Chasing Dracula

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I have to admit that the only reason I was interested in visiting Transylvania was because of the Dracula movies. But Ill have you know that it wasn't because of Dracula, but rather the castles and the mountainous scenery the movies showed. And although it wasn't quite like what I had imagined, I certainly was not disappointed. The train ride through the Carpathian mountains was jaw-dropping; mountains that were over 2500m high, lush forest all around, following a beautiful stream and every now and then a beautiful castle. After arriving in the city of Brasov, I once again followed a backpacker to their hostel (although I have kinda been travelling with the girl (Jacqui) I followed) and it payed off once again. I quickly ditched my bags and went exploring this touristy but beautiful town that is nestled in between mountains.

On day two of brasov I decided I needed to rest my foot by doing as little walking as possible so I agreed to an absurdly expensive tour that the tour ran. First up for the tour was Bran castle, also known as draculas castle. It is the castle that the fictional Dracula resided in and the real Dracula (a murderous and cruel king) may have spent some time here but never resided. It is quite beautiful, and yes it is above a cliff (however rather small) but the interior was designed for midgets! Photos will be put up in around 1 month so have patience ppls. The next stop was the rasnov castle which was situated on top of a mountain and had incredible views of the region, however the castle itself was partially in ruins. Our final and most jaw-dropping stop for the day was the peles palace. I have never seen a more beautiful palace or building for that matter, it looked like it was straight out of a Disney movie, ladies u should check it out on the web, it may be where you want to get married!

The following day I decided to travel throughout the transylvanian region to see if this picturesque region could get any more cliché than it had been(with it's mountain/cliff top castles and disney palaces) and it did. It did so with bloody horse drawn carts and farmers in their fields with pitchforks collecting and stacking hay (they were fit farmers...). The horse drawn carts on the twisty, narrow and incredibly busy roads made the Minibus passengers incredibly nervous. The driver was driving with a lot of aggression, scared the shit outa me a few times and one of the other passengers actually started praying! Dangerous stuff. I removed myself from the van at a town called Sighusoara, the birth place of the real Dracula! It was a beautiful town but I'll let the pics do the speaking. It only took me an hour to see the town and another 4 waiting for a train to brasov, which doesn't really weigh up.

Ive said that photos are coming soon, but they probably wont happen until I'm at a trustworthy computer, most likely when I'm in Germany, so please be patient 😊

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Photos

"Dracula's" Castle
Rasnov Castle