Brasov, Romania

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Our preconceptions of Romania were not all good - grey tower blocks, orphaned children and brutal dictators. And yet, here we are in Brasov, Romania, and it seems all wrong. The buildings are old but restored and often beautiful. The children are noisy, well dressed, well fed and would not look out of place on Minehead promenade. Not sure about the politics, but the economy is clearly doing OK. Most of the cars are newer than ours and locals and visitors alike sit in the many outdoor cafés drinking a coffee or a local beer. The housing on the outskirts of town does look a bit grim. Huge slab-sided tower blocks sit side-by-side like a set of old dominoes.

Brasov has a lot of history – most European invaders and would-be dictators seem to have passed through. The city has a wall with huge towers, large parts of which remain intact. Each part of the wall was defended by a different set of merchants – ropemakers, blacksmiths, grafters(?). In the centre, there is a lovely square, where we take breakfast each morning. The square was the site of the last witch burning in Europe.

On our second day, we visit Bran and Rasnov on the edge of the Transylvanian Alps. This is Dracula country. Both these little towns have large castles that are associated with Vlad the impaler who was famous for his tortures. Dracula was based on the stories and legends of this time. The author, Bram Stoker, was an Irishman who read about Vlad but never made it to eastern Europe.

Both castles are set on hilltops but they are very different. Bran castle is all points and little rooms – it would fit in to any fairytale. In its centre is a small courtyard with a well, looked down on from timber covered walkways all around. The castle defended the narrow valley that it sits in … and enabled the collection of taxes from traders passing in peacetime.

Rasnov castle is less well preserved. It has an outer wall and then a smaller inner fort area, rather like a mott and bailey castle. The interior is in various stages of decay but the layout of the rooms can still be seen. While Bran is fairytale, Rasnov is more the set for Robin Hood. Rasnov is being restored with EU funding – we didn't volunteer to help with the stone wall building.

Travelling to and from the castles, we have seen rural Romania and it is clearly much less prosperous than Brasov. People work in fields with little machinery to help them, housing is more basic, cars are older. It has left us with the feeling that this is a country that is only slowly becoming more prosperous.

Tomorrow we are on trains again, heading south through Romania and Bucharest, its capital where we change trains. The second train will take us into Bulgaria and yet another new currency!

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