You may have heard a few languages in Cluj. We often hear French, German, and of course Hungarian in addition to Romanian. A few people speak English, but when we hear it, it is more like Romglish (Romanian with a few English words or phrases in it.) If you ever heard of Chirita in Provence, you might want to see the long awaited sequels, Chirita in Londra, Chirita in New York, and Chiritia in Vechiul Vest. Only, there are so many Chirita’s speaking English these days, that it might not be considered funny anymore. Despite many languages having a long history in Cluj, bilingual things are usually bilingual in Romanian and English.
One of those English speakers is Bus 24b. It tells you in Romanian to look after your belongings, in a long and informative way, but in English it just tells you to look after your stuff and beware of pickpockets. It warns you, in Romanian and English, that this is the last stop, or to hold the handrail. The Romanian warnings are slightly more detailed than the English, but the buses only seemed to speak English recently.
Another change on the bus is the machines that take credit card let you know the price before you pay. No more checking your bankbalance to find out later that you were charged slightly more than expected.
Buses in Cluj are still free on Friday, but we no longer hear the announcement about “Vinerea Verde” over the loudspeaker. Now that the bus has two languages to speak, and so many other things to say, little things like free bus passes are beyond the scope of the announcement system.