From May 26 to 31, I traveled to Cluj-Napoca (Klausenburg) in Romania for a week-long research exchange. This trip was sponsored and financed by the Bavarian Research Alliance as part of the Bavarian University Support Program for Initiating and Deepening International Research Cooperation.
I had met Dr. Maria Stefania Ionel and Zsófia Németi-Fehér a year earlier at FEPSAC (European Conference on Sport Psychology) in Innsbruck, and since then we had been in regular contact with other researchers working on various high-risk sports. This resulted in an interface between research on motivation, emotion regulation, and mental health in recreational mountain climbing and competitive climbing. In addition, a doctoral candidate from Padua, Italy, was present at the time, and another from Orléans, France, joined online for part of the meeting. This allowed us to work intensively on our topics in a small, international group, develop joint ideas, and exchange experiences and knowledge through presentations and workshops.
The Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca in Transylvania is the largest university in the country with approximately 50,000 students and has a long academic tradition. In addition to courses in Romanian, Hungarian, and English, programs are also offered in German and French. This gives the university town a special international flair and makes it, alongside Bucharest, a cultural, economic, and scientific center of Romania. The city offers a very diverse architecture with its mix of historic buildings from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and prefabricated housing estates from the communist era.
In addition to the daily program, there was also some time left to explore the city center and the surrounding area. One day, we took a trip to a limestone gorge not far from Cluj-Napoca, the so-called Turda Gorges, which is a popular climbing area. Also in this region is Bran Castle, famous for Count Dracula. All in all, it was a very successful week with many impressions, and I would like to thank Zsófia and Maria for their hospitality and look forward to seeing them again next time.