Hitch-Hiking to Cluj-Napoca

On my way to Cluj-Napoca just a month ago I ventured at what others and myself consider not too safe of an adventure: hitch-hiking.

Trying to stay open to the possibilities, and trusting the Universe to send the right people my way I crossed new borders, the borders of old fears. It worked magically. Cars stopped easily and the drivers, and in some cases the other passengers, were very nice people. People ready to help, people with stories, people interested in stories.

In one instance the driver seemed unsure he wanted to take me. Almost like he did not know why he had even stopped. He was grumpy and his teenage daughter was in the seat next to him. He picked me up to take me to a town just 30-40 minutes away. When I realized from his phone conversations that he was going to the town I hoped to reach today (about 4 hours away), I dared to ask: “Do you actually go all the way to Cluj?” At his “Yes”, reply I said: “Me too. Should I dare to ask you to take me all the way there?” His answer came fast: “Now you are in the car, aren’t you?” Hee! Hee! I was! Nice man. Such conversation skills… So for a while I sat quiet. Sometimes he would ask direct, short questions, where the answer expected seemed to be only the Yes or No kind.

At some point, getting enough information from his phone conversations, and realizing he is trying to solve other people’s problems through the phone, I decided to break the seemingly set rules. I understood he travels a lot and drives long distances to many other countries as well. I concluded he must be nice since he makes a lot of phone calls for others, so I decided to tell the truth about my travels and my life. The road from that point on became a breeze. Neither of us in the car noticed how the time had passed and the driver asked if I would return from Cluj today, as he would like to take me back. He even asked jokingly for my small backpack as he said it must have wings. Strange things happen and I love the adventure!
I left some money in the car for the ride. He said not to but it is a normal practice in Romania and the train ticket would have cost me anyway. A lots of the drives that took me some distances did not want money, yet some do. Some stop to take people so they can cover part of their gas expense.

Cluj is a clean and nice town. I have relatives there and I enjoyed tremendously visiting with them. Stories were told until late into the night as we do not get to see each other often.

The bonus of the trip to Cluj was the salt mine in Turda. The inside lake with the boats, mini golf, concert arena, bowling and a tennis court, the elevator and all the rest was a first for me and I was amazed and enchanted. I would surely recommend visiting if  in the area.