Hi Gram!
Brrr! It turned cold here yesterday and today. It’s a little below my comfort level now. More on that later. I also didn’t sleep well last night. None of us did, unfortunately. We got some pastries from the cake shop yesterday and realized this morning that they might have had espresso powder on the outsides. I woke up at 1:30am and could not fall back asleep. Bob and Amber woke around 2 after tossing and turning. We would have slept in, but we had plans! I had an early breakfast, they grabbed protein bars, and we walked out the door at 8am to catch a bus to Bran castle.

It’s the castle that Dracula was based on and they’re hyping it up for Halloween. The website said that the bus picked up at 8:45, so we left early enough to get there around 8:30 in case we had any navigation issues. We got there at 8:29, only to find out the bus doesn’t leave until 9. Better 30 minutes early than 2 minutes late though! We got coffee and tea to warm ourselves up and waited for the bus to pull in. It’s been 11-14°C (52-58°F) most mornings so far, but this morning it was 4°C (38°F)! We were all wearing layers, but still felt chilly.

The bus arrived on time, we bought our tickets from the driver and headed on our way. It was approximately an hour ride, so I read my book, looking up to see snow capped mountains every now and then. Our stop was just on the side of the road with no sign, leaving us to wonder how we’d find the equivalent stop on the other side to go home. That was a problem for later, though. For now, we saw the castle in the distance. We also saw a honey vending machine. They really like their honey here, enough to warrant a vending machine.

We started down a path that had vendors on either side selling “traditional” items like fur hats, sausages, dancing wooden dolls, and magnets with the name of the town, castle or country. Buying tickets was a little confusing – there was the basic ticket, the VIP ticket with the torture museum, or the VIP ticket with the torture museum and the tunnel tour. The Internet said the museum and tunnel tour weren’t that exciting, so we bought standard tickets. This was at the bottom of the hill. Up at the top of the hill, there were two lines that people randomly sorted themselves into, including two bus tour groups. These two lines led up a flight of stairs to a single door. Once we reached the top and walked through the door, the guy scanning tickets shook his head at me and said “fast lane!” Not understanding, I tried to get him to clarify, but only heard “fast lane!” In response. A woman who was leading a tour group told me that we weren’t in the fast pass lane, and we needed to wait our turn. “Oh, I didn’t see signs. Just tell me where to stand.” After more confusion, we stepped back outside and waited while nobody else proceeded. The fast pass lane was empty.

After a few minutes, the ticket man waved us in just before a tour group came up the fast pass lane. None of us understood, but we were happy to get inside. The castle was pretty cool! It was a single path that led from room to room, explaining the different monarchs that had lived there, the history of it being built by the city as a customs house, then modified and added onto, then eventually passed along to kings and queens. We saw relics of the different ages and learned how Bram Stoker heard the legend of Vlad the Impaler and his father Dracul (which was related to dragons) who had lived there, and wrote the story we all know.

The locals are much more interested in the story of Queen Marie who rehabbed the castle in the early 20th century and lived there with her children, but they lean into the Dracula story a little, especially around Halloween. There were sections talking about Vlad, his dad, different monarchs, how Romania was unified, military and defenses, and other history. We eventually exited to the gift shop that, among other things, sold wooden stakes and Dracula playing cards. Done with the castle, we found a local restaurant to warm ourselves up. Who knew castles weren’t heated?

I ordered Bulz ciobănesc, a traditional shepherd’s meal of polenta, sausage, egg and cheese, delicious and filling as it sounds. Warmed up and full, the waitress rolled the three of us out the door and down the sidewalk. We found a piece of paper with bus times on the wall near where we expected the bus, only to be rewarded with the bus proving our guess correct.

An hour later, we ended up at a different bus station than we started the day, but it meant our trusty #4 bus would take us home from there. Back at the apartment, I tried working up the motivation to get to the gym, but settled on walking up to the white tower for some stairs and pictures. I headed back down to old town to a second hand store where I got a scarf for 10 Lei (about $2). That should help me feel warm for the last couple of weeks here. Returning home, I did a little life admin work and went to bed, exhausted.