We arrived in Brașov (BRAH-shov) on a Saturday night, totally exhausted from our 10-hour road trip along the Transfagarasan (part 2 of our trip; check out part 1 here). But the city greeted us with stunning medieval facades, so we had to go out and enjoy them until we couldn’t stay awake anymore. We feasted on polenta, meat, and cheese, and crashed at our air BnB around 11PM.

Day 1: Wow, it’s super cold here

The next morning we woke up fresh as spring chickens to go see the medieval town of Brașov. The city lies in the center of the three main parts of Romania: Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia. It belongs to Transylvania, and is considered the frontier of the West that leads to the East. Under Communism in the 70s and 80s, Brașov old town was somehow spared from the architectural massacre that ruined large chunks of Bucharest. The result is a place which transcends time and a massive tourist destination.

We started out the day with a quick hike up Mount Tampa, at which point I realized that my iron levels were truly depleted. Everyone on the internet told us this was more of a leisurely stroll than a hike, but my muscles begged to differ. We hiked up to about 422 meters (about 1400 feet) in an hour and a half with sweet little rewarding views of the red roofs of Brașov on the way. After a beer at the top, we took the cable car down (10RON, about $2.50 per person). At the top of Mount Tampa is a Hollywood-style Brașov sign! We actually didn’t make it to the back of the sign because we didn’t know where it was and couldn’t read the signs in Romanian if they told us how to get to the look-out points. It was OK. We still enjoyed the trip!

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city and marveling at its splendor. Included were Catherine’s gate, the main plaza, and another mini-hike up to the top of another tiny mountain to see the Carolinenthor.

Catherine’s Gate was built in 1559 for defensive purposes, and is the only remaining part of the city gate to remain since medieval times! The four small corner turrets on the top of the gate symbolized that the city had judicial autonomy: they could punish wrongdoers with the sword if necessary. The Saxons ruled Transylvania from the 13th to the 17th centuries, during which time Romanians were not allowed to enter through any other entrance besides Catherine’s Gate. They were also not allowed to own property inside the fortress walls.

Carolinenthor castle was built in 1580 and pretty much hasn’t been changed on the outside since. We arrived too late to get to see the inside, but walked around the perimeter to get a feel for the size of it. The inside is apparently often used for weddings and fine dining. That makes sense to me — not every castle in Europe can be used as a museum/tourist attraction, since you pretty much trip over them wherever you go!

In the evening, we concluded that we had not packed correctly from the subtropics and needed to buy jackets. To be fair, Romania has been unseasonably cold since we arrived, but it is a bit ridiculous to feel freezing in the middle of July (the mountain air has been a crisp 54-60F) Both from a local brand called Cato made in Romania (read: half the price of the jackets at the Columbia store), I bought a bright yellow ghost-shaped vest that comes down to my knees, and Seth bought a poofy down jacket.

We were quite happy with our purchases, and went to sleep after some delicious Romanian gulash and polenta in a nice warm bed.

Day 2: #thattouristlife

We decided to spend our second day in Brașov in the castles that were open, which turned out to be a good decision because it was rainy and cold as hell and we could seek some refuge inside them. Our first stop was Rașnov (RASH-nov) Citadel, a 700-year old fortress which was actually built on top of some ruins of the Dacians, who had settled before the Romans came to the area around 100C.E. Rașnov fortress was designed as a place of refuge with a school, a chapel, around 30 homes and defense systems, making it a nice place to hang out in case of an invasion. There were steep slopes on 3 of the 4 sides, also making it very difficult to attack.

The visit was nice, but a little disappointing that there was very little information in English to help us understand what we were looking at. Luckily we had our Romanian sim card, which helped us learn a bit more on the fly.

Our next stop was probably one of the most renowned castles in Europe: Bran Castle, also known as Dracula’s castle!

Before I go into what it is, however, I have to burst any bubbles that might be inflating a bit. First off, Dracula is a 19th century fictional character by Irish novelist Bram Stoker VERY loosely based on the 15th century Prince of Wallachia (not Transylvania) who loved to impale people, particularly the Turks. This is fascinating to me, so I read the book “Dracula” and did a bit of research on Vlad Tepeș and decided to make a comparison chart.

It should be noted that Vlad Tepeș was the son of Vlad Dracul, whose name “Dracul” means “of the Devil.”

The castle itself has a much less interesting history of about 600 years and belonging to many families and being well preserved, before it was eventually donated as a museum by some Hapsburg. 

So why is Bran Castle even remotely connected with Dracula in the first place?? Bram Stoker visited Transylvania (then not yet a part of a united Romania) while doing research for the book, and may have been inspired by the castle. Dracula, his gothic thriller of 1897, became so popular in the 20th century that the Romanian government thought they would cash in and started marketing it to Westerners who were fans of the book as “the real Dracula’s castle!” And there you have it, the place where at least 50% of the tourists in Romania are on any given day. Or at least, that’s what it felt like. Damn, it was crowded — and on a rainy Monday at 2PM!

We shelled out the extra 10lei (about $2.50 on top of a 40lei/$10 entry ticket) for access to the medieval torture exhibit, which was totally worth it — if not only to get away from the masses. It might have been the most interesting part of the castle, anyway. It was totally horrifying.

The final experience at Bran Castle involved an elevator to the ground floor some 60 feet below the castle, where we got to take a selfie with the family which was pretty sweet.

In the evening, totally exhausted from fighting the rain and cold, we crashed.

Day 3: Hiking in the Carpathians

We found a day hike on a German hiking website called Kohoot and then followed extremely vague instructions for how to get there. In sum: park at a random Bed and Breakfast in the middle of a country road made of gravel. Ask the Romanian innkeeper if you can park there, only to discover that he doesn’t understand you. Rejoice when you have a common tongue (German). Ask him how to get to the hike, at which point he will send you down a path (stream bed?) through cow pasture and give up when he tells you to turn right but points to the left. Walk down the path anyway and hope you find something, then turn around a few hours later when you remember that you didn’t bring any water and need to get back to civilization before you’re late for the organ concert you bought tickets for earlier.

Later we found out that the name of this national park is Piatra Caraiuliu National Park and can probably be accessed more easily with that information.

Formed by limestone, the structure of the cliffs is very special to the area. Look at how the grooves all move together like an EKG reading.

In the evening, we went to an organ concert in the black church, with arrangements for organ originally by Bach. The organ is the biggest one in Romania and filled the enormous evangelical cathedral. We were lucky enough to sit behind a family with 3 children who really didn’t want to be there. So we closed our eyes and let the sounds of the organ penetrate our souls.

Day 4: Sinaia

Our last day in Brașov was the only day Peleș Castle, the summer palace of Charles I, would be open besides Sunday. So we woke up early and hit the road to beat the lines, as recommended on Tripadvisor.

It didn’t help. We waited in line for an hour to go inside. We really should have parked at 8:30 to walk the half hour to the castle, which opened at 9:15. Warning to anyone who wants to go with children or anyone who has trouble walking: you have to go up a hill to get there.

But the palace was totally splendid. Every room was decorated from floor to ceiling with artistry. It was definitely more impressive than Bran Castle. It was a very new castle for Europe, built at the end of the 19th century with central heating, running water, and an elevator.

The negatives: the place also has a very strict “no photography” rule unless you pay the cost of an additional ticket. I can understand not wanting people to take a picture of a religious site, but once I pay my entrance fee of about $10, I expect to be able to have my experience within reason. Tourists caught taking pictures without having paid the fee were given a severe tongue lashing from the attentive museum staff. It was like me catching my students speaking out of turn. I know, it sounds petty, but everyone seemed a bit peeved by the experience (except for those who sucked it up and paid). We also couldn’t understand what the tour guide said, who spoke very softly with a thick Romanian accent, and we were lucky enough to be attended by a shrieking, echo-y 2-year-old in our group of about 50 people. Ah, the joys of tourist traps!

We finished our time in Sinaia with a quick visit to the Pelisor Castle (a.k.a. The princess’ castle) and the Sinaia Monastery, which were both quite beautiful. But we were really hungry so we hurried back to Brasov for one last meal in the city. Bitching about first world problems really builds up an appetite!

We ate at Casa Tudor, a mile outside the center but a place that had a lot of Romanians — so we knew we were in the right place! The food was perfect.

Tomorrow, we’re off to Cluj Napoca for a music festival and a tour of the salt mine-turned-amusement park! Stay tuned!