Desperately seeking Vlad

We are leaving Bucharest and driving north, towards the infamous region of Transylvania.

Seeking for Vlad Tepes, widely known as Dracula. But he is now sleeping, we will have to wait until tonight.

So far, Transylvania is not what we imagined, none of that atmosphere of mysterious hills and spooky Gothic castles. But we have just arrived, let’s not jump to conclusions so early.

Our Transylvanian route will last around two days and we will be following Vlad, we will stop in every town where it was believed he stopped.

Except for the first one: Brasov. Vlad never came here, but another legendary character did: The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

We drive through the centre and easily find a car park for Dora.

There are a couple of sights worth seeing here, which we have already made out when we were driving through. So we think we may well do this town in an hour.

Brasov is quite cute, quirky, covered in cobbled streets.

with a barren, large square.

It is actually in this square where the children that Pied Piper of Hamelin sent underground appeared, according to the local tradition.

Buzzy, young lively, Brasov has welcomingly embraced the cafe culture. We are tempted to stop for a caffeine injection, if it wasn’t because I have just had an iced frappe that I keep in Dora’s fridge.

There are always ready supplies of coffee at hand for emergency situations. If they fall below three of four, they become critical and Susu starts to panic! GDR

After the square, we move on to the other site worth seeing: the Black Church.

The highlights of this church is the outside. The church was name ‘Black’ after a big fire in the XVII century, during the Turkish war.

There are no remains of this fire except for this wall. It has not been cleaned so that tourists can take pictures.

And therefore, obediently we do. GDR

I have got a bit fixated with this church. Perhaps as it is the only second site worth seeing in this town.

Nice tower.

Actually this is the arse end of the church. GDR

Can you spot another quirk of this town? Yes, the Hollywood-style Brasov sign at the top of this hill.

After half an hour, we get to the end of the town. Time to get back.

Gary’s eye gets caught by the delights of a patisserie. He loves strudel. Here they make a lovely one. He goes for the ‘Mere’ flavour, hoping it means apple, his favourite one.

We leave Brasov.

We are now at the heart of Transylvania but we have not seen any signs of hills or Gothic castles yet. We keep a close eye.

Or next stop: Sighisoara, where Vlad first scampered about. We feel we may get the gist of Transylvania here and also find Vlad.

Sighisoara another compact, medieval citadel town, also with cobbled streets. ‘Cobbled streets’ is a feature highlighted over and over again in our guide. I guess it is a unique feature, not many towns keep these streets any longer. They just put asphalt on them. Cobbles can kill cars’ shock absorbers. Dora would hate it here.

The streets are quite uneven, I must say. They still haven’t grasped the concept of a flush pavements!!!

And… we find Vlad. A very tacky Vlad. You can have it in your tea,

or on your T-Shirt. I bet that will give you would look quite cool in front of your friends.

Actually, we would like to know a bit more about Vlad. So we pop in the history museum.

But before that, I confirm with the ticket seller that there is some information in English. She confirms there is.

The museum displays a collection of furniture and pictures of the XVII and XVIII century. Nothing about Vlad at all.

Also, we haven’t found any written English translation so far. Oh, hang on, a couple of warning signs: “Do not touch”. That may be it, sorry ticket seller, my mistake.

The museum has a tower. We like towers. Like fortresses, you get really nice views, and we have not climbed anything today, so up we go.

A group of noisy people are following us.

They turn up when whilst we are peacefully enjoying the views.

They are about 30 of them, and guess what, they are Spanish!! Yes, we are generally such noisy people. And we sound even louder because we tend to traveling in big groups. The travelling concept means different things for different cultures. For Spaniards, it means having a good time with lots of people. Visiting new places and experiencing local food comes as a by-product. This is true at least among older generations.

Plates with the the most famous cities of the world have been placed along the along the handrail of the balcony. We have been to 15 out of the 31.

We’ve been here.

And here.

We will be here in a few weeks’ time.

We don’t wanna be here.

A few more pictures of this delightful town.

I suppose you can get that Transylvanian atmosphere from here.

For me it seems quite alpine, almost Bavarian, and we get the impression that it has been heavily influenced by the Austrian Hungarian empire GDR

It all goes downhill when you come down from the tower, tough. When you get back to the trash.

What is it about fridge magnets and bottle openers!

Why can’t memories by your memories, of photos, or in our case, posts.

Why do you need to buy ‘made in China’ trash to remind you of your travels?

And a lot of this crap is really unspecific to this place.

Head scratchers? Catapults, plywood bow and arrows, I am sure we saw all of these crap in Tintagel, back in Cornwall in the UK. I bet they are all shipped out of the same factory just outside Hong Kong.

Do they really think we believe this is handmade by traditional elves in workshops in the forest. GDR

This is the house where Vlad was born and lived up to the age of four. It has now been converted into a restaurant.

Where most people have their lunch in Sighisoara.

A must-do, according to the guide. I bet the building is not even similar to the one where Dracula was born. But as long as the decoration reminds you of the legendary character it will be okay. It is then when they can charge you a premium for your food.

We get to see the 500-year-old coloured houses, are they really that old?

These ones definitely are. They have not had the privilege of being renovated. Too far from the touristic area.

There is a hill where you can get to by going up the steps of this quirky tunnel.

And at last, Vlad!!

Hang on, this is not the Dracula I used to know. Where is the black cloak with high collar, where are the fangs dripping with blood? And that beard, what is that all about? I feel I have been fooled like when I found out about father xmas.

Disappointed, we get back to Dora.

This town has lovely corners. We are so glad we came down a different way.

Our next stop; the town of Sibiu, but that will have to be tomorrow.

Still no proper hills, no castles…

It is nearly 19.00, time to find a place to call it a day. We go away from the main road to find somewhere quiet.

We may now be too rural. Horses are heavily used in the Romania countryside. They are allowed to drive on every road, except for national and motorways.

Ooops, a bit dangerous…. He looks quite comfortable there, though. It looks like it is us that will have to watch out for potential hazards that they may cause, not them.

We finally find a quiet spot outside this village. More of Transylvania tomorrow.

SM