Romania: Oct. 25 - 28

Sighisoara: Thursday Oct. 27, 2005

Brennan was excited to be getting into the heart of Dracula country. It took almost two hours by train to get to Brasov from Sighisoara. We decided to explore the area as a day trip because we didn’t want to haul bags and we didn’t want to add another two hours to our long trip back to Budapest tomorrow.

Just steps from exiting the train, we were approached by an older gentleman. He asked us if we were going to Bran Castle in relatively clear English. We negotiated a price of 20 euros (much cheaper than we were expecting) and then headed to Nick’s car. At first glance the car was old and small but it turned out to be trustworthy. It even had seatbelts!

Nick was a character. He spoke English and French quite well and liked to laugh at his own jokes. Brian thought he might have been a spy in Communist times. He was certainly full of facts. He liked statistics and we learned lots about the size of different Romanian cities, mountains and airports and dates of important historical events.

The drive to Bran Castle was about 45 minutes. Brian and I were surprised at how similar the colourful hills were to the mountains in Vermont and New Hampshire. Just the style and number of houses and cars were different. As we entered the town of Bran, the famous castle rose above the village buildings and dominated the landscape. In the clear sunshine it didn’t look threatening.

After a steep climb up a hill and a long set of stairs, we entered the heavy front door and walked into a small foyer. The castle was initially owned by the inhabitants of Brasov and was commissioned in the late 1300’s to defend the Bran Mountain pass, an important commercial link. Over the next 400 years or so, it was controlled by various princes to protect the pass and to collect taxes. Much later from 1920 to 1945, it was a royal summer residence. Count Dracula was never mentioned in this history of the castle. Some sources that I have read stated that Romanians prefer to think of Vlad Tepes Dracul as a hero and not as a monster. Most of the museum documented the royal years instead. I think Brennan was a little disappointed with that aspect. However both the kids enjoyed walking up the “secret” staircase and through the balconies and turrets. The old dark furniture also lent a creepy period air to the rooms.

Even if Count Dracula wasn’t mentioned in the castle, the surrounding stalls and shops were filled with tacky vampire souvenirs. So some Romanians are taking advantage of the legend. Of course Brennan had to check it all out but Brian was adamant that Brennan would not get another knife!!!! We had so much trouble getting the last one home that it wasn’t even a possibility this time. Also our driver told us that the prices were very inflated which didn’t surprise us.

En route to our next stop, Nick pulled over on the side of the road. He started having a very animated discussion with a shepherd. Then another older man in a horse drawn hay filled wagon drew up. All this time, I am thinking should I ask to take a picture. People in Romania have been either really friendly or really suspicious and abrupt. Before I could gather up enough nerve, Nick drove away and my opportunity was literally left in the dust. We discovered that Nick wanted to butcher a sheep for winter and stopped to ask a complete stranger how much it would cost for one animal. It turned out that a sheep in Romania cost about 45 euros.

Our next stop was the Poenari Citadel built in the 1200’s by the inhabitants of the nearby village of Rasnov to protect against invasion by the Turks and Tartars. Surprisingly this fortress actually had more history involving Vlad Dracul attached to it than Bran Castle. Currently a lot of the interior structures were under repair but the walls were in amazing condition and offered us some incredible vistas of fall colours, red rooftops and distant mountains. An enjoyable part of the trip was the twisty and bumpy ride to and from the citadel surrounded by blazes of colour and drooping wet branches. It reminded me of daytrips in the Gatineau Hills in Quebec back in the 1980s.

Nick offered to drive us to more beautiful and famous castles and churches but we decided to pass. It was well past lunch and we were all famished. As well I don’t think the kids could have taken another tour of a historical building. He dropped us off in the town center and we headed off in search of food.

By the time lunch ended we were in a dilemma. If we rushed we probably could have made the earlier train back to Sighisoara but then we wouldn’t have seen the town of Brasov that we had heard so much about. The next train at 18:50 was a lot later but we had reservations for that one so we decided to wait. We wandered aimlessly for about 90 minutes as we didn’t have a map and couldn’t find the tourist information center. On the positive side, we saw a lot of the town. It was pretty but not really spectacular. So after getting some groceries for the LONG trip back to Budapest tomorrow, we caught a cab and headed to the train station. At the station we ended up waiting for almost two hours on the platform because every time we went inside to warm up, we were accosted by beggars looking for food and/or money. It ended up being too long a time in Brasov.

Thankfully the train to Sighisoara was not too late and we found our seats easily. It was funny watching the locals try to outwit the system. One couple in particular who were dressed in traditional gypsy garb sat down in the seats behind us. As the first conductor passed through to check tickets in the forward cars, they disappeared. I didn’t really think anything of it until another conductor came by and punched our tickets and like magic, the gypsy couple returned to some nearby open seats. A less quick thinking old lady got punted to another section. We arrived at the station in the dark again but this time we were prepared and didn’t have any taxi hassles. Once again as it was late and we were all tired, we didn’t have dinner. Unfortunately for Brian lunch had been a little bit more expensive than yesterday and we purchased groceries for the train. So we were up to $17 US total per day for food in Romania.

As we were settling in for the night in our hotel room, the electricity went off throughout the town. It freaked the kids out because it was extremely dark. We managed to find our flashlights and just after getting everyone into bed, the power came back on. So Sierra was able to fall asleep without anxiety.

October 28, 2005: Romania back to Budapest

We weren’t looking forward to another long day in the train back to Hungary. We had all seen enough of trains for a while but we knew it was a necessary evil. Thankfully it was a reasonable start time at 10:35. We waited on the platform carefully watching the numbers on the cars as they passed us before the train stopped. We didn’t want a repeat performance of our trip to Romania where we had to walk through all the cars and haul our bags. We were car #434 and it was the first one behind the engine and we were even in the right spot on the platform. Or so we thought…….. The doors to the car wouldn’t open; they were locked. So we hopped on to the second class car behind #434 and tried to go into it from the rear. Then the forward conductor rushed to us and said that the car was closed. It was a sleeper car not a car with seats. So you got, we ended up having to drag our bags through at least 6 cars until we got to our spot. It was worse this time because we had to pass by open doors as the train was moving. Also one of the doors between the cars was locked. Now we were trapped between the sleeper cars and the dining car in the connection between them. There was a female passenger in the car but she wouldn’t open the door from the inside to let us pass. By this point Brian who was in front was pounding and kicking on the door and yelling at the women who just kept waving at us. Thankfully a different conductor heard us and opened the door. However he wasn’t going to let us pass until he saw our tickets. I don’t know where they thought we were going to go. A 10 hour journey between cars wouldn’t have been pleasant. By the time we actually got to the right compartment in the correct car, there were squatters in our reserved seats. They took one look at us and didn’t say a word. I think our body language would have been understood in any tongue. Except for a few more beggars, we passed the rest of the trip without any other distractions. As we crossed the Hungarian border we were surprised at how western and modern it looked after Romania. It had looked so backwards when we arrived from Austria. I guess it all depended on the comparison. We arrived in Budapest shortly after our intended time and we hiked the kilometer to our hotel and crashed. We were making a habit of this and once again we didn’t have any dinner. I’d like to say that our waistlines were slimming as our wallets were bulging but the lack of walking and the high calorie snack stuff available in the grocery for the train offset the missed meals. ( NEXT PAGE )