Roaming Romania; Continuing to Stalk Dracula

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On the road again, and got to say, i think a pre-requisite to work in Romanian transportation is being rude, unhelpful, and worthy of being punched in the face until they smile. Aye... That out, after our toast and chocolate spread breakfast with a side of goat yogurt, we got a lift from one of the workers to the train station, and being icy and questionable road conditions, only managed to fish tail once nearly colliding into a cement bridge. Made it to the train station, only to be treated rudely and taken the next-door bus station. Got our bus tickets and drove 3 hours to Brasov; on the way i counted all the stray dogs i saw out my window, and in that short 3 hour drive counted 98 dogs, just out my window!

A girl driving in the opposite direction to us veered off road and rolled her car in the ditch in front of our bus. The driver stopped and all the men on the bus hopped out, tipped her car upright, ripped out her back seat and set it on the side of the road for her to sit on, and all got back in the bus, leaving her with 2 people from a passing car. She was fine, just shooken up. That was interesting to see all the men work together like that to help her with her car! On we went, to Brasov, to Backyard Hostel which was real cheap and they gave us a shot of homemade brandy to warm up, “Noroc!” .

Bran Castle and Castle Râşnov

Next day to Bran Castle , to the “fake” Dracula castle, actually a bit fairy-tale looking and nothing to do with Dracula or Vlad Tepes but popular any way. The town wasn’t very Romanian, but definitely suited and geared toward tourists. We walked up a slight icy slope to the modern-looking castle building into a museum area displaying old furniture, books, golden artefacts, bear-skin rug, a dresser etched with very detailed carvings of people and objects. Many rooms being pretty empty but with a fireplace lined with homemade ceramic tiles, similar to those we saw in the peasant’s museum. Some rooms had information on Dracula, vampires, Vlad Tepes, early Romanian history But the castle and the courtyard outside were very pretty.

After our lunch of a cream-cheese-filled pastry, we went to Râşnov, a small town just outside of Brasov, with Castle Râşnov and a sign that says “Rasnov” on a hill- very Hollywood like! We had to walk up a snowy path through the woods to reach it, ignoring the “closed for the season” signs. We couldn’t go inside, but admired the outside of it. Back to Brasov, saw the outside of Biserica Negru- Black Church, with old statues and clock tower outside .. winter isn’t always the best time to see places, but it is very pretty anyway. Walking back to our hostel, I counted THIRTEEN DOOR SHOPS selling all kinds of doors... why does this town need so many door suppliers?!?!

Sighişoara and the gypsy/tigan curse!

Then, with some difficulty with the transportation, we were off to Sighişoara, by far my favourite destination on this trip! Sighişoara is also the birth place of Vlad Tepes. Walking over the bridge to enter the very medieval-looking town surrounded by a walled fortress, with cobble-stone streets, we came across a young tigan (gypsy) girl asking for money, which we said no; but then in a language that was not Romanian, she said something to me and hit my chest with her hand, near my shoulder. I was afraid it was some gypsy curse and was afraid to eat any pie! ... anyway, got to one of the few hostels in town that is behind the walled-in citadel part of Sighişoara, and the oldest part of the city. We wandered around, seeing a Vlad statue, the area where he was born, a few museums We tried to see the town at night but were very creeped out when at 8:00 pm when we left our hostel, there was literally NO ONE out except a drunk man asking us for 10 lei (about $3). So we went in for the night.

Bistrita and Castle Dracula

Early morning to Bistrita, the starting point of Jonathon Harker’s journey in the Dracula book. Step wanted to do the journey Jonathon’s character did by beginning in Bistrita, going to “Borgo Pass” . But being a century later, and taking a bus , the only thing that was similar between our journey and Mr. Harker’s is there was a wimpy Englishman involved! Surprisingly, Bistrita isn’t too touristy, but do have a lot of second-hand shops. Not much to see, but walked around and ate at a kebab shop before calling it a night.

Following morning, took the bus toward Tahuita Pass to Piatra Fântânele, probably only known for “Castle Dracula”, the hotel that was built like a castle around the location Bram Stoker set his castle in Dracula, since an actual castle did not actually exist there. But a very winding mountainous road where you can look out the window and have a view straight down. Scary... But the hotel wasn’t too expensive or tacky with a lobby full of poorly done taxidermy critters. We asked to take the “tour” of “Dracula’s tomb” which was funny. It cost 1 lei (~30 cents), they had to contact staff before to get in position, and they had to tell us twice that there would be a ‘surprise’ We were led to a dark room where she used only a candle to lead us down a short dark hallway, to a room with painted murals from the book, and in the middle of the room was only a ‘coffin’... hmm... wonder what the surprise could be?... she warned us yet again of the surprise and a man leapt out of the ‘coffin’ as she blew out the candle, roared at us and ran down the hall. Wow.

Cluj, to Mihai's Mansion

After a night there, we had to head to Cluj-Napoc to meet a Mihai, a friend of David Vetalau's, and stay at his house before heading to out to start volunteering at Vetalau’s farm which we found on WWOOF website. But with the questionable weather and a storm blowing in lots of snow, we weren’t sure if the public transport would be running. So reception had to call the bus driver personally to see if they would be stopping to pick us up and we had to wait ~45 minutes by the side of the road waiting and hanging out with stray dogs. We didn’t want to contact Mihai too early, so we wandered Cluj a bit, stopping for a chicken sharoma sandwich and chips with vinegar, yum! We joked about how we would get full and his wife would end up making us a huge dinner, but we would rather eat incase we got no food at all. So full up on that, we called Mihai to pick us up, and while we waited we stopped at a grocery store underground. Standing at our meeting place was easy for him to find us as were had to be the only people with backpacks in that town for the next few months. Mihai was younger, had a very nice car, and said he didn’t have a wife but lived with his parents and that is where we would be staying. Okay, only a little discomfort with that, not too bad...

Then he drives us to his house-- or rather, his parent’s MANSION with an electric automatic gate from the road to their very long driveway. At the mansion, which was a very nice set-up with ping pong table, an upstairs balcony looking down on the main room; we sat in the kitchen getting homemade wine and tuica (a popular Romanian drink). We sat chatting with Mihai a bit, only a little awkward to think of stuff to say... until his parents showed up, and had bought food, and made us a filling soup meal, mushroom chicken, stuffed peppers, pickles, and bread. Already full, and here we have to eat a feast to avoid being rude. And to make it more awkward: the rest of the family didn’t eat, but stared at us, smiling, and asking questions!! I thought i was going to be sick with all this food but managed to get it down, and turn down dessert. His parents spoke decent English as well.

They took us to our HUGE guest bedrooms, and let us watch their big screen TV. I felt they were trying to impress us, and were watching our reactions to see if we were impressed. Honestly, yes we were, they were very rich not only for their country's standards, but very well off for western standards. But i am not judging of a person’s status like that, and we felt more awkward and ashamed being there as we hadn’t showered, were smelly, in grubby clothes, and carrying dirty backpacks, so we felt very out of place. But they had 2 bedrooms, 2 guest bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a sitting room, a pingpong table/recreation room, a kitchen, a wine cellar and bar, and they said they have more rooms on the other half of the house, closed for the winter because of the cold.

Slept pretty well but had to wake up uber early as Mihai’s dad took us to the bus station at 530a.m. They gave us a really filling breakfast before we left and he insisted on buying our bus tickets to Abrud. Such kind people... But now off to Vetalau's farm, a few hour bus ride away, to work on his farm for 4 weeks.



^Út Í Óvissuna^

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