Cluj-Napoca, Romania

I have just returned from a trip to Cluj-Napoca in Romania.  The trip was arranged by a friend (Rob Ferrol ) whom I met whilst in the Royal Air Force.

Cluj is the unofficial capital of the region known as Transylvania.  Of course to us in the English speaking world Transylvania will be forever associated with vampires due to Bram Stoker's novel Dracula.

We arrived in Cluj early evening on Tuesday and once we had arrived at our accommodation for the duration of our stay it was time to freshen up and head out in search of some food and of course some drink.

​Obviously the camera went with me!

Day 2 of our adventure was spent exploring the centre of Cluj along with the side streets.

The city spreads out from Unirii Square where you will find St Michael's Church (2nd largest Gothic style church in Romania).  It is also home to the statue of the King of Hungary Matthias Corvinus.

Once we had found somewhere for breakfast & a coffee we started to branch out into the side streets.  Here we found the walls decorated with all manner of Graffiti.

As we journeyed further out from the centre we discovered even more bars & cafes tucked away down side streets.  The old gothic architecture was evident everywhere, interspersed with some new.  We eventually came across the city's train station on our travels and here we found some more art and a network of underpasses under the very busy junction where the train station sits.

I'm not sure how far we walked (21,000+ steps according to Rob's Fitbit), but I was broken by the time we returned to our accommodation.  However I was happy with the images I had captured with my first real attempt at street photography.

Day 3 was the day we had all been waiting for and after god knows how many miles we walked carrying an assortment of photographic equipment (including the world's heaviest tripod) it was nice to be able to relax in the car that took us to Corvin Castle.  On the way we stopped off in a little village called Rimetea a former mining town and home to a few thousand people.  This village is found in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains as can be seen by my 6 image panoramic below.  Imagine waking to that view every day!

We also had a quick stop off at the abandoned fortress of Coltesti.

Our guide tried to get us to another recently abandoned castle but unfortunately we were unable to gain access.  But in trying coupled with heavy traffic we were now running late and we arrived at Corvin Castle early evening at about 17:30.  We decided against the tour of the castle and opted instead for photography outside as the light faded and we hoped for a sunset.  Unfortunately Mother Nature was not playing and failed to deliver the spectacular sunset we were all hoping for.

Corvin Castle/Hunedoara Castle is one of the largest castles in Europe and is associated with Vlad the Impaler.  Vlad III and his younger brother were held prisoner in this castle by Ottoman Empire to secure their Father's loyalty. Vlad III later formed a political alliance with John Hunyadi (who had executed Vlad's Father Vlad II Dracul and elder brother Mercea after invading in 1447.

Day 4 saw us off to Banffy Castle situated in Bontida.  It is still owned by the Banffy family and in 1999 due to it's ruinous state the castle was included in the World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites.  It is currently being restored by the Transylvania Trust as a Cultural Centre.

In 1944 it was transformed into a field hospital.  In retaliation against it's owner's political views the castle was attacked and plundered by German soldiers.  This resulted in the furniture, the library and the gallery of paintings being destroyed.

The castle is the home to the annual Electric Castle Music Festival which takes place every July.

In the afternoon we returned to the streets of Cluj to capture some more street photography and sample the wares of a few local bars & cafes.

So that wraps up my first attempt at a blog.  I hope I have done the city of Cluj justice and i'd like to thank my friend Rob for arranging the trip.  Would I go back?  Yes I think so, I believe that there was still parts of the city we didn't get too and of course seeing inside Corvin Castle would be a must.

I now have a taste of street photography and it is something that I wish to explore further.

I shoot with a pair of Pentax K7's and the lenses used on this trip include the Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 XR Di, Tamron 70-200mm f2.8 Di LD  & a Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 DC.  Why Pentax I hear some of you ask, well the first DLSR I bought was a Pentax istDL2.  This was before I was bitten by the photography bug good and proper.  I had bought several lenses so made sense to stay with Pentax when things became serious.  I would like to upgrade to the full frame Pentax K1 but I think I need to win the lottery first.

Anyway thanks for reading and please feel free to share this and my other work and feel free to leave any comments below.