not in Cluj this weekend. I took WizzAir to go from Cluj to Paris for a whopping 25 Euros one way.
On Sunday I went to the Musee Jacquemart to see an exhibit of flemish painting: Bruegel, Van Eick, Memling, etc... I then realized that the paintings all came from the Brukenthal collection which happens to be hosted in the Brukenthal museum in Sibiu, 100 kms from Cluj! I had to come to Paris to see paintings that are 2 hrs from here! Anyway,  I have to check when the collection comes back to Sibiu, because that museum in Paris was very crowded. Here are two fabulous paintings I saw there:

Bruegel: the massacre of innocents.

Van Eick: the man wih a blue turban..

I was also strolling Montmartre area (near Sacre Coeur) and took a few pictures. Enjoy!

One of the few old subway entrances left. Here, place des Abbesses.

You know I like doors...

Le Bateau Lavoir in Montmartre was Picasso studio while in Paris.

Le Moulin de la Galette in Montmartre. Actually one of the 3 left. Renoir did a famous painting in the area called Bal du Moulin de la Galette.

Place du Tertre. More japanese here than in Tokyo.

La basilique du Sacre Coeur.

Ciao Cluj!

December in Cluj

 So I'm back in Cluj after having spent Thanksgiving in Boston with family and friends. I actually came back on Dec 1st, which happens to be Romania National Day. Many events took place during the day which concluded with a "retirement with torches" followed by fireworks on the piata next to my appartment. Today, I went to the art museum, and took more pictures of the Christmas decorations.  One thing for sure is that the city does not spare anything when it comes to ligths decorations.

Today is the second turn of presidential elections in Romania. The results so far are 50% each. This promises to take a long time...

The last time I witnessed a "Retraite aux Flambeaux", I was probably 8 years old, in my hometown in France.

Fireworks over the Orthodox cathedral.

The Opera

Christmas trees and decorations on the piata Avram Iancu.

Colored fountains on Piata Unirii

Totally off topic, but so cute. A real Fiat 500

Ciao Cluj!

Two months reflexion

As I prepare to fly back to Boston for Thanksgiving, and spend quality time with my family, it will be a little bit over two months since I’ve been living here in Cluj, and I thought I would reflect back on these two months.

Despite some somewhat insane hours at work, I still managed to:
- post 18 entries in this blog
- visit Vienna and Delhi (+ other business trips)
- go on two weekend road trips (Moldova area and Carpathian mountains)
- visit a few museums in Cluj
- get lost in the botanical garden
- attend three opera performances
- attend a few jazz concerts organized by the French Culturel Center
- not get killed by a Cluj driver
- have my share of chicken liver and tripe soupe
- gain a few pounds…
- (..and not be able to figure out how folks here stay so thin)

It’s been a great experience so far, from a business and personal enrichment point of view. I am getting more acute about the Romanian culture and especially the way to communicate with people here.

There is a Pink Panther movie in which Peter Sellers asks a passerby “excuse me, do you know what time it is?” and the passerby answers “yes, I know what time it is” and walks on. Communicating with most of Romanians is just like that; be very precise in your question, otherwise you won’t get the answer you’re looking for. To illustrate that point, M. was telling me a story (and I swear it’s true): she was looking for a famous Hungarian restaurant in my neighborhood. She asks a group of people in the street, and one of them gives her detailed directions on how to get there. She goes to the restaurant, only to find out it’s closed. She goes back to the street, and find the same group of people and tells them the restaurant is closed, to which the guy who gave her directions answers “Yes, I know it’s closed; you did not ask me if the restaurant was open, you asked me for directions!”

Talking about restaurants, my excitement of the first few days somewhat lowered. True, you can find some very nice traditional Romanian or Hungarian restaurants, but there is really not a great deal of variety in terms of international food; there are many Italian restaurants here but the ones I know have been average except for Lugano. Sense of service in most restaurants is pretty limited, and can be related to my comment above. For instance, if you ask for a side salad, you get a salad without dressing. You have to ask for a dressing, or at a minimum oil and vinegar.

As Romania prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary of reunification/independence (and Romania’s independence was the bloodiest of all of those in the same period of time), it is also facing some turbulent times. The prime minister resigned recently, strikes are happening in Bucharest, and the people go back to elect a new president in a few weeks. At the same time, the Romanian royal family has been getting new status in the past few years (and  even one of the royal family members, the prince of Hohenzollern, briefly announced his candidacy). So like in other places, Romania is somewhat renewing with its past. The issue on what's happening with the gypsies population here is still very much unsolved for the most part, if not ignored entirely.

Future plans include to visit Brasov, another fortified city, and Bran castle (so-called Dracula castle), and maybe go to Prague one of these days. Also, I was waiting for a rainy Sunday to visit the art museum in Cluj, but it has really not happened so far!

So until my return, Ciao Cluj!

Medieval Citadel and Royal Carpathian Castle

This past weekend, I took the road to visit Sighisoara. About two hours drive Southeast of Cluj, Sighisoara was built in the 12th century and is known to be one of the best preserved medieval citadel in Europe. Still inhabited, it is registered to the UNESCO world heritage. It is also the birthplace of count Vlad Dracul (yes, the one who inspired the story of Dracula). The citadel hosts every year a medieval festival attended by thousands of people.

There are many landmarks in the citadel, as you will see below. The only downside is they were in the process of repaving the center of the citadel, and the whole area was a real mess.

The Clock Tower viewed from one of the entrance to the citadel.

The clock tower. The four small corner turrets on top of the tower symbolized the judicial autonomy of the Town Council.

There are several dials in the clock tower facing the city. One of them indicates what day of the week it is. Characters turn at midnight and appear in a window. Here Sunday, followed by Monday (with a moon symbol on his head).

The church on top of the citadel. You go there by taking the covered stairways below.

A street in the citadel.

The tanner tower.

Locals welcoming visitors. The guy with the axe made you feel particularly welcome.

On Sunday, I proceeded South to Sinaia, which is in the Carpathian mountains, south of Brasov. Sinaia is a ski resort, but also the place where you can find the Peles Castle. Peles castle was built between 1873 and 1914 by King Carol I of Romania. It was seized by communists, but in 2006, the Romanian government restituted the castle to king Michael I of Romania. The castle is a neo-renaissance style and has great ornaments, elements of furniture etc. coming from all over Europe.

There are two castles there. This is the small one.

Another view of the small castle. I really like the small windows on the roof.

And this is the Peles Castle.

Another view.

King Carol I was a great armor and weapons collector. There is an impressive collection there.

The spiral stairway inside the great hall is here just for decor.

King Carol I private room.

This a house in the neighborhood, across the Peles monastery.

And another one. I thought "Villa Mon Vieux" was particularly cute.

Ciao Cluj!

Warm Sunday in Cluj and Othello

After a rainy start, today turned out to be another great day. Unusally warm (70 degF), sunny; that brought again everybody outside. After a good lunch at Baracca, I went quietly walking the city.

This past weekend, they opened up part of the square in front of St Michael's cathedral after renovation.

The statue is still under repair, but it really makes a big difference in the center.

Monument celebrating anti-communist fight (erected in 2006). Dec 1st is the national holiday in Romania, to celebrate independance. This year marks of course the 20th anniversary of independance.

One of the many buildings of the Babes Bolyai University in Cluj. With 50,000 students, it makes it the largest university in Cluj. This buliding is the Chemistry building, bordering the city park.

Fall has defnitely caught up in the city park.

The footbal hall of fame? A Zeppelin memorial? A coconut celebration? Don't ask me, I don't know either.

A solitary tramway

Viennese restaurant.

Not your typical Romanian folk singer.

To end the day, I had a ticket for Verdi's Othello at the National theater, and I have to say that the opera was absolutely fantastic. Iago was diabolical as expected, Othello was maybe not Placido Domingo, but I thought the singer was absolutely great. The orchestra was also perfect. Next week I go back for Il Barbiere.

I took a couple pictures with my phone,quality is not that great, but I thought it's a great small theater. I paid a whopping $10 for a center seat 2 rows from the stage.

At the balcony, all seats are in "loges". Delicieusement vieillot!

Ciao Cluj!

Indian Fall in India

Overwhelming.

That's the only word that comes to mind to describe my very first India experience. Granted, I saw only a fraction of India, but the smells, the sounds, the sights, the color, the crowd, the traffic all together assail you and leave you really knocked out at the end of the day.
I was in Bangalore during the week for business, did not see much of it as I was mostly driving back and forth from our hotel to the office. However, I spent the weekend in Delhi, enjoying the hospitality of A.

My good friend, the Maharajah of Rawhajpoutalah.

For those of you who are as ignorant as I am, Delhi is actually composed of two areas, Old Delhi and New Delhi. Old Delhi is the historic part of the city and that's where you find the biggest crowd, mad traffic, bazaars and ancient mosques and emperor's tombs. New Delhi is the more modern side of the city, mostly built by the British, with large and huge avenues, posh hotels etc.. The traffic is mad there as well by the way, cars, trucks, rickshaws (motorized or not), cows, bicycles, all honking furiously (except the cows).

The India Gate in New Delhi, all British built.

The presidential palace, somewhere at the end of the huge alley.

Delhi is absolutely huge, 12 millions inhabitants, and it takes a long time to go anywhere because of the traffic. There is a big metro project in progress, that should be finished next year. It's amazing to see the wildlife here (I'm not talking about the cows which are indeed everywhere, most preferably in the middle of the highway). Beautiful wild parrots, eagles, monkeys (along the park next to the president palace).

What transportation problem?

I won't start to describe my experience here because there is too much to tell, and nobody reads this blog anyway. Suffice it to say it was a great adventure, and I am definitely planning to come back for a longer period of time and visit the "golden triangle" with Agra (the Taj Mahal) and Jaipur.

I had my personal escort with me.

 

You would not believe how many people can fit in one Rickshaw.

I was able to visit some great historic places with A., for whom it was actually the first time he visited these various places. What is striking is that these places are often large complexes that occupy vast area with pools, green parks, gorgeous trees, and the quietude and serenity of these places is totally striking when one consider the chaos outside. Because I'm lazy, most of the comments are paste from Internet.

We started with the Qutb Minar. Wild parrots nest in the ruins of this place.

The Qutab Minar, a tower in Delhi, India, is at 72.5 meters the world's tallest brick minaret. It is situated in the Qutb complex, amidst the ruins of ancient Hindu temples which were destroyed and their stones used to build the Qutb complex and minar. Construction commenced in 1193 under the orders of India's first Muslim ruler Qutb-ud-din Aibak. The Qutb Minar is notable for being one of the earliest and most prominent examples of Indo-Islamic architecture.

Very old and very new together

Then we went on to visit Humayun's tomb.This monument is said to have served as a model for the Taj Mahal, only this one is made of white and black marble. I found it interesting that the star of David was everywhere on this Muslim tomb. However, one guide told us it was only meant as a symbol of masculine/feminine harmony...

Humayun's tomb is known as the first example of the monumental scale that would characterize subsequent Mughal imperial architecture. Commissioned by Humayun's senior widow, the tomb is the first to mark the grave of a Mughal emperor. Humayun's Tomb is now one of the best-preserved Mughal monuments in Delhi.

All of the sites we visited had a similar way of charging the entrance fee: 10 roupies (20 cts) for an Indian and a whopping 250 roupies for foreigners (which amounts to about $5).

We finished the day by visiting Purana Qila (the Old Fort).

Purana Qila (translation: Old Fort), is the inner citadel of the city of Dina-panah, founded by the second Mughal Emperor, Humayun in 1533 and completed five years later

More stars of David...

The following day, we were on our way to visit the largest of Old Delhi's monuments: Lal Quila or Red Fort whose thick red sandstone walls, bulging with turrets and bastions, have withstood the vagaries of time and nature. Its walls extend from two kilometers and vary in height from 18 metres on the river side to 33 metres on the city side. Mughal Emperor Shahjahan started construction of the massive fort in 1638 and work was completed in 1648. 

The fort contains all the expected trappings of the centre of Mughal government: halls of public and private audience, domed and arched marble palaces, plush private apartments, a mosque and elaborately designed gardens.

The throne of the emperor. Incredibly detailed. All marble.

Doesn't that tree seem to come straight from the Lord of the Rings?

It does not really show, but the fine ciseling of marble is just incredible.

Getting out of the Red Fort, we walked across the street through the bazaar to see the Jama Masjid Mosque which is the largest mosque in Asia. The crowd was just incredible, and as A. said, today is a good day because there are less people than during the week... Unfortunately the guard at the entrance of the mosque refused to let me enter. I guess I don't look much like an Indian, and he had a very big baton.

The mosque in the back.

"Sunday is a good day because there are less people than during the week!"

Picture taken my back to the Jama Masjid Mosque. The Red Fort is in the back.

We closed the day by visiting Mahatma Gandhi tomb, another oasis of serenity in this otherwise mad city.

Mahatma Gandhi tomb, so simple and humble.

A frangipane tree in Gandhi's memorial.

Ciao!