No trip to Romania is complete without a visit to Bran Castle, famously known as ‘Dracula’s Castle’. If…
Times visited: 1 (3 days in 2017)
Cities visited: Bucharest and Brașov
Villages visited: Bran
For our third annual mother/daughter trip, my mum and I chose Romania as our destination. Unfortunately, we only found time for a weekend, something we soon realized wouldn’t be enough for the enormous country. However, we did get a wonderful taste of Romania.
We based ourselves in Bucharest, the nation’s bustling capital and largest city with just over two million inhabitants. The city was dubbed “Little Paris” around 1900 in reference to its Art Nouveau architecture. Today, the city stands as a mix of the old and elegant and the newer, utilitarian buildings from the communist era (1947-1989). Although Bucharest didn’t earn a spot on my list of favourite cities, I did enjoy the atmosphere and its interesting mix of architecture!
On our second and last full day, we headed out into the Romanian countryside, to Transylvania, to follow in the footsteps of Dracula and experience the mountain city of Brașov. I loved Brașov’s historical city centre, and we even got to see it from above on Mt. Tampa. With more time, it would’ve been great to climb up the mountain, but a cable car was a fun alternative!
Now for Dracula, it was difficult to know where to actually go. The dark and mysterious 14th-century Bran Castle is famously called ‘Dracula’s Castle’, the home of Count Dracula in Bram Stoker’s novel. Although there is no evidence to suggest that Bram Stoker even knew that this castle existed as he never travelled to Romania, Bran Castle is said to be the only castle in Transylvania that fits to his description of Dracula’s castle. So that’s where we went! The castle was quite interesting to visit although its exhibition has little to do with Dracula and more to do with its actual history!
