Top Picks at the christmas market – exotic fruit

Posted on December 9, 2025 by eReporter

If you are new to Cluj, you might have heard about the Langos.  While some of the Langos at the Christmas market taste okay, not all are up to the usual quality.  And you can get Langos by the mall and other places (although some places in the Christmas market do offer unusual varieties like Langos with fruit and Nutella or Langos with Papanas donut flavor).

If you want something with more protein and less fat than a langos, you can try the “Placinte pe Lespede,” a kind of pancake that looks almost like a pita.  (It is more like an American or Scottish pancake than a French one, with a thickness similar to a pita).  You can have most of the same toppings as a langos on a placinte pe lespede.

If you still like Langos, however, this year’s best Langos seems to be at “La Junâpu.” They are just the right amount of filling, fluffy, and the taste is fantastic. And, if you’re buying Langos for someone else, but would rather the healthier Lespede for yourself, “La Junâpu” offers both.

You can get all the crazes there, we saw labubu’s and Kendamas.  (Of the two, we can only recommend Kendamas.  the others are evil in every way, like ugly NFTs made of plastic.)

But the most original thing at the market is the exotic fruit.  You can find guavas, caruba (banana lookalike on the outside, but more like passionfruit on the inside), grenedia (looks weird inside, but it’s quite tasty), a Vietnamese cousin of the Lychee called a rambutan, and other tasty fruits from all over the world.

We were especially excited about this stand because many of the major supermarkets seem to be cutting down on exotic fruits.  Sure, you can still get mangos and bananas most places, and canned lychees, but fresh organic exotic fruit is increasingly hard to find.  (Well, you can also try the small fruit and veg shops, and might find something.)  Anyway, this was the first time we saw rambutan in Cluj, and it was delicious.

Perhaps if you are new to Cluj, some of the other stands might be exciting too.  There is a virtual reality car ride that some children seem to enjoy, and a ferris wheel in the center square.

We also saw Santa giving out sweets with the Transylvanian bike club.  And there were musicians busking with traditional Romanian music, sometimes in traditional costumes, other times dressed as bears.

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Can AI be used to learn languages?

Posted on December 9, 2025 by Fatca Pop

Some languages have more regular prosidy than others, or are more phonetic than others.

English and French have a common phonomenon that doesn’t really exist in Romanian (and probably not much in German, Dutch, Estonian or Hungarian either.) That is homographs.  Two words, with different meanings, that spell the same but have different meanings.  Sometimes, the AI can guess the pronunciation of a homonymn by its context, but often AI gets it wrong.  One example in English is read.  If pronounced one way, read is in the present tense, another way it happened in the past.

I read every day. 

Alone we would assume it is present tense, and would sound like reed.  But in a paragraph, read would be  in the past tense, and sound like red.

When I was a teenager, I loved books.  I read every day.  Now, I don’t feel like I have as much time, but somehow I still end up watching a lot of series.

In English, the prosody can change the meaning of a sentence. The prosody and pronunciation of homographs are often obvious to a native speaking humans.  But, what about when a computer tries to tell us how to pronounce things?  One confusing article about how to pronounce Marriot shows the AI making all kinds of mistakes.

(In short, Marriot rhymes with chariot.)

But, listening to the AI, we hear humorous inconsistencies.  It is easier 

 
It is a video on how to pronounce Marriott.  Basically, Marriot rhymes with Eliot and chariot.  Or, like “Mary-it.” 
I was interested because I read a lot about Marriott in business books.  But listening to the AI audio is just cringe, because the AI changes the pronunciation back and forth, not learning what it just said.
 
The AI often pronounces it Mare-ee-AHT.  There are even how to pronounce videos getting to the top of Google pronouncing the word incorrectly.
 
With AI suggesting the wrong pronunciations, enunciations, and prosody, it is a poor tool for learning languages.  We tried an AI learning app for Dutch, the we progressed much slower with it than we would with videos or reading.
However, it is worse for languages like English than it is for more phonetic, regular languages like Romanian.  Not that it performs perfectly with Romanian, far from it.  Romanian has more agreements to worry about, and places where AI can make mistakes there.
 
The more I see AI used, the more I know it will not replace humans.  AI can help people with disabilities or few resources, but it is no replacement for a human.  Companies and schools that rely on AI will fail.  It is like going around in a wheelchair when you are capable of running, it just makes the brain weak.
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Store brand shoes in Cluj, tested

Posted on December 4, 2025 by James

Most of the world has the same shoes. Unless you are getting pirated products, you will find the same Adidas in Cluj as you would in Tokyo or New York City. We tested store brand shoes.

You might order shoes online from Polish, Finnish or American companies if you want barefoot shoes.  These might not be available in stores in Cluj, but you’ll find the same shoes as customers from other countries if you order direct from the manufacturer.

Where you will see a difference is when you buy store brand shoes.  Americans and Brits may not have access to the shoes from the likes of Auchan, Carrefour, and Kaufland.  And even if they have Lidl, they may not think to review the shoes from there.

So, we bought and tried a few different store brand shoes, and this is what we found.

Auchan.

Auchan had a few good and many terrible pairs of shoes.  The main problem with Auchan shoes was the insole of many of their shoes would get loose.  Not only would this lead to discomfort, but the glue that was meant to keep them in place would rip your socks.

However, Auchan did have some nice sandals and men’s dress shoes, which have not presented a problem.  Some of their old running shoes also seemed okay.  Unfortunately, these shoes do not appear to be available anymore, at least not at the large Auchan’s in Cluj.  But, the terrible insole shoes have also been recalled.

Some of these bad shoes seemed good for a couple of weeks, but they didn’t last long.  It isn’t worth getting cheap shoes if you need to get a new pair every month, or if they last even less than a month.

Kaufland

With Kaufland, the insole problem seemed to be even more common.  Every pair of shoes we bought at kaufland had problems with the insoles getting loose.  With one pair of running shoes, there was no glue keeping the insole in place, so at least the insole didn’t destroy our socks.

Carrefour

At Carrefour, we found a nice pair of rubber loafers.  These shoes are great for the beach (if there is no glass or other hazardous debris) but are not suitable for long city walks.

Sports shops

We don’t have time to list all the sports shops we visited.  However, as long as the shoes fit, all the sport shops we tried had insoles that stayed in place and therefore did not destroy our socks.

The sizes and shapes of shoes from sports shops, even from the same brand, varried immensly.  So, we do recommend you try on shoes.  I would not buy shoes online from sports shops, because the size variations are so unpredictable from one shoe style to the next, yes, even within the same line.

Clothing shops

We found those cheap clothing shops, like C &A, did not produce any comfortable shoes that fit.  Therefore, we didn’t take any home to see how well they would hold up to walks through the town.

Conclusion

Like in the UK, sports shops make the best own-brand shoes.  It sometimes seems that the major supermarkets made poor quality shoes on purpose, in order to punish customers who don’t spend a lot on shoes.  However, some store brand shoes actually cost more than cheaper varieties of name brand shoes.

While supermarkets in Romania often have high quality own-brand items, shoes are typically not one of them.

Side note

We hear that earlier this year, or was it last, the last shoemaker in Cluj retired.  That shoemaker, Grigore Lup, had already reached the New York Post when he created special social-distancing shoes with very long toes.

Lup’s big contribution was to create authentic traditional Romanian shoes.  Just last month, he participated in the local Transilvania fashion shoe, or show.  There you could see the master and his shoes.

And you might see a lot of traditional dancers in town wearing his shoes.  

 

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Don’t worry, Gru did not steal the moon

Posted on November 26, 2025 by eReporter

A mini-moon will be on display in Cluj Napoca.  It is based on NASA photos, and will look like the moon might have if Gru from Despicable Me really succeeded in shrinking the moon to 1/500000 of its real size.

The “artist” who made this small moon model is none other than British enthusiast Luke Jerram.  Luke Jerram’s mini moon has been to Cluj before, and it will be here again from the 28th to the 7th of December.  Even though it is half a million times smaller than the original, this model is so large that it is known as the “Museum of the Moon.”  It is big enough to look like it is about to destroy Gru’s spaceship.

So, where are they hiding this Moon “model”?  Apparently, it will be among the exhibition “Lights On Romania.”  This exhibition will be in the center of town.  In the photos from previous years the moon was in Piata Unirii, the main square inches away from the towns physical center.

Other events linked to Lights On Romania include an alternative Christmas Market, a pig farm, and a conference on “The Culture of Nightlife.”  (I thought the fun of nightlife is that it wasn’t a conference?  Why does there have to be a talk or conference about everything in Cluj?)

You can see the lights in at least two ways.  One, is to walk around town, looking for them.  Another is to take a “Light Bus” that shows you a tour.  The Light Bus will leave 20 Avram Iancu (a parking area near the entrance to the old cemetary, which is just a little south of the center) every night from the 28th of November to the 7th of December at the following times:

17:30, 19:00, 20:15, and 21:30  (In American, that is five thirty pm, seven pm, eight fifteen pm, and nine thirty pm or nine thirty at night.)

Bus tickets cost 60 lei, with half-price discounts for seniors over sixty and children under 18.  Children up to five years old ride for free, but should be accompanied by a paying adult.

The guided tour will be in Romanian, but you don’t have to be superfluent in Romanian to appreciate the model of the moon and other light artwork along the way.

More information and ticket purchases available (in Romanian) at: https://lightsonromania.com/lightbus/ 

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Update on the Mississippi Miracle

Posted on November 26, 2025 by Fatca Pop

This is about Cluj, not Mississippi, right?

Well, as we’ve shown before, Cluj businesses which claim to provide services in English (including those that translate advertisements into English), use bad English that no native speaker can understand.  Therefore, we think it is important to show the full data on how non-native speakers actually learn the language.

For a review, Mississippi has become top in America for reading levels among “Hispanics.”  While it is possible that many hispanic Americans are native English speakers, the improvement is significant.

As we can see, the Governor attributes his success to “conservative” teaching measures, including phonics.  It isn’t yoga, or leadership, or some new age method that he is crediting.  However, that Foundation for Government Accountability is leaving out a big thing.  Spending.

Spending is important not only in education, but in environmental goals as well.  We see the two are linked, those who lack education are less likely to recycle (and less likely to dispose of waste properly if they work for or own a recycling business, or business that happens to win a recycling tender.)

The so-called transparency laws have done nothing for Romania.  Sure, they help journalists like Recorder to find a scandal when a giant construction firm has no head office, but they also waste a lot of ANAF’s time trying to figure out when a self employed writer who is moonlighting as a designer is overreaching his scope (which in other countries, you could just declare yourself as self-employed for unregulated industries, without having to pick a field.)

The problem in Romania is every field is regulated, not just those that deal with food, waste, construction, or medical.  Officials waste their time with such stupid laws as those that result in fining The Big Friendly Giant for bad grammar.  And then we wonder why environmental disasters make people sick.

If we look at Mississippi’s reading, they don’t find people for bad grammar.  Instead, children “learn to read” when they are young, so they can “read to learn” after fourth grade.

Investments go not into mindfulness coaches, but reading coaches.  Mississippi deals directly with the problem, not with some trendy buzzword that doesn’t even get translated.

Romania could also bring in specialists to teach things that the teachers may not have learned at university.  Specialist assistants to help Romanian students learn the basics, not just memorise things that not even their teachers understand.

Then, students can still learn important things about health, the environment, and more through books.  The top books will no longer be by fake gurus who make up rich dads and poor dads or have fake biographies about being a monk, but rather about how to help make the world a better place, or even just fantasy adventures that are fun to read and help us build our skills so we understand more complex things better in the future.

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Over 6000 police actions concerning immigration in 2025

Posted on November 24, 2025 by James

According to the “INSPECTORATUL GENERAL PENTRU IMIGRĂRI” (yes, that’s the institution you talk to in the basement of the mall), immigration police have acted 6020 times in the first ten months of 2025.

Through these actions, they found 2173 foreigners to be in Romania illegally.  Of those, 451 were from Nepal, 281 from the Republic of Moldova, 276 from Sri Lanka, and the rest from other countries.  (You know those signs that say Bessarabia e Romania?  That means they are claiming the Republic of Moldova.  If the two countries rejoined, the police would have saved time 281 times.)

The Romanian state issued 1907 demands that people leave the country.  Many left willingly, but 590 left “under escort.”  483 were in “public custody” (I guess imprissoned for immigration violations.)

Waiting in the cold parking lot for your turn to talk to the immigration people sucks, but I guess being in a cold prison cell before being deported with armed guards might be worse.

The full story can be seen (in Romanian) on their website.

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Kendamanai takes Cluj

Posted on November 24, 2025 by eReporter

A few weeks ago, we saw Kandama’s outside schools, appartment blocks, homes, and parks throughout Cluj. However, on Saturday, Iulius Mall had a Kendama competition which overtook all expectations.

On the stage, a few at a time could compete with all kinds of tricks one might normally reserve for juggling balls or yoyos.  The Kendama, we soon learned, could do much more than just catch a ball in a gap or on a spike.

But beyond the stage, and beyond the sea of (mostly boys) waiting their turn to compete, we could see Kendama being used outside the mall.  Teenagers, perhaps even a few young men, could be seen practicing their Kendama in groups, perhaps waiting for the next competition.  Even inside the supermarkets and other shops, we saw boys catching the balls with their Kendamas.

The ages of Kendama uses went from primary school all the way up to maybe even a few university students.  

The enthusiasm for this new sport in Cluj Napoca is great.  The wooden Kendama might last longer than a more breakable plastic toy, and it doesn’t require a lot of space to play.

It is probably better for things like hand-eye coordination, focus building, and patience than traditional video games, and it doesn’t require being plugged in or constant software updates.  We only wish we had a little Kendama store, we are so enthusiastic about how fun it looks.  As it is, you can get Kendama’s in many parts of Cluj, so if they are sold out in your favorite shops, keep looking.

We first learned Kendama from a Japanese student, but now you can probably learn it from a Romanian, there are so many experts out there.  Kendama seems to have been invented in Japan, as an adaptation of the French game Billboquet (cup-in-ball), but the Japanese version it is now popular with people who know nothing about its origins.

We expect more Kendama competitions in the future.  Kendama Day is 14th of May.

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How medical refugees come to Romania

Posted on November 20, 2025 by Fatca Pop

Different countries have different attitudes toward refugees.  The process in many European countries seems backwards.  Many people who are allowed to live in Belgian, for instance, are not allowed to apply for work.

Romania asks its refugees to work.  After a small period, they are expected to support themselves.  Perhaps that is why Romania is not attractive to fake assylum seekers.

That said, the Romanian government and military does what it can to make sure that those who really need treatment get it.  In a recent video by the Wall Street Journal, we see that Romania uses its military aircraft to help evacuate Gazan children who need medical treatment that they cannot get in Gaza.

While Gaza is under seige, not many people are allowed to leave.  However, those that can get out (children who need medical attention and caretakers who need to attend them) often find help from Romanians.

Raed Arafat, Romania’s minister of Health, was born in Syria to Palestinian parents.  (Raed Arafat’s parents were born in Nablus, in the West Bank.)

Note, Raed does not seem to be related to Yasser Arafat.  Most name databases we could find only cover the surname in the United States.

According to Raed Arafat, what Romania is doing is “only a drop in the ocean” although Romania is doing what it can.  Not many people are allowed to leave Gaza, but those that are can find planes to send them to countries such as Romania and the Netherlands.

It is difficult for Arabic speakers to learn Romanian and adapt to the country, but they do not appear to have any problems with the local population.  As long as they can find work to support themselves, they are fine.  Many would prefer to return home to their families.  However, as Raed Arafat laments, things appear to have been getting worse in the middle east since he left in the 1980s.

Expats from other parts of Romania have found the language somewhat difficult.  Most courses that we see advertised teach through English, a few now teach Ukrainian refugees through slavic languages.  There are some funny Romanian shows you can watch.

We spoke to some expats who said if they had to learn again, they would start with the Smurfs (Ștrumfi in Romanian).  It helps learners get the rhythm of a language, and the visual manner means you can follow a story before you have the vocabulary.  At a slightly more advanced level is the Fixies (Fixiki in Romanian).

When you can start reading, newspapers like Magazinul are interesting.  (Perhaps Garfield in Romanian is more suited for lower levels.)

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Was Kintsugi in Cluj before Japan?

Posted on November 17, 2025 by James

The story of Kintsugi is as follows.  When a shogun in Japan, perhaps Yoshimasha, broke his pot, he sent it to China to be repaired.  There, it was repaired with ugly staples.  So, the next time a teapot broke, it was repaired at home, by gluing the pieces together with gold.

The newly pot, with its imperfections, was considered better looking than the original.  It is said that people later broke things on purpose so they could perform their own Kintsugi on them.

This technique, of fixing the old broken thing to make something better is said to be part of the philosophy of wabi-sabi, where what is broken is embraced.  This has been taken in psychology and even new age ideas to mean you can take your flaws, your tramas, and repair them to make yourself a beter or stronger person.

Okay, but this idea of gluing the broken things together with gold is said to have originated toward the end of the middle ages.

A treasure found in Apahida, a suburb of Cluj-Napoca, consisted of items glued together with gold.  This find was said to have dated from the 5th century, about a thousand years before Kintsugi was “invented” in Japan.  But it is not thought to have originated in Cluj Napoca, rather it is thought to have been brought over by the Germanic Gepid tribe from Scandinavia.

This treasure was discovered in Cluj two years ago, although it wasn’t a unique find.  Other Germanic peoples had left treasure pieces that were repaired with gold throughout Europe.  The reason and psychology of this art are not fully known, but perhaps the owners found the pieces repaired with gold to be more beautiful or valuable than the original pre-broken items.

Now remember, although Kintsagi is thought to be an ancient art, its origin is legendary.  Or should we say, just a legend.  We can’t be certain how Kintsagi started, or whether it really originated in Japan.  We can only be certain of its current popularity, and the effect it has had in fields like positive psychology and motivational speaking.

But yeah, perhaps the art of Kintsagi was in Cluj one thousand years before it reached Japan.

Edit, 10 January 2026: here is a video in French about current trends in museum restauration.  It doesn’t take everything we wrote into account, but it is an interesting way of comparing recent Western (French) and Japanese practices.

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Expats love Cluj’s version of Mark Twain

Posted on November 16, 2025 by Entertainment Reporter

In the film festival, we saw the screens of Cluj.  During the rest of the year, we have visited the three main theatres.

The Hungarian Theatre is showing an adaptation of “Tom Sawyer” toward the end of every night.  Expats who saw the show on Halloween had many great things to say about it.

One viewer said that we “better not tell” his friend back home who loves musicals because she “Will me jealous.”

Another, who seemed extremely happy and satisfied after the show, claims to have visited all the areas where the story took place.  “It was very interesting to see how they did this.”  Her date also appreciated the appearance.

The English subtitles seemed easy to follow by everyone, but one viewer wished he could speak Hungarian so he could “follow the dance and the lyrics … at the same time.”

“It was a lot of fun,” another visitor said, “I’m glad,” that her tour guide showed her the theatre.

Other visitors to the play mentioned it upon leaving Cluj.  Seeing the musical was one of the highlights of the visit (in addition to eating Papanas, seeing the old architecture, visiting museums, participating in the Steampunk experience, and learning about this history of the town.)

We were surprised by how many expats actually saw the show.  We bumped into expats in other parts of town who had visited the show, and those who were on the way out of Cluj altogether who had enjoyed it.

The seating and temperature in the theatre were comfortable.  Both the Hungarian theatre and the main theatre in Cluj have impressed visitors with the comfort of the seats, the visibility of the stage, and the general ambiance of the theatre.  And, our recent visit to the Hungarian theatre means we can still recommend it.

One thing that has changed over the years is the price.  The Hungarian theatre now costs 60 lei per seat.

So, what was the show like?  It had many of the main events of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.  They witness the murder, hide in the cave, see their own funeral, paint the fence… and sing about it.

Some of the songs emphasize different parts of the story than merely the book might.  A song dwells on one aspect.

Also, a little bit seems to be added to the story, the ghosts of women who were killed as witches, for instance.  That fit perfectly for Halloween, although it was a little different from Mark Twain’s original writing.  

There were subtitles in Romanian and English throughout, and for the songs, there were also subtitles in Hungarian.  From the balcony we could see the subtitles perfectly well, although one viewer did say he had to strain to see the titles.  

Anyway, it sounded like every expat who saw the play would recommend it to others, although perhaps there is an expat out there who hated the play so much that he is hiding out in a cave, or has taken a boat down the river to completely escape from society.

We haven’t yet spoken to any Romanian audience members.  One advantage the play had over others was a younger mimum age.  The average age of the audience for this play was much younger than other plays we have seen in Cluj, and we didn’t hear any of those children complain.

The people at the ticket desk and those who take you to your seats can communicate in English, Romanian and Hungarian.  There is no intermission in this play, but you can buy drinks beforehand at the bar.  (I think they speak English there too, because we saw some expats who had never been to Romania before get drinks there.)

The next showdates are:

29 November 2025

28 December 2025

24 January 2026

https://www.huntheater.ro/ro/bilete/informatii-bilete/ 

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