Cluj Napoca - Romania

           Cluj Napoca is a well-known city in Romania for its history. During the World War II, Cluj was occupied by Austro-Ungarian Empire. This occupation was a benefit for romanians because, the western life was more developed and modern that the Eastern Europe and they shaped the city in Western style.
The first written mention of its name – as a Royal Borough – was in 1213 under the Latin name Castrum Clus. Despite the fact that Clus as a county name was recorded in the 1173 document Thomas comes Clusiensis, it is believed that the county's designation derives from the name of the castrum, which might have existed prior to its first mention in 1213, and not vice versa. With respect to the name of this camp, it is widely accepted as a derivation from the Latin term clausa – clusa, meaning "closed place", "strait", "ravine". Similar senses are attributed to the Slavic term kluč and the German Klause – Kluse (meaning mountain pass or weir).

           An alternative hypothesis relates the name of the city to its first magistrate, Miklus – Miklós / Kolos.
The Hungarian form, first recorded in 1246 as Kulusuar, underwent various phonetic changes over the years (uar/vár means "castle" in Hungarian); the variant Koloswar first appears in a document from 1332. Its Saxon name Clusenburg/Clusenbvrg appeared in 1348, but from 1408 the form Clausenburg was used. The Romanian name of the city used to be spelled alternately as Cluj or Cluş, the latter being the case in Mihai Eminescu's Poesis. However, the city's name was finally changed to Cluj-Napoca  in 1974 by the Romanian Communist authorities.

Alba Iulia - Romania

The modern city is located near the site of the important Dacian political, economic and social centre of Apulon, mentioned by the ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy and believed by many archaeologists to be the Dacian fortifications on top of Piatra Craivii. After the southern part of Dacia became a province of the Roman Empire, the capital of the Dacia Apulensis district was established here, and the city was known as Apulum. Apulum was the largest city in Roman Dacia and the seat of the XIII Gemina Legion. Apulum is the largest castra located in Romania, occupying 37.5 ha (750 x 500 m²).
In Alba Iulia there are a lot of things to visit or to do. For example it the most archeological city in Romania with the richest grounds in the remains of the XIII Gemina Legion. The stronghold that the city was established in the XVIII century, is a Vauban style and is the largest in Eastern Europe. Well now, it is the biggest, but is it the most beautiful? Of course, because 2 years ago, constructions in rebuilding the stronghold began and with the help of European Union which worths almost 500 mil. euros  that will be done untill 2012.
Even if the stronghold is not ready, I see every day buses with tourists from Germany, Spain, Ukraine, France and so on. I`ve spoken recently with a german tourist and he told me that he never saw in his entire life a beautiful city like this. You can check for photos on google, or wikipedia. I`ll try to upload some photos too.