June 17 & 18 - Castles near Brasov – a beautiful Romanian city
After only 4 hours of sleep, we caught a bus through some more
beautiful Romanian land. The road was quite curvy, but very spectacular.
The region of "Transylvania" (definition..."on the other side of the forest") is known for the scenic beauty of the Carpathian Mountains and its rich history.
Everyone also knows that Transylvania is associated with vampires and
Dracula.
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| oops...not this one. He's Count Dracula from Sesame Street |
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| This is the Dracula I'm talking about....ScARy! |
We met a guy named
Valentin who recognized us from our couchsurfing profile. We had
asked to stay with him previously, but he was going to be out of
town. We struck up a conversation and it ended up that we spent
quite a bit of time with him the second day.
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| Meet Valentin who really helped us out in Bar | v |
We arrived at the Bran Castle around 2:00.
There were many
souvenir shops because there are so many tourists! The architecture
of the castles is fantastic...so many rooms and secret doors and
passage ways, but the stigma that Dracula was on this place is crazy! The first documented mentioning of Bran Castle is the act issued by Louis I of Hungary
on November 19, 1377, giving the Saxons of Braşov the privilege to build the stone citadel on their own expense and labor force. The settlement of Bran began to develop nearby. In 1438–1442, the castle was used in defense against the Ottoman empire, and later became a customs post on the mountain pass between Transylvania and Wallachia.
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| We had our backpacks with us, so we took turns going through the castle. |
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| Ooh...this secret passageway is pretty scary! |
The character of Dracula was
based on a real individual - Vlad the Impaler.
Vlad's cruelty and bloodlust was truly inhuman - stranger than fiction.
Vlad Tepes was a member of the House of Draculesti. He was involved in several campaigns to punish the German merchants of
Brasov who failed to abide by his commands as regards to their trade in
his Walachian markets. His punishments were quite harsh. It is said that his victims were in the tens of thousands. (hundreds of thousands on one report). The name of the vampire count Dracula in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel
Dracula was inspired by Vlad's reputation.
This was one of Vlad's favorite torture devices that he used to get rid of someone who he didn't like.
This was a man who gained infamy for impaling his enemies upon spikes -
whilst they were still alive.
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| And to think I was in the same castle as this crazy man! |
In 1920, the castle became a royal residence within the King of Romania. It became the favorite home and retreat of Queen Marie. The castle was inherited by her daughter Princess Ileana and was later seized by the communist regime
with the expulsion of the royal family in 1948. In 2005, the Romanian government passed a special law allowing
restitution claims on Bran, the son and heir of Princess Ileana, and so a year later the castle
was awarded ownership to Dominic von Habsburg, the son and heir of
Princess Ileana.
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| Queen Marie |
After Queen Marie's death, she left instructions for something quite extraordinary
- she asked for her heart to be separated from her remains, encased in a
silver casket, and held elsewhere, for others to approach whenever they
needed for advice and support.
After some conflict, her heart remains encased in a cliff in Bran - fit for visitors today to pay wishes.
Many are disappointed that the Castle's rooms contain the paintings, furniture and fixtures of Good Queen Marie
(or at least, they did, until many were plundered during Romania's years
of communist rule). Many people are expecting vampiric exhibitions:
instead, the small,
relatively homely rooms come as a bit of a shock.
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| A beautiful church on our walk to find a hostel |
Here is my buddy - hope he will protect me.
We went on in to Brasov not knowing where we were going to stay for the night. We had a place the 2nd night, but we needed to find a hostel.
mmm..... we walked and walked and walked and walked with our backpacks.
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| Flowers are so beautiful this time of year in Brashov |
We finally found a place that was not full - a fairly new hostel. It
was very clean and new. There ended up being another couple in our 8
bed room. We went to bed without dinner as we were very short on
money. Romania takes lei and we needed to get more from the ATM
machine.
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| Feels like we're back in college in a dorm room :) |
The next morning after going to the bank, we went to a
restaurant for breakfast....egg omelet with bacon and tomatoes and
toast. It tasted so good, but no picture. :( Rich went back to
the room to work on the computer for most of the day. I explored
Brasov, going to several churches: the Black Church and St. Nicholas
church. Today was Rich's birthday, but he never wants anything. (I guess this trip to Europe will be our birthday and Christmas gifst for a few years to come) I did surprise him with a cherry turnover.
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| The Black church |
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| Aren't these two just the cutest? |
My grand daughter's name is Eliana so these pictures are for her.
Valentin picked us up in his car later in the afternoon and took us
to the nearby town of Rasnov. There we climbed through the forest
and went up some steep steps to the fortress. The medieval
citadel is considered to be built between 1211 and 1225, during the rule of Teutonic Knights
in Burzenland.
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| Aerial View of the citadel of Brasnov |
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| Pretty goofy guy |
Beautiful views and
beautiful weather. It's getting to be summertime and was quite a nice warm day.
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| This young man described all the weapons of war back then |
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| We sure LOVE our European experience! |
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| The Well legend is .... |
The legend around the fountain says that during a siege, the inhabitants of the citadel made two Turkish
prisoners dig a fountain in the middle of the citadel in order to
regain their freedom. The captives dug for 17 years, during which time
they wrote verses from Quran
on the well walls which can be seen even today. When they were finally done digging the well, they were killed anyway.
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| I bought a couple of German dolls in a Romanian shop - I think I'll keep them for myself |
We went back to
Brasov for drinks at a local cafe, then ordered a pizza. It was very
good, but again, no pictures. We met Florent, a guy from France who
was to be our next host. He took us to the narrowest street in the
world
Strada Sforii (“Rope Street”)– a 15 minute walk through town. (I have since disovered that one in Germany is even narrower. He said if we walked
side by side and neither of us touched the walls....we would have a
love that would last forever. Great little story! We did it!! YEAH!!
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| We walked without touching the walls - our love will be eternal! |
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| Thank you for such a nice day, Valentin and thank you, Florent for being our new host. |
Florent had a very nice
flat where we stayed only 6 hours before we left for our next destination - Timisoara.
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| His couch made into a large bed |
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| They show each other where they have traveled on Florent's map |
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| "Mr. Bubbles" (my PJ's logo) and I say good-night! |
After only 4 hours of sleep, we caught a bus through some more
beautiful Romanian land. The road was quite curvy, but very spectacular.
The region of "Transylvania" (definition..."on the other side of the forest") is known for the scenic beauty of the Carpathian Mountains and its rich history.
The character of Dracula was based on a real individual - Vlad the Impaler.
Vlad's cruelty and bloodlust was truly inhuman - stranger than fiction.
Vlad Tepes was a member of the House of Draculesti. He was involved in several campaigns to punish the German merchants of
Brasov who failed to abide by his commands as regards to their trade in
his Walachian markets. His punishments were quite harsh. It is said that his victims were in the tens of thousands. (hundreds of thousands on one report). The name of the vampire count Dracula in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula was inspired by Vlad's reputation.
This was one of Vlad's favorite torture devices that he used to get rid of someone who he didn't like.
After Queen Marie's death, she left instructions for something quite extraordinary
- she asked for her heart to be separated from her remains, encased in a
silver casket, and held elsewhere, for others to approach whenever they
needed for advice and support. After some conflict, her heart remains encased in a cliff in Bran - fit for visitors today to pay wishes.
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