Bloodless Dracul
Trip Start
Jan 08, 2005
1
24
135
Trip End
Ongoing
Transylvania,
Romania
Friday, July 29, 2005
We went into town for a look round. It`s quite a nice place. Lots of orthodox churches and one huge cathedral. The cathedral was really big and had amazing mosaics inside. Romanians appear to be really religious, but here in the only cathedral in town the stories of perverted priests seemed to be true. When young women approached him to be blessed he forced them to their knees and it looked more like they were giving him head!! We looked round for a place to eat. All the places in the Lonely Planet were long gone. There was a restaurant at the same as an old one but different name, so we decided to give it a go. It was really posh looking and we were dressed like scum, but the prices were cheap! Silver service had never been so good - especially at $5 a pop!
We made it through the night and amazingly I slept quite well considering I thought we might be pounced upon at any given moment by a leather clad Romanian mechanic and his young wife!!
Sighisoara
The train journey once again went through some beautiful countryside. I`d really been looking forward to going to Sighisoara. It`s a walled town and supposedly almost untouched since the 16th century. Lonely Planet says it`s a perfectly preserved medieval town. From the train it looked fantastic. We were offered a room by a guy in his friend`s flat. The husband seemed a right miserable git, but his wife was lovely and did our washing for us. We also had cable tv! The guy had said there was a medieval festival going on over the weekend, so I thought it would be ok. Maybe a few more tourists around and some medieval stuff going on. Should be fun, right? But it was about as medieval as I am a nun! As we approached, our hearts dropped. There were hundreds and hundreds of people, and we weren`t even in the centre yet! Mostly try-hard goths and ferals getting pissed. There were just people sitting all over the place. They were even charging to get into the centre which is where all the lovely old buildings are! It was a huge disappointment. We begrudgingly paid and tried to get into the centre but we had to fight our way over people selling shit. Loads of people just sitting round on the ground selling useless shit. It was wall to wall rubbish. Not a medieval thing in sight. We eventually found a play going on at the very edge of the town with a few drunken spectators. There was no point trying to get into the 14th century clock tower & museums as the line was absolutely massive. So we tried to walk around the town as best we could. It was jammers!! We walked up the old covered stairway that lead to the oldest church in town. It had been lovingly restored by money donated by the Town Council of Munich. There was a concert going so we stayed a while in the coolness and watched a traditional Romanian folk bands. There were some old frescos and what looked like some really old coffins. Not surprising as the place is linked with Dracula and is the birthplace of the legendary Vlad Tepes, son of Vlad Dracul (Vlad the Impaler of the 14th century). He was apparently inspiration for Bram Stoker`s `Dracula`, although neither Vlad drank blood. You can see the house where Vlad the Impaler was born - it`s now a restaurant and no, we didn`t eat there!
Next day we kind of beat the crowds and went to the clock tower early. It had quite a good museum and great views from the top. We did a huge walk around the outside of the walls and around the surrounding area. It`s a nice place without all the people. We went into an old graveyard with a mix of Romanian and German graves. Some had been pre-booked. There was a name and a birthdate and a space for the death date. It seemed almost like an invitation. Bit eerie. We`d explored as much as we could though, inside the walls and out. We couldn`t wait to leave this medieval rubbish filled bullshit behind!
Avoid Sighisoara at the end of July!
Brasov
We could only buy our train tickets an hour before the first train out of Sighisoara. So 6.30am and I was at the ticket office! In the bar next door the hardened Romanians were on the beers! At the train station in Brasov a young guy was doing the hard-sell for the youth hostel on me, and a smelly old man was trying to convince David his rooms were great. Whilst contemplating our options we were approached by a nice looking man - who had a car. His cousin`s place was across the road from the Black Church in the centre of the old town. We were there!! We walked around the town a bit and visited the Black Church, so called because of ıt`s appearance after a fire in 1689. It needs to be renamed. Clean as a whistle! Not a hint of soot! There were some nice old Turkish prayer rugs inside. Brasov is also an old walled town so we followed it round and saw a couple of old towers and gates. A large section has been restored though.
Bran Castle
In the morning we caught the local bus to Bran Castle, also linked with Dracula for some reason, although neither Vlad the Impaler or his son went there! It is a lovely castle though. It was originally a fortress for the town, buılt ın the late 1300`s and in the early 1900`s was renovated and used as a summer residence for the former Romanian King and his family. It`s presented as the royal family had it decorated. The visit was a bit of a rip though as ropes dictated the tour and it was way too short. But I did enjoy it.
Risnov Fortress
On the way back towards Brasov you can get off at Risnov and see the fortress there. We`d heard it was much less touristy and supposedly more of a ruin. Wrong, wrong, wrong. We went the backdoor climb to get in found it had been almost completely reconstructed. All newly painted - yellow. There were some good views and some good gory medieval drawings, but that`s about it. We went back to the street to wait for the next bus and a guy pulled up in a shiny red car and said, `Brasov?`. So we jumped in! Hitching is the way to go in this country!
We wanted something a little more traditional for dinner so went to this cellar place. Again, it was quite nice and we were dressed like scum. Our waitress gave us the menu and disappeared. We waited and waited and waited and I asked three other waiters if we could order, but we were ignored. We about to get up and leave when some other tourists told us about the magic red button. We pressed it, and abracadabra, there she was! The other travellers had also warned us about the free shots and appetisers. So I thought, when in Rome...... I downed it in one. BAD MISTAKE. I`ve had some really horrible stuff in my time, but this topped the lot!! It was truly revolting! It was so bad, it made my eyes water and I couldn`t speak! I practically downed David`s beer, but that didn`t help, so I tried the homemade corn chips and dip - oh my god! Could it get any worse?!!! Luckily the food arrived. It was good, but not good enough to rid me of that awful taste. What a lasting memory.
