Bran, Romania

Happy post-Halloween everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed their trick-or-treat season back in the States or wherever you may be. From what I hear though, most of the trick-or-treat'rs are too old to be going door to door. Nonetheless, I never had much of a sweet tooth to make it worthwhile.

So! On to my travels/job/European adventures. This past weekend I traveled north to the great country of Romania to spend Halloween. We left Sofia early afternoon this past Friday to start the 7-8 hour drive north of Bucharest to an area known as Transylvania, near Bran. Obviously you immediately think of vampires and scary things when hearing the word Transylvania. Surprisingly, the small village of Bran is quite charming--but in a creepy way. That's what I wanted though. I wanted the entire Halloween experience of being in a foreign country where terror crept around every corner. Our hotel was owned by an incredibly charming family that did not watch us sleep or perform any rituals--at least none that I was aware of.

On to the more important things at hand... castles. The first castle I visited was the ruins of an old castle where Count Dracula's wife threw herself off of several hundred years ago. It's near the Transfăgărăşan road that cuts through the Transylvanian mountains. Some of you may better know it as the "Top Gear Romanian Road." 1500 steps later up to the castle at very high elevation, I was able to stand where Dracula's wife took a nose dive thousands of feet off the side of a mountain. I haven't read the books, but being there sure made me want to.

Probably the most amazing thing during the trip--the road. The Transfăgărăşan is a work of art that any car enthusiast would love. Dozens of hairpin turns and banked curves to force you to smile while driving. Even driving our puny, little 5-speed Renault Megane was enjoyable. If you are wondering more about this road, or want to see it; simply click here to see the video from Top Gear they made in Romania where I drove. The supercars in the video make it worthwhile to see as well.

After I drove back from Dracula's wife's castle, we headed to Bran's Castle.. most commonly known as Dracula's Castle. I have added some photos that show how awesome this castle is. We went at night to take advantage of the whole 'Dracula/Halloween' experience. There are an incredible amount of rooms in that castle with endless staircases that lead to more and more rooms. I would absolutely love to live in a castle like Bran's Castle where you have a quaint little courtyard and overlook a small village. I just hope they wouldn't call me Count Wyatt the Impaler like they did Dracula.

Well, after Dracula's awesome castle I drove straight from Bucharest, Romania to Sofia, Bulgaria which was about a 6 hour drive. The roads aren't too bad but we got hung up at the border which is always a pain. The border police stamped over my Russian visa in my passport which didn't make me too happy. I best look at it as they're conserving pages because in this job you fill up passports in under a year.

Hope all is well your way. Feel free to look at the extra pictures I posted.

Cheers.

Wyatt