Dracula! Dracula! Dracula!

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Up early as we wanted to skip Bucharest traffic (which I completely understood now!) had breakfast (they had fresh red peppers slices at breakfast so I grabbed a handful for snacking on the coach later!) and asked Hendrik about the possibility of my clothes. He immediate said no, as clients often leave clothes behind to ‘throw away’ so its company policy to either throw them out or if the staff want they can keep. I was flabbergasted (while understanding at the same time) as I knew mine were neatly folded and tucked away; hopefully NOT looking like garbage or unwanted. But he said he would phone the ship; but little to no chance they still existed. I was crushed; not only at the monetary value lost, but again all my fav long sleeved shirts/dress tops and one my Aunt had just bought me at Christmas so while I know it’s not very Buddhist of me to care; I was really upset. Truthfully I’m starting to worry about me; I never lose things, I don’t forget things, and this trip I’ve proven to do both. Was I letting my guard down because I’m on a 5* trip, or distracted by traveling with someone and not doing my usual obsessive OCD routine? Little worried and frustrated at myself regardless.

OK, back to the fun stuff readers - sorry had to digress briefly while I swim around in my pity pool....

Boarded the coach for our 3 hour drive to Transylvania to see Dracula’s Castle. Except we are to call it Bram’s Castle; as apparently Paramount actually owns the rights to the name “Dracula”. How ironic yet again that the rich get richer and the poor well, stay poor. Anyhoo…….

We did have a comfort stop along the way to stretch our legs and such and then continued on our way. Transylvania is beautiful, stunning and spectacular all at the same time. Lush hill side, wonderful farm land and these magnificent snow peaked mountains in the background. Definitely many photo opportunities and while I was blogging for the first bit through Bucharest; once the scenery continued to be amazing I put the computer away and simply enjoyed the scenery.

One of the things that is interesting is there is a huge German influence in Transylvania and many houses are Tudor style, Dennis having lived in Germany in his youth was very much reminded of Bavaria in particular. There were Teutonic Knights from Germany that arrived in the area in the early 13th century which explains it, so it’s an interesting compilation of houses/buildings.

Now here comes the 'sad news': Sorry to disappoint everyone; but Bram’s Castle really isn’t Dracula’s castle; or was it even lived in by Vlad the Impaler (which many say is where Bram Stoker got the idea for Dracula). Vlad was known to have visited the castle on occasion; but ultimately it was owned by Romanian royalty until communism and the Russians took it away from them, but it was eventually returned in the early 90’s to the family; who while still own it today and opened it up to tourism. I don’t care; I played with the Dracula theory as it’s far more fun and entertaining, and hell, it’s been on my bucket list for years!!! It’s a stunning piece of architecture built literally into the side of a mountain and towers over the small village below (that exists because of it). We are fairly high up - the Carpathian mountains in this area are about 3-4000 meters, however we were only at 1500, but the hairpin road we took to get there was treacherous enough on the coach.

Had quite a bit of time to explore the castle itself (again plaques were in both languages explaining each room); but we were almost late getting down for lunch as it was so interesting and we were taking our time(the group had split up as the castle is fairly self explanatory with lots of plaques in English). We had a bit of time for exploring and shopping (of course) so I managed to go back to a store we had walked through initially and bought, wait for it..... a long sleeved shirt! A: it was really pretty and feminine (yes I have my rare moments) and was still fairly economical. Making the best of a bad situation, right :-)

After lunch we headed off to Sibiu to see the Monastery and the old walled city; we were lucky to be there at 'call to prayer time' and got to watch and listen to a monk performing this by using wooden mallets on a large board up by the main bell in the tower. Very rhythmic and mesmerizing. Then he rang the bell a few times (large one) and came down and he offered to answer questions via translation of our local guide Marianne. Sadly the first question someone thought of was to ask 'why do you wear black'. Well, wouldn't have been my first choice, but I managed to ask him about what a typical day would be like and he was telling us about how the monks focus is to work on their mind, spirit and body throughout the day so a lot of studying educational plus spiritual of course, and time for reflection on their learning's, and of course maintaining the monastery. He joined the monastary 19 years ago and he kept grinning from ear to ear and he looked so truthfully happy! Then someone asked him another less than stellar question and he decided he needed to continue on :-)

We came back to Bucharest, and wandered back to the Falafal Palace (why fix if it's not broken) and took a window seat and people watched on the main drag on a friday night. Was really neat to see physical characteristics, fashion, behaviors and such. Romanians are not tall (yay - now I know why I'm not lol) and Dennis says he can see their facial features in me which is also cool. There is a lot of fashion sense here, again going back to the cars here, going to a high sense of presentation. But fun. Then we wandered back and one of the Opera houses is across from our hotel, and they had a performance that night, but we had heard it was an opera singer so had decided not to go. But they were on intermission so we went to stick our heads in to see the interior and it did not disappoint. Then we saw Pat and Chris (guests from the cruise) and it was suggested we come in to watch the second half of the symphony. I immediately felt guilty, but no one was checking tickets (and they had admitted their tickets were only like $10 each), but nonetheless my heart was racing waiting to get dragged out by my non-existent hair and thrown into a jail never to be heard from again.

Well needless to say that didn't happen and we heard absolutely wonderful music for the next half hour, and were sitting in the second row right in front of the staged (not tiered so actually about 1.5 feet below them) watching the violinists and their finger movements. It was music to the ears, and the eyes and watching the maestro doing is crazy twitchy dance that creates all that music was entertaining. I loved it - both Dennis and I thought it was a perfect end to a wonderful day! MORE PHOTOS BELOW.....

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