Happy Halloween...the Real Dracula

Happy Halloween everybody. As you prepare your children to go trick-or-treating or perhaps prepare yourself for some Halloween partying, I thought I'd share with you some pictures I took of the real Dracula that I took when we visited Romania in 2011.

Bust of Vlad Dracula in Sigishoara, Romania

That's right people, Dracula was a real person. However, he was not a vampire of course. Rather, he was an extremely brutal, extremely bloodthirsty (in the traditional sense, not literally) dictator of the part of Romania that is now Wallachia and Transylvania. His name was Vlad Dracula and also known as Vlad Tepes...which translates to "Vlad the Impaler." Yep. He gruesomely impaled his enemies on huge spikes among other nasty violence.

Check out my set of Dracula pictures HERE. You can see a bigger set of shots I took on our trip to Romania HERE.

Meanwhile, the quick background on how the real Dracula had his name attached to the now famous fictional vampire character is that author Bram Stoker knew of Vlad's history and how bloody his methods of ruling were and he simply took the name and applied it to his fictional "Count Dracula"vampire character. Stoker also knew of the superstitions and legends of vampires in Translyvania, so he set the Count's home there.

Finally, if you're interested, you can read about our adventures in Romania by clicking HERE to get to my "On the Trail of Dracula" series.

Romania: On The Trail of Dracula - The Real Dracula's Castle, Back to Bucharest

The morning feast in Tilisca equaled the previous evening's dinner in terms of size and taste. Elina outdid herself with a huge morning spread - locally produced cheese, sausage, meats, eggs, bread...the works. Perhaps the highlight were the diversity of home made jams.

Anyway, we left Tilisca on this - our last full day in Romania - with the goal of finding and hiking to the actual "Castle Dracula." Yes, it does exist. I'm talking about the castle fortification built by Vlad Dracula (aka Vlad Tepes...aka Vlad the Impaler) in the 1400s. Straddling the boarder of Transylvania and Walachia, the castle is where Vlad retreated if or when he needed maximum protection. Remember, Vlad was primarily holding court and impaling people in and around Targoviste. But, no self respecting ruler and ruthless dictator can go without a castle high on a craggy peak. Right?

As we drove through the countryside, valleys and passes on our way to the castle and the hike we'd need to do to get there, two things went through my mind. First, it's looking awful rainy and cloudy out here...I sure hope when we get there the weather is good and the castle isn't socked in with fog. And, then I reviewed in my mind some of the stories I'd read about this castle.

First, while the castle pre-dated Vlad and was used after his death, he is credited with fortifying it and turning it into a more substantial fortress. To do this, the legend goes he force marched a large group of local nobility from the Targoviste area who he as angry at all the way into the countryside and to the location of the castle...then made those nobles build and fortify the structure as slaves. So long and hard was the work, and so unwilling was Vlad to have mercy on them, that he basically worked many of them to death...clothes falling off of them as they labored. And naturally, Vlad tortured and killed many people up there and in surrounding areas by many means - including his preferred method of impaling people on a long wooden spike. (Left: View of Dracula's castle from the valley floor.)

Also, one story goes that during one of the many battles against the Ottomans that Vlad Tepes became famous for - and is still revered for today in Romania - his wife learned that he had been killed. It is said that reports of Vlad's death were a planned ruse enacted by the Ottomans to potentially defeat him amid confusion by Vlad's troops. In despair over her husband's death, the wife threw herself off the castle battlements and to her death in the deep cavern below. Vlad - not being dead - defeated the Ottomans (again) and then found out about his wife's death.  Legend has it that the Ottoman fake-out then became one of the key events that made him up his game in terms of being the entirely ruthless and dangerous impaler that the world came to know. True story? Who knows. Maybe. Probably. But not certain. A good story none the less.

Third, I'd heard that the castle is one of the most haunted places on earth. Given all that happened there, even taking out dubious horror stories, I could see how this might be the case.

Today, the castle is called Poenari Castle and we eventually got to the base of the hill it resides on about mid-day. Lucky for us, the skies opened up and the temperatures rose so that by the time we saddled up for our hike it was sunny and pleasant. Score! Andrei parked the truck at a nearby restaurant and we walked over from there to the trail head. Andrei said that we ought to plan on about an hour to get to the top. Um...well, not quite. Yes, it was steep. But, walking up through the shade of the forrest, we were able to make good time and did the entire assent in 20 minutes. (Right: We reach the top of the hike to the castle.)

Once there, we walked around inside the ruins and marveled at the view. There is a serious drop off on each side of the castle and you could see how it would be pretty easy to defend against attackers. You could also see how Vlad's wife would have easily died by flinging herself off the battlements and into the gorge below.

While we encountered nothing that would indicate a haunting, it was a bit spooky to think about the stuff that happened here under Vlad Tepes' rule. Check out some of these pictures. You can see more on my Flickr Photostream HERE. (Left and below: Shots of and from Poenari Castle.)

 

          

The castle is not huge, so we did not need all afternoon to look around. We poked around the battlements, looked at the walls, went into what remained of one or two rooms and imaged what had happened there over the centuries. All in all, we were might impressed that we had found and hiked to the actual Castle Dracula - the real castle of the real Dracula.

 From our perch we could also see back down to where we parked and the restaurant. After we were satisfied we'd seen the castle completely, we started back down the hill with lunch on our minds. Arriving back down at the red-roofed building we sat down for a delicious lunch of local sausages, polenta and cold beer - after all, we had earned it! Feeling pretty full, Andrei noted that this restaurant had donuts on the menu...like what we had in Brasov. Well, we couldn't pass that up. We agreed that it was unlikely that they could possibly be as good as the Brasov donuts, but that we needed to try.

After lunch, we took one more look up at Dracula's castle and then departed toward Bucharest for our last night in Romania. The drive took about three house from the rural zone of the castle all the way into the center of Bucharest. Arriving in the late afternoon, we rested up and then went out for one last fling on the town. Walking in the nice evening weather, we crossed a number of wide boulevards and went through a few neighborhoods to ultimately reach that same restaurant/bar zone we had seen a week earlier on our first night in Romania. (Left: View from our walk on our last night in Bucharest.)

Crowded and bustling with people out for a good time, we walked one of the narrow streets and selected a good looking restaurant to sit down at. Virtually all these places had outdoor seating and virtually all patrons sat outside...all the better to see the "street parade" of people going by. The place we settled on served middle eastern food - good middle eastern food. So, with Andrei we sat and nibbled on appetizers - remember, we had that big lunch of sausages and donuts - and of course Romanian beer. In fact, on this last night in the country I think we found our favorite beer - Ciuc Unfiltered. Wow. Really good.

After a while, a kid walked up to our table with a box that contained three birds on a perch, along with a little container of what appeared to be folds of paper. Talking to Andrei, it turned out that the kid was - for a price - offering to have one of his birds chose the fortune of one of us. Too good to pass up. Diane volunteered. The bird eyed Diane, slowly turned around and carefully picked out a slip of paper from among the many available and placed the paper in Diane's hand. The bird had sized her up and selected her fortune. Andrei read it out in English...something about good health and winning the lottery and providing a set of numbers sure to win. We agreed that Andrei could have the numbers, but that if he won we were coming back to Romania on his dime.

All of this proved to be a great way to end our trip - fun times with Andrei soaking up yet another element of Romanian culture.

In the meantime, we finished our Romania experience the next morning. It was a simple get up, eat breakfast and go to the airport. Oh, with one exception. We left door to the room's balcony open during the night because it was hot in there and there appeared to be no air conditioning. We awoke not in a hotel room, but a swarm of mosquitoes. What! We hustled our packing and got out of there as quick as we could. But, we were bit up.

Thus ended our trip to Romania. What an experience. So much seen, so much learned - much more than just Dracula. 'll have some broad observations about Romania on my very last post about our trip once I've reported on the Italy portion. So, check back for that.

After a quick breakfast downstairs at the hotel, Andrei dropped us off at the airport where we said our goodbyes and began our journey to the second part of our trip - Italy.

Romania: On The Trail of Dracula - Bran Castle, Brasov and a Hike

Waking up after a restful night in Simon village, we sat down to a spectacular Romanian breakfast of village-produced sheep cheese, ham, eggs, honey, fresh baked bread and hot delicious coffee. Seriously, check it out in the picture here...

All of this was literally and figuratively "setting the table" for our day - a visit to nearby Bran Castle and then touring the town of Brasov. Satisfied with our morning feast, we took off with Andrei in our trusty vehicle for the short ride to Bran.

Bran Castle
OK, the first thing to know about Bran Castle, is that it certainly looks like a castle that the real or fictional Dracula could have lived in. Craggy hilltop location? Check. Spooky towers and spires? Check. Birds (or are they bats?) circling around? Check. Narrow pathways leading up through a dark forest to get there? Check. (Below: Bran Castle.)

But then the second thing to know about the castle is that it was neither the inspiration for Bram Stoker's fictional Castle Dracula nor the residence or property of the real Vlad Dracula - although the later probably did set foot there at some point.

However, exactly none of that has deterred the good people of  Bran from hyping up Bran Castle as the place to get the "Dracula experience." Why? Did I mention how much the castle looks like it could be Dracula's? And indeed, at the base of the hill that the structure resides atop, there are all kinds of Dracula inspired items in an open air market -  mostly junky stuff. (Right: Sign at the Bran Castle market.)

But if you strip away all of that business, there is one more thing to know about Bran Castle. And that is that it is a great example of what castles in this region looked like and were used for. With a mindset of learning more about this rather than some fictional Dracula thing, we enjoyed our visit to Bran Castle. Climbing stairs, ducking through narrow passageways, resting on balconies overlooking the inner courtyard and seeing the various rooms - all with great views of the valley - the castle proved to be fun. Also, a number of rooms featured information about who really did live in the castle, when and why. One room in particular addressed Dracula - the real one - and also the very real superstitions of rural Transylvania such as vampires, living dead, ghosts and others.

When we were finished looking around, we descended from the hill and actually did check out the open air market. Yes, we did pick up a few funny Dracula items, but amongst the schlocky stuff there were a few stalls selling legitimate hand-made local items. In particular we found the table cloths to be pretty. After checking out the various options and comparison shopping the stalls, we settled on a table cloth we liked best featuring brilliant aqua and dark blue designs. Andrei interpreted for us and verified that the table cloth was indeed hand made in the local area, and with that we happily purchased it.

Brasov
Our next destination this day was the beautiful city of Brasov. Bigger than any other town we visited other than Bucharest, Brasov features a wonderfully preserved medieval town center with a great wide plaza in the middle. The reason for visiting here was simply to take in the sights...and eat some good food. (Below: Main square in Brasov.)

However, our first stop was the Gothic Cathedral that sits near the town center. Inside, we learned a few things that we didn't know. For example, back in the old days the rows of side pews along the edges of the massive hall each were property of a local guilds - builders, millers, blacksmiths, etc. And in fact, you can see the guild designs on the respective pews. Andrei said that guilds paid money to the church for the pews and that the more they paid, the better position they'd have in the church...and by implication respect in the community. They also apparently were in charge of "policing" their section of the church during services and providing staff for whatever functions happened in their section during the service.

The next thing we learned, or more accurately first saw, was that there were many middle eastern carpets hanging on the walls. This seemed odd for a Christian Cathedral. But, it made sense when Andrei told us that these were gifts from Ottoman traders over the centuries. Sure enough, Romania sits right on the east-west trade route used to transport goods from the east into Europe. Apparently to keep things on the up-and-up, the Ottoman traders would gift these very expensive and beautiful carpets to the local nobility and church.

And then the third thing we learned was that during the 1989 revolution, there was fighting in the streets of Brasov as various factions tried to either retain power or take it over. At one point, a group of revolutionaries holed up in the church, but the local military shot into the the church anyway. Today, you can see the bullet holes in the interior of the Cathedral. (Right: Cathedral in Brasov.)

Next, we walked the short distance to the city's main square. By this time, it was getting to be after 12 noon, so we thought the best thing to do was get a bite to eat at one of the restaurants bordering the square. Featuring umbrellas with the tag line "Brasov, Probably The Best City In The World," we alighted at a patio table at one of Andrei's now reliable selections. Good choice. Again, spectacular food. Before we ordered, however, Andrei said that all he would be getting is soup "and the donuts." Donuts? We though, "yeah right. Too much on a hot day and couldn't be that good." We were wrong. Seeing what he had ordered, Diane and I quickly requested our own order. Now, these are not donuts like what you'd get at Top Pot or Dunkin' Donuts. No. These were more like big fried bread cannon balls slathered in a sweet icing and jam, topped with a donut hole and powdered sugar. Huge, delicious and...possibly...the best thing we ate the entire trip.

Fueled up on pork, beer and donuts (yes!) we set out to see the rest of the town.

Hike
Once we were done walking the streets and seeing the sights, we loaded back up in our truck and made our way back to Simon village to take a hike. We did this by driving the entire length of Simon up to where the road ends, parking and then proceeding on into the forrest on a trail. Following along a delightful flowing stream, our hike took us gradually up through the lush green forrests. Along the way we had views of serene medows, small water falls, gorgeous trees and, ultimately, a fabulous view looking up at a poriton of the Carpathian mountains. After the hot afternoon in Brasov, the entire hike was a welcome departure.

Here are a few pictures from our hike...

One intereting thing we learned along the way was about sheep poop. Well, actually more about dogs. Here's why...at one point, Andrei looked down on our path and said, "I don't like what I see here." I asked him what he meant and he said that there was sheep poop on the trail, and that meant that there could be a sheep heard nearby. And where there is a sheep heard there are sheep hearding dogs. These dogs, according to Andrei, are fine if the Shepard is around,  but if he's not then they are extremely aggressive. He advised is to each pick up a sturdy walking stick and keep it with us as we hiked. We quickly complied. In the end, we never saw any sheep and certainly no dogs. But, the story also brought to light how pervasive sheparding is in Romania and how seriously they take it.

Returing to our guest house after 7 p.m. we could officially say we'd had both a very busy but extremely fun day in Romania. We settled in for another great meal from Magdalena. I attempted to stay up late enough to see the stars as there would be no light polution of cloud cover to obscure them, but I was too tierd. Both of us hit the sack and rested well.

The next morning it was time to say goodbye to our host family and Simon village as we made our way to our next desinations - Viscri Village and the town of Sighisoara.

NOTE: All pictures in this post taken by me, Marc Osborn. Pictures are not authorized for any use without written permission from me.

Romania: On The Trail of Dracula - Bucharest and Snagov

This year, Diane and I took a spectacular trip to Europe - splitting our time between two countries. One we'd been to before, Italy, and the other was a place most of us have heard about but most have never been to...Romania.

More specifically, the part of Romania that most everybody has heard of is Transylvania - mainly because of the Count Dracula and, more recently, vampire stories that are so pervasive in entertainment.

To be sure the lure of Dracula was interesting to us, but the primary draw for us was not Count Dracula of vampire fame because, well, he never existed. Rather, we were interested in the history of the real man - Vlad Dracula, also known as Vlad Tepes (which translates in Romanian to "Vlad the Impaler).

Indeed, based on our knowledge of the fictitious Dracula and the Transylvania he inhabited, both Diane and I read the biography of Vlad Dracula, prince of neighboring Walachia in the 1400s and no stranger to Transylvania either. And through reading about him and his often gruesome exploits (he didn't earn the nickname Tepes for nothing) we also learned about Romanian history. We also learned that so bloody were Vlad's methods of ruling that he was used by author Bram Stoker as inspiration as he built his fictional Dracula vampire character for his book. (Left: Vlad Dracula)

Given that we had a great time in another eastern European country a few years ago, Poland, we thought it might be time to check out another east Europe country. And yes, of course, there is that appeal that Transylvania has given all the movies and books written about vampires. Hell, it's cool to have gone to Transylvania and to be able to say so. It's proving to get a reaction every time I say it.

With all that as set up, with this post I'm starting a series of reports on our trip - including both Romania and Italy. For the Romania portion, the places we saw were more or less both important to overall Romanian history and the history of Vlad Tepes. Hopefully by reading you'll get a sense of what these locations were like and why they are important. Along the way, I'll drop some knowledge about Vlad, as well as food, beverage and such.

To begin the series, I'll start with...

Bucharest and Snagov
We flew into the capital of Romania from London via New York and starting in Seattle...all in one day. Literally, a whole day of travel. But, luckily we arrived in the late afternoon. So, all we had to do was stay awake to clean up and eat...and then it was bed time no matter how you looked at it.

We stayed at the nice and well located Rembrandt Hotel in the older district of Bucharest. This locale offered us easy walking access to a load of restaurants and centered us among buildings that show why Bucharest used to be called "the Paris of the east." We ended up going to dinner at a very good place nearby called Caru cu Bere. Featuring traditional Romania dishes and their own delicious beer all in a baroque setting, this meal really hit the spot. After that we had enough energy to take a walk the hip and happening streets nearby where there were narrow street after narrow street chalk full of bars and restaurants - each with outdoor seating. Quite the scene. Lets just say the 20/30 somethings of Bucharest were out to see and be seen. (Right: Out on the town, Bucharest)

We slept hard that night, but were in surprisingly good shape the next morning. Following a delightful breakfast in the hotel overlooking the pedestrian byway, we met up with our guide for the trip. We decided that driving around Romania ourselves would probably not be a great idea given the road conditions and what we'd heard about Romanian drivers. In hind sight we probably could have done it ourselves, but having now used the PAN Travel agency in Romania to plan things out, drive us and guide us we wouldn't have done it any different anyway. And, we arranged it so it was a private tour from just we two.

After breakfast we met up with our unstoppable guide, Andrei. Upon meeting him, we instantly knew we were in for a good time as Andrei has a positive attitude, a good sense of humor and a sense of adventure.

Andrei showed us the "highlights" of Bucharest in a driving tour in the first part of the morning, including the massive Palace of Parliament, universities, opera, traditional neighborhoods and the key locations where the revolution against the communist government happened in 1989. (Left: Palace of Parliament in Bucharest - one of, if not the, largest buildings in the world.)

The only Vlad Dracula angle in Bucharest is that he is fabled to have named the city and founded it as the capital of his domain. More on that on our second visit to Bucharest at the end of our Romania tour.

A more clear link to Vlad, however, was at our second stop of the day - Snagov. Located outside the city on an island in a pleasant lake, the Snagov Monastery is the place where it is strongly believed that Vlad Dracula is buried. So we had to visit.

To get there you have to travel outside of Bucharest into the countryside, through a village and down to the water's edge of the lake in which the island monastery is located. As we rambled toward the destination, we realized that if we didn't have a guide who knew where he was going we'd never have found the place because there were no signs at any time. But, eventually, we got to a parking spot on a village road right by the lake. Exiting the truck and into the hot, hot Romanian summer, we walked the bridge from the land over to the island and onto the grassy, tree-lined way that leads up to the monastery.

Entering the chapel, we marveled at the all-mosaic interior. Unfortunately, the monks would not let us take pictures. Suffice it to say that while small, the church was impressive. And sure enough, on the floor near the later was a picture of Vlad Dracula with a lit candle standing directly over what looked to be a grave marker. So, who knows...we may have (probably did) see "the Impaler's" last resting place. (Right: Snagov monastery, burial place of Vlad Dracula.)

After a leisurely stroll around the flowery grounds, we returned across the bridge and to our vehicle - satisfied that we'd seen our first real Dracula site. And of course learned a bit about the religious history of the area.

With that, we hit the road for our next destination. Along the way, we decided to try a roadside diner for lunch and boy were we glad we did. A true highlight for here, on the side of the road was a restaurant serving DELICIOUS Romania fare. For example, our lunch consisted of a rich soup, thick bread and a dish called sarmale - meat, rice, onions and spices wrapped in grape leaves (or sometimes cabbage leaves). Throw in some nice polenta on the side and we're talking a really good lunch. And beer of course. Romania has some great beer. Ursus and Ciuc.

Filled up and happy, we made our way to Targoviste - a town where Vlad ran his principality from his "princely court."

Check back to the blog later for the next installment of the series!

NOTE: All pictures in this post except the portrait of Vlad are taken by me, Marc Osborn, and are not authorized for use without written permission from me.