Hey Cluj

13/06/2024

We haven't been on Facebook for a while, but we have been posting fairly regularly on the Hey Cluj website. We recommend the town tours, the botanical gardens, and we tried a new technique to improve our language skills.

Whether you are a student, a tourist, an expat, or a local, you could learn something with the Free Cluj Tours. Tours are conducted in English, even though the tour guides (and many of the tourists) are Romanian. You will learn a few Romanian words along the way, perhaps the name of that instrument....

31/08/2023

Happy Romanian Language Day. La mulți ani limbii Române. We have some new articles in English on our website. Maybe next year there will be a Romanian version.

Events Rroma film festival in Brasov August 29, 2023 Entertainment Reporter We missed the festivals in Cluj. Actually, we did see some but haven’t reported on them. Yet. Anyway, Brasov, one of Romania’s and Transilvania’s most interesting cities, is holding a…

01/08/2023

prices at Cluj Airport are catching up with Europe, and perhaps have even surpassed most airports on the continent. Seven euros for a bar of chocolate? Really?

We all know that things are more expensive at the airport, but seven euros for a box of chocolates? Yes, we heard that is the case. Not a specific brand of chocolates, not a box, just a bar with Dracula on it. I don’t think they are that expensive even in the airports in Belgium or Switzerland. At...

16/06/2023

What is our favorite film at the Transylvania International Film Festival so far? Is it a retrospective, one with a celebrity guest, a big budget history film?
Not this year, sorry. This year, the best film seems to have been made by a local masters student. Perhaps there is hope for the future of cinema after all.

From the description, I did not realise that Blue Planet (Planeta Albastră) was a documentary. Nor did I realise that it was made in Cluj. From the questions after the show, and the closing titles, everyone could see that not only was it a great advertisement for a band, but it was also a great one...

14/06/2023

Did you just miss out on a twenty thousand lei subsidy? What can you do about not missing out next time?

According to the Bucharest and Iasi based accountancy firm, Expert Mind you could have received up to 20000 lei subsidy for solar energy through the ‘Casa Verde’ program. Their fee for helping get this subsidy was 490 lei. word of the day – ‘Folovotaice‘ – solar panels. Services that Exp...

06/06/2023

What is the most copied joke in Romanian newspapers? Which joke should every Romanian know by heart by now? Which joke could help you learn the language, integrate into society, and improve your happiness by 0.032 percent a day?
Our entertainment reporter has been reading the Romanian media for over a year, perhaps up to three years, and this is what he has to say...

Learning a new language can be hard, especially when you try to learn word for word. A Romanian word that vaguely means with is ‘cu.’ In most cases, you would simply translate 🇲🇩🇷🇴cu as 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇱🇷with. But, if you look at food, you often see ‘cu’ where t...

18/05/2023

We are off to Cluj Days, to celebrate, observe, get a tour, watch a show, and more. Just go anywhere in Cluj and there is bound to be something going on this weekend. (Okay, maybe you can find a quiet spot around the malls or something, but anywhere that things happen, things will probably happen).

Starting on Thursday the 18th (today), Cluj celebrates itself with a long festival weekend. (Don’t worry, you can still go to work. The long weekend doesn’t give you the day off, it just gives you something to do if you do happen to have some time off.) Cluj Days program in English. As you can s...

13/05/2023

tonight is night of the Museum in Cluj and throughout Romania. This means museums are open late, with special exhibitions, and in many cases they are free.
(Not all museums are participating but most of the museums that we know of in Cluj were on this list).

Tonight is the night at the museum, not the movie, but a free museum entrance at night. (Today, Saturday, the 13th. Some start at noon, most start their free entrance at five or six). Thirteen is good luck if you life free things, but potentially bad luck if you hate crowds. Here is a little expat-o...

05/05/2023

What are the best investments in Romania? We have no idea. But one of our writers has an opinion on some of the worst....

You might be considering a business in Romania. The reason? Well, maybe you live here. Your spouse or parents moved you here, you fell in love with the culture, you have Romanian ancestry that you are getting back in touch with, or you had another plan here that didn’t work out and you just like l...

28/04/2023

Does Romania have free speech? On paper, every country in Nato has free speech. In practice, almost every country I know about has sever limits to this free speech.
A recent tribunal decision against a TV station has us at Hey Cluj a little worried.

We all know the limits of free speech around the world. I would not recommend that Portuguese people go to Canada, because it is easy to mix up her and his (her looks more like he, all my cousins mix up their pronouns when they learn English). Another country that claims freedom of speech is Singapo...

21/04/2023

Play in Portuguese in Cluj. The Crucible. Hey Cluj.

Ezen a hétvégén, Kolozsváron, nyelven portugálul, A SALEMI BOSZORKÁNYOK van. Yes, Hungarian might be a hard language to understand at first, even harder than Portuguese. So, unless you speak Hungarian, you might be reading the Romanian or English subtitles when the Brazilian gets difficult. Bu...

18/04/2023

If you want to watch TV in Cluj, you have a lot of options. We haven't found a way to watch our favourite Chris Rock movies yet, but everything else we can think of seems to be available here. (Not in the link yet, the classic Star Trek movies, with Leonard McCoy as Spok, are on Sky Showtime).

Global Niche streaming services available in Romania Don’t trust mainstream streaming services to provide quality content? No problem! Many niche services serve religious, political or other minorities. Here are some that we tested as available in Romania. (Many that advertise worldwide are not. B...

16/04/2023

Happy Easter.
Hristos a înviat.

History The land of two Easters Apr 15, 2023 W Earp Entertainment Reporter Hristos a inviat! Christ has risen. You may have read this in the news paper, or heard it being said by people in the street. Emil Boc, mayor of Cluj,…

06/04/2023

The women's finalissimo (big football championship, England v Brazil) will be showing tonight on Antena 1.

The women’s finalissima, where Brazil will hopefully beat England (I wanted to say crush, but there are too many hooligans to get away with using that word), is available on Antenna. https://a1.ro/news/sport/anglia-brazilia-womens-finalissima-2023-live-exclusiv-in-antenaplay-id1091467.html When? 2...

17/03/2023

The Hungarian theatre in Cluj, review of the place, not the play. Is it worth a visit?

Is the Hungarian language theatre for English speakers? Yes. Not only can you read English (and Romanian) subtitles but the announcements to take your seat before the performance and at the end of the break are also in three languages. Anyway, the acting and design tends to be high enough quality, t...

10/03/2023

Is the number twelve a hate symbol? Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, check out the image below. The same people who have been telling us all these things said by Trump and his cronies are hate speech have also blasted the number 12.
No, I can no longer take the American media seriously, at all.
https://heycluj.eu/2023/03/10/dilbert-and-the-number-12-which-is-more-dangerous/

23/01/2023

https://heycluj.eu/2023/01/23/cinemas-in-cluj/ These are some of our favorite cinemas in Cluj. Cinema Victoria, for seeing art films, festivals and a Saturday morning cartoon. Cinema City (in the two malls) for seeing 4Dx blockbusters. Cinema Florin Piersic, for those films in between including intelligent Hollywood movies and historical films. And of course, all the other cinemas, when the right movie shows up.

You can watch movies in Cluj in a variety of languages. I’ve seen films here in English, French, Ukrainian, Russian, Hungarian and of course, Romanian. Now, I have been to a few cinemas in the past two years. Despite having great Welsh teachers, I’ve learned more Romanian in two years than I did...

19/01/2023

https://heycluj.eu/2023/01/19/some-things-are-more-expensive-in-cluj/
With prices going up, Jurnalul points out that some food is getting more expensive in Romania than western Europe.
But is that all that is more expensive in Hey Cluj?

On 18th January 2023, Jurnalul, one of Romania’s top newspapers, dedicated its front page to how food is becoming more expensive in Romania than in Western Europe. Romanian phrase of the day, mai scump decât în, More expensive than in… (If you are practicing masculine, feminine and plural…) ...

14/01/2023

Happy National Culture Day! and Happy Birthday Mihai Eminescu!

So, Romania’s national culture day is here. All week, there have been events at the Octavian Goga library, museums and theatre. The face of one of Romania’s most famous poets was projected onto the theatre. On the 15th of January, entrance to the permanent exhibit at the art museum and all the e...

10/01/2023

What do you call a Quarter Pounder with cheese in Cluj? That might be relevant, if you are ordering in on a rainy day in Romania. And you wouldn't be the only one.
According to a top local newspaper, Cluj is the champion when it comes to ordering fast food in Romania. In 2022, Clujeans ordered more burgers than any other town.
On page 8 or so, they told us that Cluj was number one in basketball. On the front page, we learn that Cluj is number one in ordering fast food.
And no mention of langos and pizza, but apparently more schnitzel and papanasi.

Is Cluj the fast food capital of Romania? Făclia de Cluj called Cluj the “champion” of Romania in fast food on its front page on the 9 January. The residents of Cluj (including ex-pats and perhaps tourists) ordered 42,372 cheeseburgers in 2022. And they ordered a lot more. For me, the most inte...

07/01/2023

Are you being counted? Not all expats might be on the census. Nor all Romanians.

I saw an interesting story in the Romanian press recently: according to the recent census, Romania has lost 1.1 million people in the last year. Now, considering that the country only has a population of only 19.12 million, that loss is very significant. Romania experienced another large drop in pop...

31/12/2022

Happy New Years. In Cluj, they are of course celebrating with a concert, Cluj is a music town. But how do they celebrate in other parts of Romania? And how are the ex-pats celebrating?
We did a little bit of research to find out.

When you have lived in enough places, trying to find the differences between countries is difficult, it is much easier to find the similarities.Here are some Romanian New Years Traditions according to the Romanian weekly, Magazin: New Year’s fish. Magazin informs us that Romanians may celebrate th...

24/12/2022

Merry Christmas carolling everyone. or is that caroling.

Andra, the Romanian pop and folk star, had a little sing-along on the aeroplane on the way from Bucharest to Cluj. It seems that all the passengers sang along. The fair under Avram Iancu appears to be closed, but there are still plenty of things to do in Cluj. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cme-LPzqRPe...

16/12/2022

Emil Boc, prime ministor, mayor of Cluj, and ghost?

Uncategorized Is Cluj run by a ghost? December 16, 2022 W Earp Entertainment Reporter It is always fun to learn a little about the town you live in. So when we were stuck at home, I took the opportunity to rummage through old newspapers and see what I could find out about Cluj’s mayor, Mr Emil Boc...

12/12/2022

Do you want to know how to find a job in Cluj-Napoca, or where to look? Hey Cluj is by expats who have been in Cluj for years, and we have spoken to expats who work here.
We have also seen lots of job adverts. But somehow, these seem to miss the eyes of ex-pats.
So here is a list of ways to find a job in Cluj.

politics and migration How to find a job in Cluj December 12, 2022 Entertainment Reporter If you read the news, you might have read that Cluj is one of the easiest places in Europe to find a job. Yet some people do not know where to look. After two years in Cluj, this is what I discovered. Non-EU? S...

09/12/2022

New Roman Technology exhibit, with explanations in English.

History Ancient Roman technology invades Cluj December 9, 2022 W Earp Entertainment Reporter At the foot of the student culture house (casa de cultura a studentilor), there is no clue where the exhibit is. You walk in, and you will probably be stopped by a caretaker (or porter, or security guard). Y...

08/12/2022

Sora Shopping center is bouncing back! Last year the place looked like it was in decline, and an English-language blog seemed to be complaining about it. Now, however, Hey Cluj can report that it is up and running and worth going to.

Last year, one of the other English language papers reported that Sora was a shadow of its former self. We went to visit it during the lockdown, and there was not a lot to see. Though there were a few nice shops, many of the shops were empty. But a visit in late 2022 shows that the shopping center i...

07/12/2022

There is a smaller Christmas market in the evenings for residents of the Iris neighbourhood. Note, this market starts later in the day, so make sure to come after 4pm (perhaps after 6pm).

You might not have been to the Iris neighborhood unless you live there. North of the river Somes, North even of the train station, you will find the Piața Karl Liebknecht. There is a mini Christmas market in the Karl Liebknecht square, a trial from 6 December to 11 December. Here is the important p...