Travel's not realistic for me right now, due to both financial and (minor but irritating) health issues, so I've taken to Googling maps of places throughout Eastern Europe, spending hours pouring over Flickr pix and Wikipedia articles/links to different destinations. It's not quite the same thing as actually going there, but it's a nice second.
One place I'd love to visit is
Cluj-Napoca in Romania. As the borders between Hungary and Romania have fluctuated over the centuries (and were always more about politics than ethnic/language distribution anyway), there's a large proportion of Hungarians there, and Cluj was, historically, the chief city of Transylvania :biggrin1:
Compared to cities in the former Yugoslavia, Cluj appears very run down, or at least "unrestored", which means that most of the snap and verve of the original hasn't been homogenized into Disney-esque versions of Old Europe. Also bear in mind the Ceausescu was on a single-minded mission to wipe out as much historical Romania as possible, so Cluj remains something of a rarity in its relatively "whole" condition (regardless of its current state of repair). It would no doubt be a fascinating but very frustrating place to stay for, say, a week to 10 days, which how I prefer to travel. I never understood the American tourist's ADD in seeing five spots in four days
Sofia, Bulgaria is another area I've researched extensively based mostly on the merits of its pre-war architecture and ethnic diversity (it's traditionally been a real melting pot of Muslims, Orthodox Christians and Catholics); it's an odd mix of Belle Epoque and traditional Turk-influenced architecture and culture. It seems to have been "restored" compared to Romania, and WW2 inflicted some pretty severe damage. It's difficult to know what remains, as most of the pix I found were taken between 1890 and 1940, and the few contemporary shots I've seen suggest that there were more losses than gains during the Cold War rebuild. Still: it would be interesting, if nothing else. I was speaking to a customer a few months back about travel and Sofia came up: he said it didn't impress him, but he was speaking about nightlife, not architectural preservation.
I'm not sure I'd trust gay nightlife anywhere east of, say Prague or Budapest anyway. If I were to visit such places (or St Petersburg, for that matter, which is a life-long dream visit), it would be with an eye to local culture, cuisine and architecture and keep my horniness concentrated to cities in Germany or Paris.
