Another day, another drive to a small Transylvanian town.

Driving in Romania has been more of a chore than a fun road-trip adventure. Even the major roads are often only two-lanes, frequently interrupted by spans of construction. Our drive to Sinaia was just 43 km (27 miles) but it took about an hour and a half to complete. So much of our commuting time here has been spent parked on the road, waiting for a man to flip his sign from red to green. During these times, the Romanians turn off their engines, get out of the car, have a cigarette, maybe drink a cup of coffee from the Thermos they’ve wisely carried along. It’s a cultural event. When we get moving again, everyone drives like a bat out of hell to make up that lost time, passing despite oncoming cars (we have seen sooo many near misses), careening around hairpin corners, and closely tailgating anyone going less than warp speed. Yep, a real chore.

So we did make it to Sinaia. It’s in the mountains, and blanketed with towering pines. The air is cooler, and it smells terrific. It’s kind of a long city strung out along the freeway, not a nice compact square shape like our Brasov. There is a gorgeous palace -- the reason we went -- but since it is Monday it was closed. Oops. We keep learning this same lesson, “Closed on Monday,”  but it just doesn’t sink in with us. Never mind though…it was a nice long uphill walk to the palace, through a pretty forest (posted with bear warning signs!). Despite it being closed, many others were making the same trip. We all walked around the grounds admiring the palace, which is in perfect condition. “The style is German Renaissance (you might recognize it as mock Tudor).” That’s what my guidebook says. I think it’s real purdy.

We also visited a monastery on our way up the mountain. We saw about a thousand Buddhist monasteries in Thailand, but this is the first Christian one we have seen on this trip. It seemed very much a working monastery, and some event was going on. Men in black robes were rushing around, and food was being unloaded from a car. We visited two chapels then moved on. I was more interested in that food than the grounds and chapels, quite honestly.

Later, after an equally frustrating drive home we were finally back at the hotel. We stopped in to the office do the check-out paperwork with the hotel’s owner. He’s a dear man, but once he gets going, it’s impossible to escape! The man likes to talk. He has a thick German accent that makes him slightly hard to follow, and when he forgets an English phrase he hits himself in the head with his palm and says, “mama mia!”. Today he described some progress he has made on another room (he has three rooms now, and through renovations he continues to add more. Slowly.). Since we showed some interest, he gave us a tour of all the rooms (very nice, with different designs in each one). He also showed us the cavernous old attic of the house he is still working on. When I say “house” it is probably not evoking the proper picture. This is a 15th century monster that goes on forever. It’s huge! When he gets done here, he could have a dozen rooms, a restaurant, a gallery… he has big plans... and a LOT of work to do. The attic was a little frightening, as I felt I might fall through the floor any minute and land in the restaurant below. He described the work he has done (removed the original triple-thick floor tiles, which were so heavy the place was caving in; shored up the foundations; improved the inner support walls, etc. ) He pointed out which boards to avoid as we walked through, and we made it unscathed.  

Because of all that hard work driving, we needed an ice cream treat out in the square. Then I went to work on my computer, working out some plans for South America. This evening, we had an excellent dinner at Casa Hirscher, recommended by our German friend as well as our guidebook. I had a niçoise salad, Steve a chef salad. Then back to our room.

Tomorrow’s agenda: more driving :^(. We have to get to Bucharest to catch a plan to Hungary. :^)  

Yesterday I commented on how the Transylvania I have seen has been surprisingly Dracula-free. Well today Steve and I found him alive and well in Bran. Oh my.

Our plan was to visit Bran Castle, an impressive-looking medieval mountaintop fortress I had seen in photos. My guidebook, Fodor’s, lists it as an “off the beaten path” attraction. Yeah, right. When we got to the town of Bran, we found Tourist Central. Cars, people, and souvenir vendors, chaos… a real madhouse.

We found a place to park just out of the main area of town and walked in, following a sign that pointed upwards towards the castle entrance. About 14 million other people were on the same path and things weren’t looking very good for a pleasant visit. When we got to the top we found a long line for tickets.  People were tripping over themselves and one another to get into the castle, and neither Steve nor I had any desire to join the fray. Instead, we found a little path leading away from the castle and followed it up, up and away from the crowd. It was quite a steep (read: strenuous) hike, and all the while I hoped for a clear view of the castle in the end. But it was not to be…the trees were too high and blocked the view. It was good exercise nonetheless. We came back down, saw the line was only worse, and decided to skip Bran Castle after all that.

Instead, we visited the town’s less-popular-but-still-busy open-air museum. Here were old dwellings brought in from various villages, restored and preserved…kind of like what we saw in Sibiu, but on a much smaller scale. Fair. Worth the fifteen minutes we spent there, I guess. After this, we explored the town of Bran, a.k.a. Draculaville. Crazy! There was vampire-themed tourist kitsch for sale everywhere… and people were buying it! Vampire t-shirts, Vampire wine, Dracule vodka, mugs, plaques, you name it. After checking things out thoroughly (and escaping without a single purchase), we had some bad pizza for lunch, and then got the hell out of Dodge. Whew. Bran sucks.

On the way home, we flirted with the idea of visiting the medieval mountaintop citadel of Rasnov, but were deterred by a packed parking lot and more hoards of people. So, back to Brasov. It’s nicer there… no vampires.

 
 

Everyone knows of “Transylvania” from Bram Stoker’s horror novel Dracula. In reality, Bram Stoker was an Irishman who never visited Romania. Some say that the character was loosely based on the local fiend, Vlad the Impaler, but in any case Dracula the vampire was most decidedly fictional.

We didn’t come to this area for the Dracula lore, but I really expected to see it all over Transylvania. It seems like something the local communities would play up… for the tourists, of course. I am happy to say that Brasov, at least, is Dracula-free. We made a walking tour of the city center today, and didn’t see one reference to Dracula... or any other vampires for that matter.

For our tour, we carried a tourist’s map of Brasov, nicely numbered and marked with the town’s main attractions. Along the way, we saw several other people doing the same thing, but no big tour groups or anything like that. It was overall pretty quiet.

First we headed towards the city’s fortified wall. The route we happened to choose led us to a bonanza of sights from our map, the first being 13th century Rope Street. This is a very narrow street and I could reach both sides with my arms easily. Hmmm, seems like the people at the tourist office were grasping at straws with this one.

Next we passed by two gates, the lovely Ecaterina’s Gate (1559) and the more plain Schei Gate (1827), as well as an historic Synogogue (1899), which was closed to visitors for Shabat.  

There is a restored tower at the old fortified wall just below Mount Tampo -- called the Weaver’s Bastion (the weaver’s guild was responsible for establishing and maintaining this area of the city’s defense) -- that houses the Museum of the Medieval City of Brasov. The museum was small and fairly unremarkable, with a few medieval costumes and weapons, and an interesting model of the city as it once was. We could not go up in the tower, as the tile floor there “is very old” according to the lady working the front desk.

Next up was the Black Church. It’s not black on the outside, but I understand the walls inside are charred from a long-ago fire. We could not go inside, as a wedding was about to take place. It was built starting in the 14th century, and is an interesting piece of gothic architecture. Pretty cool.

After wandering around the main square near the church, I wanted to check out the city’s other surviving section of fortified wall. It was pretty hard to find for being such a big chunk of wall! We finally found the thing, then walked along it near a small canal.  There were lots of teenagers just hanging out. I guess it is the place to be (no mall here :^). There we also saw the 15th century Graft Bastion, which spans the canal, and also the Black Tower (also reportedly burned by fire but not looking the least bit black) and the White Tower. From this area, we could see a path leading up the mountain, but it looked a little rough, unmarked, and very steep … Naaah! Maybe later.  And this concluded our walking tour of Brasov.

All of this took place late in the afternoon. I had actually spent most of the day -- from 7am to 3pm -- playing travel agent in the room. The bookings for Croatia are proving to be very, very challenging. Steve helped me out, and together we found accommodation for just 5 of 14 nights…yikes! I am now 100% positive that visiting Croatia in the high season will prove to be a huge mistake, but I already have the airline tickets and the car (which perhaps we will end up sleeping in), so there is no turning back now. Hopefully tomorrow will yield better results.

For dinner, we ended up at cute and cavernous Bistro de l’Arte, for tasty salads and wine. Steve also had Hungarian Stew, which was a little unseasonal since it was very hot in the restaurant, but he reports it was delicious.

Tomorrow we will hopefully be able to hunt up accommodations for Croatia (it’s right around the corner!). We will also visit the famous Castle Bran… where maybe we will hunt up a vampire or two?  

 
 

We learned belatedly of a gargantuan construction project between Sibiu and Brasov and spent FOUR HOURS driving the 140 kilometers (85 miles) between the two cities. Stop. Go a mile. Stop. Stop. Go. No. fun. at. all. It has been going on for over three years and doesn’t appear to be close to being completed. Road trippers: save time and go the long way through Sighisoara instead!  

But before leaving Sibui this morning, we stopped at the Traditional Folk Civilization Museum just outside the town. This is a huge park filled with old-style dwellings, farm implements, wagons, windmills, oil presses, tools…you name it. The entrance fee was 15 lei per person (about $7), and then they charged another 5 lei for taking pictures. When I asked for a map, she charged me 3 lei for that too! I drew the line at 1 lei for the bathroom, instead using the cafe bathroom (free :^)

Steve liked the museum pretty well, but it wasn’t really my cup of tea. There were no live demonstrations…just tools and empty buildings. I had no what I was looking at half the time since the signs were in Romanian. But it was a gorgeous day, and I enjoyed the walk around the park, even if I didn’t find the exhibits very interesting.

So then we had that excrutiating drive I mentioned earlier, and here we are now in the town of Brasov. Like Sibui, Brasov was once populated with Germans, who left their mark in the architecture. Until the 1800s, Romanians weren’t allowed to live in the town center (they had their own neighborhood just outside the wall). Today, the population is primarily ethnic-Hungarian. (Steve is looking forward to some Hungarian stew!)

Our apartment is one of three at Casa Rozelar, a huge renovated home in the historic center of town. I think the wooden stairs we climb to get to our place are about 500 years old (and definitely showing their age)! We are right in the middle of history here…it’s a wonderful place in a great location. We will stay here four nights, but when I saw the place I immediately felt regret and thought…OH now I want to stay longer. That happens a lot.

We got settled and explored our area just a little bit, finding groceries (we have a small kitchen) and getting the lay of the land. Our big Friday night out was right around the corner at an Irish pub called Deane’s, where live big band-style music plays every Friday but this one (the band leader is on vacation!)  So there was no music, and the food was terrible (I had a really wet salad and Steve had a plain dry hamburger that was served without any sides at all), but the Guinness was absolute perfection.

Tomorrow’s plan: finish up some bookings for Croatia, and go on a walking tour of Brasov to get a closer look at the history that surrounds us!

We are in Transylvania now, after an arduous 5-hour drive from Bucharest. We decided to depart at the height of rush hour (doh!) so it took forever to get out of the city. Construction along the way and bad timing with a realllly long train caused a couple of exasperating stop-and-wait-and-wait-some-more situations.

The area around Bucharest was nothing much to look at: flat and nearly treeless, with bad architecture and power plants. U-G-L-Y. As we got further north, it became mountainous, with lots of trees. The road followed a river, and it probably would have been picturesque if we hadn’t been so distracted by all the garbage in the water and on the side of the road. What’s up with that!? It was horrible. Plastic bags are the scourge of the planet.

Finally, we arrived in Sibiu, a 12th century town in the Transylvania province of Romania. This town was voted the European Cultural Capital for 2007. I don’t really know what that means, but I had high hopes as we arrived.

We found our hotel easily, because it appears to be largest structure in town, and it was right on the road we drove into town. Convenient! After a little chill time in the room (which is very blue and has a glass-walled bathroom--!!!-- but is otherwise just fine), we went out to explore Sibiu. We turned left from the hotel to walk up Nicolae Balcescu Street. Almost immediately it became apparent… we’re not in Turkey anymore! The cute cobblestone street was lined with cafes, and people were faced out to the street, drinking enormous beers or coffee drinks, eating pizzas, and smoking cigarettes five at a time. Aaah, European café culture. Except for the cigarettes, I love it, love it, love it!

The old buildings on either side of the street were in great shape, and colorfully painted…the architecture strongly reminded me of Germany. (Turns out Sibui was built up in the 12th and 13th centuries by Saxons, and it went by the German name of Hermannstadt for many centuries…so that is why it is very German in appearance.)

The town itself is quite small, and we covered the main sights in a couple of hours using a map from the Tourist Information center. Obviously, we have moved out of the Old Mosque phase of our trip and into the Old Church phase. One of Sibui’s main attractions is the huge Biserica Romani Catolica (Catholic church) that sits on the main square of town, called Piata Mare. [There’s another thing I love about European cities: they generally center around a main plaza or square, which is usually ridiculously beautiful and surrounded by historic buildings and cafes.]

So, the town is just wonderful. Everywhere we looked there was something delightful. Stone archways. Historic architecture. The town’s signature ‘eyebrow’ dormer windows, so it seems like the buildings are watching you. Liar’s Bridge (tell a lie as you pass over and it will crumble under you!), Cobblestones. CUTE. Love it.

Steve and I soaked it up, so happy to be in Europe. Everything so far on this trip has been so foreign and exotic (good of course, but tiring too), it just feels good to be in a region that feels somehow familiar and comfortable.    

Later in the evening, we found a great Italian trattoria just off Piata Mare, where we had a half liter of delicious Italian white wine for about $3.60 (!!!), fantastic salads, and a truffle/mushroom pizza. The town was hopping and all the cafes were full by the time we walked home at 10pm. Wonderful. I love Germany… I mean, Romania!

I drove into Transylvania from Hungary. I was staying in a hotel in the mountains in a very small village. After stopping for dinner and having the “Dracula” plate I continued on. As the sun went down the sky changed to a purple red colour. It was very strange and I know this sounds weird but it as almost as if there were eyes in the sky…I can see where the inspiration came from.

The scenery of Transylvania is absolutely stunning. There are rolling hills with green meadows everywhere and mountains in the background. The history is also quite interesting as Transylvania has been part of several empires/countries • including the Roman Empire, the Hun Empire, Gepid Kingdom, Bulgarian Empire, Kingdom of Hungary, Ottoman, Habsburg, and Romania. You can see the history in all the major cities • such as Brasov, Cluj, Arad, Timisoara, etc,. The Principality of Transylvania still has a large Hungarian and a small German minority population. There are many castles in the hills including “Dracula’s.

Check out www.europetraveltours.net for more info.

Dennis

Count Dracula's name was Vlad Tepes.  Vlad was born in Sighisoara in 1431.  In the 15th century Romania was made up of a number of small states, each with an independent ruler. Vlad Tepes was a ruler for a state called Wallachia not Transylvania.  Wallachia is located just south of Transylvania.   The name "Dracula" was first held by his father also named Vlad.   The name means "Son of a Dragon".  Vlad senior received the name because he was part of the Order of the Dragon, an order created by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund.  The Order of the Dragon was designed as an alliance to fight the Turks.  Vlad Tepes assumed the name from his father. In current day Romanian, the word "Dracul" is synonymous with the word "Devil". As a ruler, Vlad Tepes probably had some "Devilish" habits such as drinking human blood.  This was done to perhaps promote fear .  It was not unusual for the victor of a war in those times to "drink the blood of his enemy".  Whether Dracula took it a few steps further it is not known for certain.

Dracula was a very strict ruler.  He raised the level of punishment that was administered even for petty crimes.  People were hung very easily in those days with little mercy.  Not only were they hung but some were executed/tortured by having a 15 foot sharp-end pole striken or impaled into their body starting from in-between their legs and up into the chest area.

Count Dracula would then have these poles stood up by the side of the road.  By-passers would see the type of punishment Dracula administered to his enemies or to those who did wrong.  This act of impaling people earned him the name Vlad Tepes (Vlad The Impaler).

Places related to Vlad The Impeller I recommend:
Sighisoara • visit the house where he was born • nowadays a very popular restaurant (been there many times and Sighisoara is fantastic - one of the last medieval inhabited citadel in the world - its like traveling back in time)

Poienari Castle • this is THE REAL Dracula Castle • very inaccessible place high in the mountains, located in Arges County, near Fagaras Mountains , you have to climb 1,426 steps up the mountin. I’ve been there as well and it’s all worth it believe me! :)

Bran Castle (near Brasov) • called “Dracula’s Castle” just for tourists • Vlad the Impeller never lived there, just spent 2 days locked in it, while the Ottomans controlled Transylvania. Still a nice place to visit and you can find all the Dracula enthusiasts there.