Information about Romania, Cluj /Napoca. Any Sri Lankan there?

I am Sri Lankan coming to Cluj-Napoca for  my PhD at the end of September this year.

Please let me know where there are  any Sri Lankan living in the above city. I want to get some advice relating to food, cloths, language, cultural issues and other issues relating to the living in Romania

Thanks

Thilak

Sri Lanka

I'm not Sri Lankan but when it comes to the other subjects such as food, clothing language etc. I can say that no matter where you're from, as long as you can speak English, you should be pretty fine.

You'll find normal chain restaurants here like McDonalds / KFC etc. with those, nothing different than in other areas of the world. However, there's always a danger of 'sticking to what you know'. I would suggest trying various different restaurants and stores around the city, exploring the food and getting a good idea of what's available to you.

Grocery shopping is pretty normal here also. The only difference is that in some stores you have to weigh and attach a label to your veg (with the price) instead of just handing over at the checkout, this got me more than once until I realised. Usually cashiers aren't so up-to-speed with their English but it doesn't mean they won't try to help.

Clothing: You can find stores like H&M, Zara and other major labels here. There's an abundance of 'outlets' which are stores that specialise in imported clothing, this can include second hand, out of season or old stock clothing which you can pick up for next to nothing. (I got a real nice suit to cover my return trip to England for a wedding for 85 Lei (around $20 USD) - turns out it was a major label and costs over $150 new and it looked like it had never been worn!

In the cultural aspect of things, Cluj is a very heavily student populated city. There will be communities of other expats living in the city. There are many international organisations here also which brings a lot of external talent from other countries. The mindset of Cluj is very modern with a healthy approach to foreign visitors. Just be respectful and show courtesy. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The only suggestion I would have is when it comes to parting with your cash. Unfortunately, you may find some people that are willing to 'help' you find a property or something like this, but sometimes their motivations are financial. Whenever looking for property, you should use websites such as OLX.ro, piata-az.ro and Facebook groups to locate places to live. Simply because unless you have a good budget, you're going to pay things like agent fees. These are the sorts of things that you'll need help with.

Hope this helps :)!