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Published: June 21st 2007
Sighisoara in Fog
The fortress up on the hill, wreathed in fog. Ok, Ok, so that's Count Dracula from Sesame Street, not the Bram Stoker's creation, but it's as close as I could get as I haven't got round to reading it as yet. So the trip into Romania was a long one (22 hours of trains), and included stops at Timisoara, Teius, Sighisoara and finally Brasov. The plan was to spend several hours at Sighisoara and check out the sights, but fog obscured them for most of the day, so I cut short my visit there, and headed down to Brasov, which was alot better anyway.
Brasov is another in the line of European medieval towns, but what this one has is mountains that surround it and provide some of the best views I have seen. It also has the red roof thing that seems to be fairly popular, especially around the Mediterranean, and a couple of big town squares and huge cathedrals. After summing up the sights in the afternoon, it was a relaxing evening at the hostel.
The following day, I joined a tour that went to Vlad Tepes (aka Dracula) Castle in Bran, the Rasnov (Peasant) fortress and the palace/castle at Sinaia. First stop was Sinaia,
Dracula's House
Not exactly the castle you were imagining, but this is where Vlad Tepes ('Dracula') was born where we went and checked out the Palace for the former Kings of Romania. Now this was amazing. Whereas most places have been stripped bare of their treasures, this place was overflowing with art in all forms, whether it be paintings, carpets or closets. It even had a secret staircase leading up to the bedchamber for those 'secret' visits. Very cool.
Second was Bran's castle, made famous by Bram Stoker's Dracula, even though 'Dracula' (who was based on the real life person called Vlad Tepes ('the Impaler'), who used to kill invaders by attached ropes to there legs and getting horses to pull them and force them onto stakes. Groin first. Ouch. Not surprisingly, people were reluctant to invade after that) never actually set foot here. Nevertheless it was a pretty cool castle, and had secret staircases as well. Final stop was the medieval fortress of Rasnov. It is actually named the 'Peasants Fortress' because the peasants built it in case they needed to escape from invaders, or their own lords! Shows alot of trust that does. 😊 After more local delicacies, I watched 'Underworld' (Thought it was kind of appropriate) with others at the hostel.
Next day
Sighisoara minus the fog
Looks alot better doesn't it? was out of Brasov and down to Bucharest so it was back on the train, and after a couple of hours wandering around trying to find the hostel, I finally succeeded, then set out to explore. But as I arrived later than expected, there wasn't alot left open, but remnants of the Communist era are still visible. So it turned into a night of card games and laughing at the Israeli guy who lost every time.
I was up early the next day to get everything in in the day as I have a night train to catch to Budapest tonight, and according to the forecast, it was supposed to get up to 39 degrees. I'm not sure if it reached that, but it was bloody hot. The 'People's Palace' was my first stop, and it is huge! The second biggest building in the world in fact, behind the Pentagon. And built all because of one man's madness. Nicolae Ceausescu, the leader of Communist Romania leveled an entire suburb to build it, and even now it is only 80% complete. But work is going ahead much slower now than when he had over 20,00 forced volunteers working on it
for pitiful wages. To give you some idea of the size, the palace has over 3 million lightbulbs, so you can imagine the power bill for that.
After that tour, it was off through the 'Old City' via a museum or 2 and eventually back to the hostel. And it turned out that one of the girls there was heading to Budapest on the same train, so she joined me and I had someone to talk to on the long ride. It turned out we had very similar interests so it was a really interesting trip. So next stop is Budapest, and meeting up with Ben for a weekend of beer, All Blacks and maybe some sightseeing.
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pilo ortiz
non-member comment
man i was like wow i cant believe i am seeing draculas house cause my friend told me about draculas house that he built it and i didnt believe her until i saw his house i was amazed i saw his face with sharp teeth and every thing oh and why does he wear black clothes