Transylvania WHORRR HORRR HORRR HARRR!

Despite the traffic we managed to steer Wickse across the Hungarian border through the chaotic driving to Sighişoara and into the heart of Transylvania. The plains we passed through were dotted with the most impressive fields of sunflowers and very green picturesque rolling hills. It wasn't too far but slow going with the roads mostly being single lane making for more madcap overtaking manoeuvres from the locals. We opted to stay behind something big even if it took us longer.

Fields of sunflowers in the Romanian countryside

It is here in Sighişoara that Vladimir 'the Impaler' Dracula was born. Judging by the view we had on arrival it seemed more than appropriate with the skies very red and spooky!

Sun setting over Dracula's medieval village of Sighişoara

In actual fact however Vlad didn't drink blood by night and sleep by day, but he was quite a ruthless ruler who did torture people and enjoyed watching his victims being impaled with a stake through their spine. Not very nice, but as it goes with Chinese whispers, by the time Bram Stoker got around to telling the story of Dracula's undead, it all started here.

Spooky nightlife in these parts!

Vlad was born just on the right

Great little town despite being firmly on the tourist trail, well on the trail of backpacking Americans anyway and abounding with plenty of undead souvenirs. They hadn't managed to Disney-fy the town just yet but judging by all of the construction underway I'm sure that will happen soon enough.

Great view from the top!

We traversed through Transylvania's rolling hillsides towards Brasov, where we dropped by to spend an afternoon before heading off to Bran. Brasov really surprised us and despite the cheesy Hollywood sign displaying BRASOV on the hillside (just in case we'd forgotten where we were, duh) it really turned out to be pretty flashy.

Guess where we are?

We had to pinch ourselves to remember where we were, Romania as we'd imagined it was not, looking more like a smartly presented Scandinavian township. Chic cafes lined the side streets and the buildings were all brightly coloured in coordinating hues.

Romania or Sweden?

One giveaway however was the ever present private security guards hovering about on the edge of the wonderfully renovated city centre. It seems that the city felt it needed someone independent of the police to watch over their precious tourists, and their euros too of course!

A short drive south of Brasov was Bran where we'd come to see 'Dracula's' castle.

Could this be Dracula's castle?

Well that's what we'd heard it was, but after cross examining the guide books we were disappointed to find out that no undead had walked the streets and that Vlad Dracula had only spent a few nights here during one of his campaigns against the southern counties. We should have realised when we read that it was 'strangely' popular. It seems the local marketing board had managed to place a few Vampire rumours about the place, realising that the blood sucking undead sold better than the reality of a restored residence of Princess Marie of England (daughter of Victoria) who had been married off to a minor Romanian king.

Courtyard of Marie's residence

It was once a working castle guarding the pass through the mountains into Transylvania, but all those traces had mostly been removed. Queen Marie renovated the residence from a border castle to a rather bohemian chateau in the early 1900's and it's this story that is told here. It was a good insight into her life here and shows how it was decorated by her in a mix of Near Eastern and Western styles, One can imagine that it would have been quite a change of pace from the English court in London but it seems that she adapted well and enjoyed a rather salubrious existence, vampires or no.

Arrrrrrgh, look out I vont to trink your blood!

EH