Brasov Days 10-12

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Brasov is located in virtually the centre of Romania, 176km north of Bucharest. The city is in Transylvania and surrounded by the Carpathian mountains and as a result it provides a mix of amazing mountain scenery and German Medieval history in the old town.

Brasov is the most visited town in Transylvania and it was packed when I was there in August, as a result it is a little more expensive than other cities but compared to most of Europe it was a bit cheaper.

The following day I decided to climb the 900 metre Tampa mountain that offers great views over Brasov. At the top you can stand beside the Hollywoodesque Brasov sign that is lit up at night. Brasov has a huge Black Church next to the town square and from there the pedestrianised cobbled street - Republique flows down towards the new town. It also boasts the narrowest street in Europe - rope street - but this seems to be a bit of a marketing ploy as its just an alley!

That night I was joined for drinks by new chum Charlie from Ireland and we of course went to the Irish bar - it seemed to be the only place that sold half decent cold beer in the town. I spent the night being entertained by his stories of the 10 years he spent living in Las Vegas! The beer in Romania was certainly the worst I had encountered and what made it worse was that many places didn't serve it cold enough. Carlsberg and Holsten seemed to be the beer of choice which gives you an indic ation of how bad the local brews were.

Brasov is the starting point for many of the trips to the surroundind castles and all the hostels offer a one day tour taking into account Bran Castle (allegedly the inspiration for Dracula's castle in Bram Stoker's novel), Rasnov castle and Peles castle. The next day I went on the trip and as there were so many of us we got a free guide thrown in - woohoo.

The first castle we visited was Rasnov which was (I hate to say it) another Medieval castle, to be honest I have lost count how many I have seen this year:-) The exterior walls were mostly intact but many of the internal buildings had collapsed centuries ago. The castle has recently received a grant and there was lots of rebuilding going on when we visited.

The next castle up was the most famous (but not the best) - Bran castle - home of Dracula. Fact and fiction regarding the association between Bram Stoker's Dracula and the castle have become blurred so if you are wondering here are the facts (as far as I know:-)

Bram Stoker undoubtedly based his Count Dracula character on Vlad the impaler as he allegedly drank human blood and there's the stake think:-) Vlad's father was given the moniker Dracul as recognition of his efforts in the Crusades. In Latin this means dragon and the devil in one of the Slavic languages. His son was therefore given the name Dracula -as this was son of Dracul and this was a name given to old Vlad. If you didn't know Vlad's victims were impaled in a way as to keep them alive and suffering for as long as possible. The stake was greased, shoved up the anus and carefully manipulated through the body to avoid damaging internal organs and out through the neck or mouth. This way the victim could stay alive for up to 2-3 days - similar torture to watching X factor for 3 days:-)

This is where the facts end as there is no evidence that Vlad ever stayed in Bran castle, apparently it was something the old communist Government dreamt up but hey its a good story. The castle was recently inhabited by the Romanian queen and then her daughter. The queen was a descendent of Queen Victoria. The last castle to visit was peles castle which was amazing, it was only built towards the end of the 20th century so it is a baby in castle terms. It was built to house the king and made with the finest materials sourced from all over the world. All the chandeliers and mirrors were murano glass from Venice and there was marble and stained glass everywhere. The castle was incredible and a joy to visit, unfortunatelt you had to pay more than double the entrance fee to take pictures so I don't have anything to show except the exterior.

The next day I left for Bucharest.

Boring Bits
Stayed at Kismet Dao hostel in Brasov - very nice would recommend but warm beer!

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