Brasov, Romania

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When I arrived in Bucharest Romania, I started asking locals what to see in Romania. I asked the landlord of the furnished 1 bedroom apartment I rented on airbnb.com. She gave me the name of Brasov and Sibiu. Then a few others I met confirmed Brasov and Sibiu and added Sighisoara. Another mentioned Dracula’s Castle, and added that the idea of Vampires is not known in Romania. Historically, Romanians did not create the myth of Vampires, but they are happy to have us import our tourist dollars, pounds, and euros, to celebrate the myth.

That probably means there are no Vampires, kids. You really thought that an extraordinarily strong character that throws people through the air like rag dolls, sucks your blood out of your neck with sharp teeth, and leaves you for dead, with bite marks on your neck, was real? Of course you didn’t. That would be like believing in Zeus or Thor.

If Dracula was real, do you think they would have noticed a few dead bodies around Transylvania? Do you think they would have noticed a pattern of hundreds of dead people, over many centuries, laying around with bite marks on their neck, and all their blood missing? Don’t you think the locals would have this myth in their culture also if there were such dead bodies lying around for the last few hundred centuries?

But that won’t change my behavior. I am still going to Dracula’s castle. What sort of nonsense would it be for me to quit buying gifts for Christmas just because Santa isn’t real? And, won’t it raise my status as a human being, if someone at a cocktail party hears I was in Romania, and asks if I went to Dracula’s Castle? I am going to want to say yes to that question, aren’t I? Doesn’t a trip to Dracula’s Castle guarantee that Mrs. Right will throw herself at you?



I hope they have a cool Dracula costume I can buy because my Batman costume has too many miles on it already.

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