Searching for Dracula

Having just spent a long weekend in Bucharest, including a day trip to Transylvania, I thought I would share a few things that we learned during our brief encounter with Romania.

Here is the map of where we went on Sunday

Interesting facts:

Romanian Royal Family

1. The first King of Romania was German. King Carol I built Peleș Castle as his summer residence in the mountain area outside of Bucharest (Wallahia). It was the first castle in Europe with electricity (run using its own hydro power).

2. He built Peleșor castle within the same grounds as a wedding gift for his nephew Ferdinand, who eventually succeeded him.

3. Peleș castle is closed for cleaning in November :(

4. Queen Mary, married to Ferdinand sounded like an interesting lady. She liked to travel & spoke five languages. She even had a mini Maori meeting house in the garden where she would go to sit & do whatever it is that Queens do. Mary was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England.

5. King Ferdinand was struck from the German family tree when he changed allegiance during WWI to fight with the Soviets. I think this is when Romania got back Transylvania from the Austro-Hungarian empire...(??)

6. Communism was finally ended in 1989, unfortunately the Soviets didn't leave quietly, killing a lot of the demonstrators in Victory Square.

Peleșor Castle

Peleșor Castle

Peleș Castle

The Maori meeting house replica outside Peleșor Castle

Worlds highest cross at 2300m

View in Catpathian mountains

Dracula

1. He was definitely not a vampire

2. Vlad Tepes Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) lived around 600 years ago and was the ruler of Wallahia (southern area of what is now Romania). He was the son of Vlad Dracul- the name Dracul came from his military role in the Order of the Dragon, which became nicknamed by the people devil, or dracul, particularly after he had coins minted with the same symbol. Our tour guide said that Dracula came about because the 'a' means 'son of'.

3. He lived in Bucharest, not Transylvania. He fought against heavy invasion from the Ottomans, and used impalement as a means of torture. One version is that he made up exaggerated scary and evil stories about himself to scare off the invaders. He was eventually driven out of Bucharest to Transylvania where for some reason they accused him of conspiring with the Ottomans & he was arrested. His brother Radu the Handsome took over rule.

4. Transylvania means 'crossing the forest' as you have to cross the mountains from the old area of Wallahia. It is an area on a big plain encircled by the Carpathian Mountains.

5. Bram Stoker wrote Dracula in 1890-something. He was an Irishman and had never set foot in Romania.

6. The Romanian government found that the Bran Castle is coincidentally a lot like the castle described in Stoker's book, and seeing an opportunity, turned it into a money making tourist attraction.

7. The castle itself dates from before Vlad Draculas time, and one theory is that the castle was rebuilt on the ruins of the original by peasants as a means of protection - as it sits on a hill between the border of the two regions.

8. Queen Mary took a liking to the castle, which was presumably in pretty bad nick, and in 1922 it was gifted to her, and she restored it.

Vlad Tepes Dracula

Spooky Bran Castle

Brasov

No interesting facts, just a pretty town we stopped in on the way back from Bran Castle.

Bucharest

1. Bucharest has second largest parliament building in the world.

2. In my opinion, it isn't as nice as Budapest.

3. Hard luck if you are a vegetarian

4. Museums are closed on Mondays 

5. During soviet times the leader was anti-religion and pulled down lots of churches. One church, conspicuously nestled amongst soulless apartment blocks, only remained because it was actually property of the Vatican.

6. It used to be called Little Paris, and even has a mini Arc de Triumph 

The Old Court - Vlad The Impaler's former fortress (statue of Vlad)

Church is the only intact part of the old court

A very ornate church in the old town

First of two dinners in a wine cellar - can't complain!

The local brew

Inside the upstairs part of Caru cu Bere

Parliament - >1000 rooms!

National Theatre. Just finished being restored to it's original shape after it was modified by the communist govt. Shaun thinks it looks like a kitchen sink.