Two British women, mother and daughter, entered a restaurant in Cluj-Napoca, but they had a surprise. None of them were prepared for what they found there.
Britanica came to the conclusion that the price of a cappuccino in Cluj is the same as in the UK. PHOTO: Clujenii.ro
Cluj is the city with the most expensive real estate properties in Romania, a chapter in which it rivals the big cities in the West, and sometimes even surpasses them.
This is how a villa on the edge of Cluj cost more than some medieval castles in France or Italy. The explanation is that most of the city's residents have incomes well above the national average, including the tens of thousands of IT professionals. But not only real estate has reached unprecedented prices in Cluj.
Shops and restaurants here have steep prices, even higher than in most Western European cities. Two British tourists, who entered a cafe in Cluj, were also convinced of this, and their reaction went viral.
The dialogue between the two, played on Clujenii.ro, says everything about the total surprise they had.
“16 lei is about three pounds“, said one of them. “Oh gosh! That's how much we pay for a coffeea”, replied the young woman's mother. “So is it the same price as in the UK?”, insisted the first. “Yes, actually, yes“, he was answered.
“Just so you understand: a coffee in Cluj, a small cappuccino with oat milk costs 16 lei, which is about three pounds or maybe even just under three pounds. So it's the same price as in the UK“, she concluded.
However, in London the prices would be higher, said one of them: “If you're in London, you're probably paying twice as much”.
“Yes, but it is Romania. It's Romania and the incomes are very different to UK incomes“, replied the other.
In reality, 16 lei for a small cappuccino is not a high price in Cluj, and many of the cafes in the central area of the city have prices twice as high. Just like in London, as the two British women would say, if they ended up in such a cafe.
The video with the two went viral in Romania and caused a lot of reactions. in which those
“In Romania, everything is more expensive than in Europe for two reasons: 1. all consumer goods are imported. 2. taxes are higher in Romania than in European countries“, someone wrote.
“Consider that the taxes paid by that company are 20–30 times lower than those paid by one in the UK. Greed is big in Romania”another netizen said.
“We ended up paying the western price in a country with third world wages!”someone else concluded. “First of all, you can't really find it for 3 lira, secondly – here they have water”someone else commented.
