Saturday was our "free" day with nothing specific planned until dinner. After sleeping in a bit to recharge our batteries, we walked around central Kolozsvar/Cluj and decided to hike over to the beautiful botanical gardens.
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| Japanese garden |
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| Us outnumbered by palm varieties |
Along the way we passed through a university campus, saw a nice residential neighborhood, and heard the raucous music of the youth festival at Unirii Square (almost) the whole way. Cluj has been named the European Youth Capital for 2015, which means they must host 300 youth-oriented events over the course of the year. This weekend has been a huge music festival with three stages at various locations in the city. As a city full of universities, Cluj is usually a bit empty in the summertime (according to Zoli, who met us for dinner). This weekend the city is hopping to say the least, with thousands of youth from all around Europe here to to have fun. You'd think that there would be long lines at clubs and restaurants (and there are) but the longest line we saw all day was at the Donuterie. Go figure.
After a gorgeous day of taking in the sights, we ended up in the courtyard of the Art museum (former Banffy Palace) for a well-earned drink.
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| A refreshing way to end the afternoon |
Shortly thereafter, we met Csilla (our guide), John Dale (Csilla's husband and trip logistics expert), and Zoli, who will travel with us for a few days before leaving to meet us in Gagy at the end of the week. We had our kickoff dinner at the famous Unitarian restaurant Rex, where we had a lovely outdoor meal of lasagna and pizza.
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