Days 12-13: Looking for vampires in the Carpathian Mountains

---

One! One castle where Vlad Tepes, who rumour has it Bram Stoker based the character Dracula, stayed! Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh! Two! Two castles where Vlad Tepes, who rumour has it Bram Stoker based the character Dracula, stayed! Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh!

The next leg of our journey has us heading into the Carpathian Mountains which are north-ish from Bucharest. We rented a car for this part and are glad we did. Getting out of Bucharest was a little frustrating but not more so than any big city at rush hour. Once out, though, it was smooth sailing to Peles Castle. It’s about 1.5-2 hrs outside Bucharest in the Carpathian Mountains. It was the summer palace of Romanian King Carol and was beautiful but insanely ornate. Like someone set of a canon packed with gold leaf in every room. Apparently it is good to be king.

There were tons of fellow tourists there and we ran into the lovely Japanese couple we shared our Painted Monasteries tour with (I know that’s not proper grammar but “with whom we shared our...” sounds ridiculous. I ain’t fancy). We were having a picnic lunch on a bench near the castle and heard someone yell “Canada!” and it was our tour friends so I responded “Japan!” (as one would) and we exchanged the usual pleasantries “what a small world”, “so nice to see you”, etc etc etc. When I met them on the tour I dazzled them (in my own mind at least) in the back seat of the van with my knowledge of Japanese geography. I only know any of that because my cousin-in-law is from Japan and I pay very close attention to everything she tells me . I then did that thing everyone does when they hear you are from Canada... “oh, do you know George from Toronto?” and told them all I knew about Oita and my cousin’s family - just in case they knew each other. Turns out not. Quelle surprise.

After Peles, we stopped at the Sinaia monastery before making our way to Braşov. Our hotel is in a historic building just opposite the main square in the old town. Very charming.

Day 13 we headed straight to Bran Castle in the morning. It’s the one reputed to have inspired Dracula’s castle in Bram Stoker’s book. It was the best ever...you really get to explore on your own and even though there were lots of other tourists there, you could go through at your own pace. The basic trajectory was marked, but it was so twisty that it felt like you were discovering each little nook yourself. I mean there was an arrow marking the secret passage so it wasn’t so secret but I *felt* sneaky going through it. Super fun and one of the best castle visits I can recall. It had everything -while we were there they had a temporary exhibit of medieval torture devices. I kid you not. Afterwards, we walked a little in the town of Bran (it was pretty small so the walk was short) and did some souvenir shopping. They had all sorts of stalls in a little market area at the entrance/exit of the castle where folks were selling everything from knock-off Frozen toys “winter princesses!” to fuzzy wool vests. Ma bought a spectacularly fluffy hat. It looks like a giant Tribble. Love it!

We’ve also seen a lot of road-side vendors in Transylvania - copper goods, cheese, veggies, berries, honey and some that are rows of stands with a mix of all sorts of random stuff: rugs, stuffed panda toys and plastic lawn ornaments. Because flamingos.

There are apparently also bears abound in these parts. I chatted with a fellow tourist (she was from France) who said it was the main reason she came to Romania and she had already seen two. She said we had bears in Canada (we do) so didn’t imagine it would be a big draw for us (even though we have them, I still lurve bears). I love seeing all animals wherever I travel, really, except pigeons and certain monkeys - bleah. Case in point - I lost my shizzle when I saw a squirrel today and they are everywhere back home. In fairness, though, this was a Transylvanian squirrel which have adorably tufted ears and a reddish/orange coat - nothing like the ones we have back home. Squirrel!

After Bran Castle, we went to the nearby Râşnov Citadel. We took a little trolley up the hill (it stopped en route at someplace called “Dino-Parc” before climbing up to the citadel stop). (I googled it later - it’s a park with dinosaur statues). We then had to walk up a little further to the entrance gate. The citadel itself wasn’t in great shape so it was rough walking around the very uneven paths/streets but was still interesting to see.

We returned to the lovely Braşov and after a wee bite and a short rest, headed back out to explore more of the old town. It’s big enough bough that you feel like your exploring, but small enough that it easy to get familiar with it quickly. It has lots of restos, cafés, shops, markets, that you could probably get whatever you need within walking distance. My favourite in the town itself was the Black Church (built in the late 14th century). It was impressive and had information on music stands throughout (more churches should do this)about the history of the church and explaining specific points of interest (“these pews belonged to the tailors guild and if you look along the front, there are paintings of the 10 virtues...”). Really interesting stuff so we spent some time there. T commented that the Black Church reminded her of the church in “Pillars of the Earth” and now I want to re-read it. And I have to re-read “Dracula” as well now. A little more thrilling reads than my last on-a-trip inspired book purchase - a book about geology which I didn’t finish. It was too thinky.

---

Photos

Peles ballroom
One of three - this one was inspired by the Alhambra