Advertisement
Published: August 10th 2008
Brasov's Hollywood Sign
I thought this was great! Nade me miss California though...Well I 'just' got back from my trip to Brasov. That's the main city that is closest to Bran where the tourist version of Dracula's castle is. It's really not his castle, he only speant a summer or two there bit they say it is where the king was bitten by a warewolf or something hairy in the night that caused him to drink the blood of those he had conquered....
Anyways, the trip started with a 5 hour train ride from Cluj... most of which I slept through. I got there, checked into my hotel and went off to the downtown area to see everything. Downtown Brasov (Prounouced brashov) is alot more of the traditional European city you think about. With older buildings and even city walls surrounding it, you get the feel of life back in the day. I then explored outside the city walls and took a gondola up to the top of some mountains (it's right at the foot of the Carpathians I think). From there I ran over to the lookout point to get a quick photo before I caught the last gondola down... in an effort to save myself a 2 hour hike back down
Downtown Area
Very Roman [ian] Holiday! the mountain, in flip-flops.
After that a cruised around the outside some more and found a bunch of stairs. I think the sign which was in Romanian said it was the oldest watchtower still standing... dating back to the 1500's? Something like that. Either way, the stairs getting up to that tower were a bit steeper than they looked from the ground level. By the time I got to the top I was pretty winded but it was a great view so I didn't mind the lack of oxygen. I then realized my feet were killing me as walking around up mountains and stairs in flip flops wasn't the most comfy. I took a shower and hopped on a bus to the mini-mall to buy some better shoes for my castle explorations the next day. I paid a tour guide (translation...driver as he didn't speak any english or go around with me) to take me to two of the key castles in all the tour books. The Castle Pelesh (I forgot the actual spelling) and Bran Castle (Dracula's Castle).
The first Castle, Pelesh, was much more modern, having been built at the begining of the 1900's. It has running water,
Orthodox Church Candle thing
I just thougt it was pretty. electricity and central heating & vaccume systems. They don't tell you there's a 30 Lei cash only fee to pay for inside the castle pictures so I didn't get to take some. I did meet a nice couple who I exchanged email addresses with who said they would send me a few so hopefully that works out. There was also a mini castle next door to that, Pelisor which was the summer residence to the later generations of royalty.
Bran Castle was by far my favorite. Not only was the outside the castle image that you think of but the inside looked like a fairytale! It reminded me more of Snow White's Castle then any kind of scary blood-thirsty scary movie. I loved the architecture and everything about Bran Castle. I still wouldn't mind living in a castle, but I think I'd want it a bit more to the social scene than the 30minute drive outside of town to each of the castles I saw.
Overall, an enjoyable trip, however I'm glad to be back in Cluj.
Va Iubesc!!!
Jenisa
Advertisement
Tot: 0.051s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0289s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
