Dracula Spotted at Bran Castle

The Castle, Bran, in Romania located in Strada General is an easy drive from Bucharest. This village is old, beautiful and touristy. Bran Castle is touristy. Usually, I don’t like ‘touristy’ places. Again, we had our magical parking spot. The village is a relaxed little place, very simple. The village nestled in the rural countryside of Romanian mountains is quaint. Hunting for Dracula, we hope to spot him in one of three locations in Romania.

The prime parking spots that we got saved us tons of time, and it also gave us a good laugh as we thought about how special everyone treated us while I was in Romania.

New Flash! Dracula Spotted at Bran Castle

In the old Communist Romania, everyone reported everything to officials. Nicolae said we might have been turned in to the communists in the ‘old communist days.’  For the life of me, I don’t know what reports he meant. We spied the castle on the hilltop. By the way, this castle is for sale in case you are interested in buying a castle.

Food everywhere

More Food

Before we got to the castle, there were more local food spots. In the town, we saw excellent restaurants and the typical gift shops. There are a lot of places to eat in Bran. Food is plentiful and inexpensive in Romania. However, the people love big portions and pork.

Got me!

Dracula

Suddenly from nowhere, Dracula appeared — he just popped up. He scared the heck out of me! The tourist version of Dracula. He wanted to play.

Nicolae got a kick out of how scared I was. Dracula tried to bite me, I think. The fun experience made us both giggle. Notice the tourist lady rushing by us. In front of us was Bran Castle. We walked up to the path to the entrance. Finally, I was at the castle. My pace quickened, as I started to take a lot of great photos. The castle is not big. But the way it sits on a cliff makes it look larger than it is. Bran Castle designed like a fortress scares off possible intruders.

We knocked on the door. I expected Vlad the Impaler to meet us at the front door.He didn’t greet us.

Next, we went up the small corridors to the top of the staircase. As we went up, the stairway narrowers to prevent attackers from easy access to the residence. Finally. the view from The top.

To my surprise, I meet a couple from Spain. The visitors from Spain are celebrating his birthday. So I had to take his picture. Then he asked if I could take more photos of him.

Photo Opp

I snapped a few photos, but since we didn’t speak the same language, we didn’t talk. Around the next bend and up some stairs, there was a stone balcony.

I found many interesting views from the inside of the castle. Through the top window, I spotted a red rose.

Here’s one — a doorway to a hidden passage. It seemed perfect for my romantic notion of Dracula’s castle. The view overlooked the well. It had a cross over the pulley. It’s important to note that a lot of crosses are here, more the sign of the times than unique to Dracula.

The  Gnome

My exit was up a winding path. Back to the village, I went. I found the tourist Dracula Castle was as authentic as the Dracula that scared me earlier. It was worth going to Bran. Sadly, I have to report, I wasn’t Dracula’s one and only, darn! I spied a cousin to the Travelocity Gnome drinking a beer in the garage. Next, we went back to the car. Back to my car to see what we would see next.

Finding Transportation in Bucharest, Romania

Back at the car, Nicolae poses, I think he was having a good day too!

Here are the other places we went today.