Brasov

Shame about the taxi drivers - we got scammed by the taxi driver and paid 5 times what we should. Its a shame that our first impression has been marred by this experience. In our time in Romania so far, we have found the people to be welcoming, warm and generous. Maybe we found the rotten apple in the barrel. Our host was horrified and advised to get a photo and number plate if we see him again so that our host can report him. He will lose his licence to trade if caught. Romania has a growing tourist industry, they don't want visitors put off by undesirable people like our taxi driver. I hope the extra money the driver made that day does him no good. Ggggrrr!

Luckily Brasov is so lovely it completely wipes away the negative first impression from Mr Nasty-taxi-driver.

So, I will type in capitals what our host recommended and I stupidly ignored. GET THE NUMBER 4 BUS TO THE OLD CITY CENTRE. COST 2.5 LEI (about 50p each). Bus tickets easily available from the lovely helpful lady in the kiosk at the train station. OK rant over. Dunces hat for Sue.

Onwards! The apartment. Oh my goodness. Right in the old city centre on the pedestrian street of Michael Weiss. Its in a row of buildings constructed over 300 year ago by Germans who settled in this area. It miraculously escaped the fire that destroyed most of the city in 1689. In its early days, it was mainly inhabited by Lutheran or Reformation priests families. Strong sturdy fortified buildings built in blocks with shared wooden entrance gates leading into a courtyard. Our apartment is upstairs. Its a lovely sunny space with a gorgeous parquet floor which is about 100 years old. And an original Romanian ceramic heater that sits like a comforting relative in the corner. Our host tells us he spent a lot of money to convert the heater to gas and restore it to its current good looks. It was worth every penny! We have everything we need for a great stay, excellant shower room and kitchen. Fantastic. We have been so lucky.

Peles castle built by King Carol between 1873 - 1914. He built a hunting lodge and summer palace in the beautiful Bucegi mountains on the route between Wallachia and Transylvania (at this time Transylvania was not part of Romania, but under Russian rule). It is so ornate, turrets and towers decorated on every surface inside and out. There are 160 rooms, however you can only visit the ground and first floor. Murano glass chandaliers, finest european art, german stained glass windows. Peles was the first European castle to have electricity, it was powered by its own generating plant. It also has a glass roof in the main reception hall which can be opened by electric power in the summer. And a built in vacuum cleaning system which takes the dust into the basement! King Carol married Elizabeth of Weid, they had only one daughter, Maria, who died tragically aged only 4. The throne was passed to Ferdinand, Carols nephew, who built the smaller art nouveau style Polisor castle in the grounds of Peles.

Bran castle. Built on a stronghold dating back to the teutonic knights of 1212, there was originally a wooden castle on the rocky outcrop guarding the road between Wallachia and Transylvania. The current citadel was built by the saxons of Brasov starting in 1377. Totally different from Peles, this is a stronghold. Forbidding, towering above the countryside. It owes much of its fame to the myths of Bram Stockers Dracula. More about that in another paragraph. From 1920 to 1957 it was the royal residence of Queen Marie married to King Ferdinand 1. Born into the English royal family she was the daughter of Prince Alfred (Duke of Edinburgh) and Grand Duchess Maria of Russia. At birth she was Princess Marie of Edinburgh. She loved Romania and adopted it as her own place in the world, the Romanian people loved her too. She dressed in the Romanian style and adopted Romanian customs. Much of the castle is decorated with photos and memorabilia from her time. She loved the gardens, but it was a long steep journey down, so she had a new well dug and converted the old well into a lift connected to a tunnel into the gardens.

Vlad the Impaler, Bram Stocker and Dracula. Vlad the Impaler was the second son of Vlad Dracul, ruler of Wallachia in 1436. (Dracul translates as Dragon). Dracula is simply `son of Dracul`. In Wallachian language Dracula means Devil. In 1442 Vlad and his younger brother were sent to the court of the Ottoman sultan Murad 2 as collateral to ensure continued support of Ottoman policies. He returned in 1448 after the assasination of his father and brother. During his rule he earned the name `Impaler` because of his punishments dealt out to people who did not follow his strict moral codes. He is actually a Romanian hero, as he pretty quickly resolved the issues of crime and corruption. He devised a method of impaling a miscreant by a sharp stake inserted into the backside and pushed up through the body missing all the vital organs, so it could take up to two days to die an agonising death. Warning to all would be thieves etc. Countess Elizabeth Batheroy, 1585-1610. Murdered countless young virgins to drink and bathe in their blood to attain eternal youth. As a member of the family ruling Transylvania at the time, she couldn't be brought to justice but was walled up in her room in Bran castle until her death. Bram Stocker was an Irish author, who wanted to write a horror story. He never visited Transylvania. The stories background is a blurry tale of a ship from Varna (port in the east of Bulgaria) carrying a strange cargo of soil that ran aground in Whitby in the North of England. A large dog was seen escaping from the wreck and running up the 199 steep steps to the church yard of St Marys. Stocker had heard about the dark brooding forest of Transylvania and scary stories told to stop children leaving the house after dark, about the corpes rising from their coffins and roaming the night. So, add the brooding Bran castle, the dark forests of Transylvania, a cruel count, throw in a few bats for good measure and the inevitable pale virgin in a white nightdress, and you have a damned good story. And a nice little money spinner for the tourist industry.

There is so much to see in Brasov. I have had to create a second page as memory issues are causing the blog to run slow. Apologies. See `Brasov more` for the rest.