Finding Dracula - Part II

Brașov Main Square

When I arrived in Brașov I had a host for the first night, Aurel, who picked me up and took me to see a pretty awesome view of the city by night shortly after I arrived. Aurel was another awesome host, about my age, and we were able to relate with each other really well. We went out for some dinner after checking out the awesome view of the surrounding area (which turned out to be a lot bigger than I thought) and had some great discussions. We got back to his insanely nice apartment and hung out for a bit more before calling it a night and getting up early so that he could get to work and I could head to the free walking tour of the city. A great tour meant another great intro to the city's sights and what it had to offer. 

After exploring a bit more on my own and killing some time, it was off to my next host's house to meet up with Uwe and George, who were some really great guys originally from Brașov. They had a great take on things to see and do in the city, and Uwe told me a bit of history about the house that they were living in which was extremely interesting. This was the same house that he was raised in and it's been in his family for quite a while, including during the period of communist occupation in Romania, which means that at one point you had everyone from Russian soldiers to homeless people hiding in the attic staying in this place at different times and sometimes all at once. I felt like I was staying in a museum and it was so cool to be able to be in a place with so much history. I realized after he told me about all of this history that in reality the same thing was happening when he was hosting people with couchsurfing, but from a completely different perspective. He was having all types of people staying in this very same home but under circumstances of peace, respect, and learning about different cultures and people. It was in a totally different light but it was still happening in this place, and it was a really neat thing to realize. I had a busy day the next day so we had another early night and I got ready to do some more sightseeing the following day.

I'm Dracula! - Just kidding

It's not really Brașov that has many relations to Dracula's character, but not far from here is the castle that most people consider to be Dracula's castle (actually named Bran Castle). Without going into too much detail about the whole thing, the entire association of Dracula and this castle is pretty funny because the only thing this place really had to do with Dracula or Vlad the Impaler was that it resembles the description of the castle in the original Dracula novel, written by Bram Stoker in 1897, who had never even been to Romania and who didn't actually use this specific castle as his inspiration for the one in the novel. But nonetheless, it remains famous today and known as "Dracula's castle," so there you have it. Good for Romania because it really does help with bringing in more tourists to visit this beautiful place, and I'm glad I went. It was pretty funny to see all of the Dracula/Halloween masks and souvenirs that they sell near the castle just to promote the very ambiguous relationship that exists with this place and its relevance in fictitious history. But it really is worth a visit, and although much smaller than you might imagine, the castle is really neat and it's situated in a beautiful area.

After surviving my visit to Dracula's castle I stopped at another small town called Râșnov on my way back to Brașov. Râșnov is known for its neat little fortress that's situated on a nearby hill which provides stunning views of the surrounding area. The fortress itself is really small and nice but the views were pretty incredible. Sweeping sights of Transylvania and the surrounding Carpathian mountains was amazing, and spotting all the little villages scattered throughout the valley really accentuated the landscape. That place was also worth a visit and was a great way to top off the busy and exhausting day of exploring the outer-limits of Brașov. Some more great talks with Uwe and George (and their cats) that evening and it was time to call it a night and wake up early yet again to catch a train to Bucharest, the capital.

Peleș castle

Before getting in to Bucharest (NOT Budapest) there was of course one more castle I had to see (I guess two, technically). But this castle was Peleș Castle, regarded as one of the most beautiful in Europe. It's located in Sinaia, almost halfway between Brașov and Bucharest, so it only made sense to stop by on my way south to Bucharest. Sinaia is a really nice mountain town with ski resorts nearby. It really had that mountain town type vibe which I really like. I spent some time walking through the town on my way to the castle, and when I got there I definitely was not disappointed. The place was beautiful, and I took advantage of the student discounts to get a really cheap tour of the inside. It was stunning, and a lot nicer (and bigger) than Dracula's castle. After that visit I checked out Pelișor castle which is right next door. Less impressive, but still nice and cheap with the student discount. It was a quick walk down the hill back to the train station, so I hopped on the next train to Bucharest.

I had trouble finding a host in Bucharest so I resorted to booking a hostel. I originally wanted to try and couchsurf my way through all of Romania but I was happy with my hostel choice. When I arrived I quickly made some new friends (mostly Aussie's, of course) and we spent most of our days in Bucharest together. The first night consisted of a pub crawl (which is always a good time) and the next day consisted of recovery and rest (not always a good time). We took it easy the second night and after one failed attempt at the free walking tour the day after the pub crawl, we were able to catch the tour on the second day. It was another pretty good intro to the city and the sites but overall, Bucharest had a much different vibe to it than the rest of Romania. It was a much bigger city than the rest of the places I had previously been and the nightlife was much better. But in terms of sites and things to see it didn't seem like there was nearly as much (other than the parliament building, which is the second largest building in the world only to the Pentagon). I was partially okay with this after having a really busy week making my way through the rest of Romania, so it was good to take it easy on the sightseeing. I still spent plenty of time hanging out with new friends and constantly meeting new people in the hostel.

Palace of Parliament - Second largest building in the world

The two guys I hung out with the most were my buddies Minh (from Melbourne) and Justin (from Brisbane). These were a couple really solid guys and we had a great time hanging out together in Bucharest. We even got to watch the super bowl at one of the nearby pubs on our last night in Bucharest, and it was a lot of fun. I did not expect myself watching the super bowl in Bucharest but there was actually a pretty good turnout of people watching the game (mostly Romanians, I think – who knew they watched American football?) and a few really serious Patriots fans for some reason, so they were pretty happy with the result of the close game at the very end. But we had a great time and it was really the first American football game that Minh and Justin had experienced, so I think they really enjoyed it. We didn’t do much the last day since Justin and Minh were heading to Brașov and I was going to catch an afternoon bus to Sofia, Bulgaria. So we said our goodbyes and split up, more great friends gained with unknown possibilities of meeting up again somewhere in the future (which happens quite a bit from my experience).

I think that’s about it for my Romanian adventures but overall, I’m really glad I came to this country. I met some pretty cool people and I saw some really beautiful landscapes and castles. Now, the plan is to continue to work my way south through Bulgaria (and try snowboarding again on the way) down to Istanbul and Turkey, so we’ll see how things shake out!