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Published: November 16th 2010
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Peles CastleIt is the castles of Transylvania that first inspired us to plan a trip to this region. You truly loose yourself to reality as you step into another century...a time of Fairy tales and medieval castles.
Peles Castle nestled in the mountains of Sinia, Romania (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pele%C5%9F_Castle) is like something out of a Fairytale, as it was built as a sort of "vacation home" for Romanian royalty. We were able to walk around the grounds, but it was not open for tours. However, we did find a lovely little cafe where we had coffee and cakes with Peles Castle and the Carpatian Mountains as our backdrop.
Bran Castle has become known as "Dracula's Castle" even though it doesn't have much to do with the actual Count Vlad Dracula. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bran_Castle). There is evidence that he may have used it from time to time, but he never lived there. Nonetheless, it has become marketed by crafty souvenir shops as Dracula's castle from the well known book by Bram Stocker. The castle has been made into a museum and is open to tours. You can buy all sorts of funny Dracula souvenirs, like tacky mugs and t-shirts that say "I got bit in
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Peles Castle Transylvania"... But there are also many beautiful hand made wares to be found in this area of Romania. My favorite find: reasonably priced hand painted pottery. It comes in different color schemes that represent the ethnicity of the artisan who made it (blue-German, red-Romanian, and Green-Hungarian). And Nick's favorite find: a copper still made by a Roma (Gypsy) man...of course!
After a full day of "castling" and souvenir hunting, we headed to Sibiu...which has been named a Cultural Center of Eastern Europe. The roads to Sibiu were some of the worst I have seen since we have been here. With seriously deep and wide potholes every few yards, we had to crawl along at a turtle's pace. We decided to stop for the evening at "Hotel Vestem". It didn't have the charm of the Beke's house in Brasov, but we were able to stick to our $40 rule (we try not to spend more than $40 a night on lodging...not too hard to do here!) There we had an amazing Romanian meal of braised cabbage and meats. When explaining how to make a dirty martini to the bar tender, he brought me a plate of chopped black olives. I
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The courtyard of Peles Castle will never forget that martini 😊
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