Romania, III:

We spent the evening and the next day walking around Cluj, a university town known for its cosmopolitan attitude and mix of cultures. The Uniate Church was founded here. Unusual in this part of the world, the university is secular and the students are a mix of Hungarian and Romanian. The university is the only place where Romanian and Hungarian mix, though. The city was run by a mayor who insisted on putting the Romanian flag everywhere as a reaction to Hungarian chauvinism. The main square is the site of the Hungarian cathedral, but there is another beautiful square a couple of blocks away on which sits the Romanian Orthodox cathedral and the Romanian national theatre. The city is beautiful, with parks and squares, a cemetery on one hill and a giant cross on the other.

We climbed up the hill with the giant cross and sat on a rock wall. As we're sitting there talking about nothing, a boy leaned in between us, directing his friend in Romanian, "take my picture." He threw his arms around us both and the friend took the picture. He then continued to climb. We got up a few minutes later and went to the plinth of the cross. There was a larger group of boys, probably in their late teens up there, including our friends from before. "Please stop. You wait here," one said in English. He gave his digital camera to a friend and came up between us, throwing an arm around my shoulder. Another boy came up behind us too and attempted to get between the first boy and T, but he spoke harshly and the boy backed away. We decided he wanted to look like a pimp with two American chicks.