Visit Before Midnight | Day 8

The bed was a bit firm for my taste but that didn’t stop me from having a good nights sleep. I was up about 6am and needed to get some breakfast before the tour. I gathered all of my camera gear, which seemed to be about everything I brought, and headed downstairs. I got to the breakfast room and was a bit caught off guard. Romania is roughy 6K miles from Hawaii and 8K miles from Japan, yet, the entire restaurant was filled with Japanese people. When I say the entire restaurant I mean, the ENTIRE restaurant. I got a nice little laugh that I go so far away from asian influence and yet it found me haha. They had a small but nice spread of breakfast food and I got my normal breakfast. Polished that off and needed to exchange some currency before the tour.

I headed out the front door to find it raining. Not the most optimal weather and with my lack of appropriate rain clothes it was a bit of a bummer. The currency exchange happened to be next to the tours pickup spot. I walked in to a small store space crammed between a 24hr market and tobacco shop. The lady behind the counter wasn’t particularly bubbly and just handed me the money through the window with not a word to say. $100usd is equivalent to $460 Ron/Leu. On average a beer here costs. 13 Leu, so $2.83, my kind of price! I headed out of the shop and just across the street was our pickup spot. I was a bit early so just hung out under the awning at the Grand Hotel Bucharest until the van arrived. There were a few different size options for this tour. One being you could have a private tour where the price varied depending on your group size. Since I was single that would have been $398usd and I wasn’t going to do that. Another option was you could hop on a tour bus with up to 100 people and that carried a $30 price tag. The third and final option, which I chose, was a small size tour of up to 15 people and that was $75usd. As time drew closer a few different busses came and went and were picking up their passengers based on spoken language. This made it easy to spot which group I was with. The couple that was standing next to me was talking about when they saw Five Finger Death Punch the other day in London. My ears perked up and we got to chatting right away. They were from Whales and on a short holiday to a new place. There was a group of three ladies from India, an asian couple and friend from LA, two friends which I found out later were from Rome, and two single travelers who were from Houston and Denver I believe. The van arrived and it was similar to a Mercedes Sprinter van. It was cozy inside but I was lucky enough to pull a seat that had an empty one next to me. With my camera backpack that was fortunate. Our tour guid Narcis was incredibly nice. He told us that it would be about a 2hr ride to our first destination, Peles Castle.

As we drove through the city we were told about the different landmarks we were passing. One such area was a Herastrau Park that the Romanian King had developed which is about half the size as Central Park in New York. The park is situated around Herastrau Lake and you can even find Japanese cherry trees inside. We came to a giant round about that in the middle was the Arcul De Triumf. It is a monument that commemorates Romanias participation in World War 1. Romania has a strong influence from France and Bucharest is even known as “Little Paris.” Thus this is why the Arcul De Triumf looks so familiar. It was built based on the model of Arc de Triumphe, but smaller, in Paris. Soon the city landscape faded and we were out in the countryside. One of the ladies behind me immediately said she was starting to not feel so hot. Luckily enough motion sickness, or car sickness, is something I have never had to deal with. Im sure that two hour ride felt like an eternity for her. The rain kept falling with slight breaks every now and again. We started up in to the mountainous region of Romania. Transylvania has always held a haunting allure and with the rain and darker atmosphere it really brought that to life. The road was windy and narrow and the small little town of Sinaia. We pulled in to the parking lot at our first stop on the tour, Peles Castle.

Everyone exited the bus and we took a short walk down the steps to a are in the front of the property that had a little food shop and seating area. construction on Peles castle began in 1873 and was completed in 1881. It was built as a summer home for the royal family and became the unofficial second capital of Romania. The property foundation was one of the longest parts of the construction. The land had a ton of water underneath it and engineers had to find a way to make a stable foundation. The King wanted the brightest architectural minds and workers building the castle. There were most every European nationality working on the castle. They were doing some maintenance to the exterior so the was some scaffolding and covering cloth which was a bit unfortunate but what is one to do. As you walk through the giant entrance doors there is a good size courtyard with a fountain in the middle and two Knight statues against the wall behind it. We waited in the que to enter the castle and since we were a part of a tour we got to skip a head a little bit. The moment you walk in you are met with a room full of statues. Next you walk up a flight of stairs in to the main hall. When you look up there is the most impressive stained glass window ceiling. The castle was technological work of art as well. The glass ceiling was also retractable. The hall was made up of more than 40 types of wood inlaid. There is a 27 step spiral staircase that was carved by a 25 year old Romanian artist who received a scholarship to Vienna from the King after its completion.

We moved from the Great Hall to the Great Hall of Weapons. King Charles I collected about 5,000 weapons making it one of the largest private weapons collections in Europe. The room is filled with all kinds of weapons from all around Europe. Possibly one of the most impressing pieces is a complete horse and knight armor set from the 17th century. All of the weapons and armor displayed in the room are completely authentic. For the more macabre, there is a large sword displayed over a fireplace. This is a 16th century executioner’s sword. On the blade is a engraved text written in the old German language reading, “When the sword will be above your head, god will offer you eternal life.” What an insane piece of history! The ceiling has paintings of shields and mottos of European’s Royal families. In the next room is the Small Hall of Weapons which hold oriental weapons. There is a showcase against the wall and inside that contains some of the most impressive ones. One of those is a green Turkish sword that is covered in shark skin, gold plated, has mounted turquoise. Maybe even more impressive is the copy of the sword of Gabriel Bathory, the Prince of Transylvania. The sword was made specially for the last King of Romania, Michael I. It is made of Damascus steal, and covered with velvet, rubies, diamonds, and pearls. Incredibly impressive weaponry and even more so knowing that it is all authentic.

We moved from the armory rooms in to the King’s Office. The room is completely made of Walnut wood and is where the King would receive his guests. For formal meetings they would use the stand up desk but for more private or personal meetings they would use the corner table and chairs. That area was used for signing documents as well. An office fit for a king for sure. Moving through the giant door we reached the Great Library. At one time the library help 4,000 books and these books were written in English, Romanian, German, and French as the King spoke all four. What would a castle without secret doors and passageways. For some reason I must have wanted to keep it a secret because I didn’t take any photos of it. In short the King was very thorough and all of the book display cases were made up of three shelves. Only one of them had 4 and was filled with book covers glued together. Underneath the lip of the case was a small button that opened the door and led to a spiral stairs that took the King’s apartment. As mentioned the castle was a technological work of art ahead of its time. The button to the secret door was electric. The entire castle had electric lights as well. Peles Castle was the first European castle to have self powered electricity. Remember when I mentioned. the castle was built over water? Well engineers created a hydro electric plant from that very water to power the castle. PRETTY NEAT!!

A lot of the rooms had large fireplaces. All of these fireplaces were 150 years old but brand new. As we know fire causes smoke and smoke would have ruined all of the wood in the castle so none of the fireplaces were ever used, thus making them 150 year old brand new fireplaces. Without usable fireplaces the castle would go cold. But back to the technological advancements! The entire castle was outfitted with central heating. Vents in all of the rooms dispersed warm air constantly. We moved from the library to the Florentine Hall which is Italian inspired. The room is quite grand and of course has a gold plated ceiling. One of the most interesting things in the room is a mirror that is mounted high up on the wall. Certainly to high to see your reflection so why put one up that high? It is perfectly situated so that when you look in to it you can see the the painting of Calliope, the Epic Muse. This way you wouldn’t have to break your neck looking up at it. The Florentine Hall leads to hallway where we found the Royal Dining Room. The table in the middle can be extendable and can seat anywhere from 12 to 40 guests. Not sure I even have 40 friends haha! The table was respected in the French Ceremonial which meant the King and Queen sat in the middle facing each other. In the back of the room behind the cupboard was a hidden electric elevator for the food. The kitchen was in the basement to it was brought up via the elevator for the servants to distribute. There was so much to see between all of these rooms and the detail used is insane.

That was the last stop on the castle tour and we were allowed 30 minutes to walk around the garden or get something to eat. I moseyed around the garden and then started the short walk back to the cafe. A guitar could be heard just off in the distance and the tune sounded oh so familiar. There was a gentleman sitting on the rock planter with an acoustic guitar in his hands playing none other than Metallica. I approached him and said “Metallica!” He looked, smiled, and then started playing Nothing Else Matters. I shot a little video of him playing and then asked if it was alright to take his portrait. He gladly said yes and I shot a few photos of him before leaving him a tip. As I walked away I could hear him start to play Thunderstruck by ACDC haha my guy! I grabbed a sprite from the cafe and we headed back to the bus. Our next stop was Bran Castle, or better known as, Dracula’s Castle!

The ride was about an hour to Bran Castle. The castle is located about 15 miles from the famous city of Brasov. It is a small little town and up on the hill sits the castle. We parked in a small parking lot and made the few minute walk to the base where we had to provide our tickets. Leading up to the ticket area there we pop up shops of all kinds but mainly they stuck to their target audience, Dracula lovers. Once we were all in you had to walk up a pretty decently sloped stone path to get to the entrance of the castle. We of course were not the only ones. The castle was a bit smaller than it appears in pictures or movies. We waited for just a few minutes and some of us took photos on the staircase leading to the front door. We walked up the stairs and were invited in. (If you didn’t know a vampire can’t enter your place of residence unless he is invited in) Once in the door there was a timeline of owners of the castle. On November 19 1377 (I knew my birthday was cool) Louis I on Hungary granted the act to build Bran Castle. The Hungarians owned the castle until a treaty in 1920 which turned control over to the Romanians. Maria of Romania loved the castle and ordered a complete renovation and was given to her daughter who later ran a hospital out of it during WWII. Later it was seized by the communist regime and the expulsion of the royal family in 1948. The castle was awesome and we wound our way through it learning about its history.

We found our way up a small stone staircase that was a secret passage and was only discovered during renovations to a library and sitting room. Out the door was a deck where you could see down in to the valley below. This led us to what I think most people were here for, Dracula. Outside of the door there was a large writeup and it featured the image that had inspired Bram Stoker to put it on the cover of his book, Dracula. As it turns out Bran Castle has nothing to do with the story of Dracula. In reality Bram Stoker’s story took place in Wallachian and was thought to be based on a three time Voivode of Wallachian, Vlad the Impaler. In short Vlad and his brother were held hostage by the Ottoman Empire to gain the loyalty of their father. Vlad didn’t play nice with the Sultan and was beaten at treated horribly. His brother however did and had a much better captivity. In the end both Vlad’s eldest brother and father were murdered by the regent governor of Hungary invaded Wallachian. Anyway long story short Vlad was a bad dude and the continued shitty treatment of him pushed him over the edge and while living in Hungary he decided to invade Wallachian. When met by the Transylvanian Saxons who supported his opponents so he plundered them and took the captured back to Wallachian and had them Impaled. This was a form of execution where a 6-10 foo stake and it was inserted in to the person butt and drive it through with a mallet until it comes out of the chest. Some would die immediately but others weren’t so lucky. The stake was the lifted in to the air and the person’s body weight would keep pushing them further down on the stake until death. So ya there is that. Likewise later in Vlad’s story the sultan of Hungary was trying to force Vlad to pay homage tax to him but Vlad refused. The sultan sent some of his envoys to convince Vlad to pay the tax. When they arrived they were asked to remove their headwear but one of them refused stating religious reason and they would never take them off. In response Vlad had the head pieces nailed to their head so they would never come off. So ya that was Vlad and who they believe was the inspiration for Dracula. So even though Vlad lived in Wallachian Transylvania sounded scarier. He looked and looked and came across an illustration of the castle and he put that on the book. The book became the number two best selling book in the world behind The Bible. People started to travel in search of the famed Dracula’s Castle with book in hand trying to match castles. When someone finally found it they approached the castle saying it was Dracula’s but were told no that castle is in Wallachian. I suppose enough people came exclaiming that it was until someone got wise and bought in and started charging for tours.

After we had gone through the castle we will given an hour to walk around and grab lunch or shop. I might have spent a bit more money in the gift shop than I had intended but hey whathca gonna do. I had seen from the castle a part of the property that no one was going to. I decided to take the time and venture over there in hopes of launching the drone. With no one being around I broke it out and put it up in the air. I flew it for about 20 minutes or so capturing photos and videos. The moment I landed it a security guard had emerged and told me that this was private and that I couldn’t fly it. I told him no problem and put it all away and walked back to find the rest of the group. I, like I mentioned, burned all my food time with the drone so it was just back on the bus and on to the final stop.

The final stop on our tour was the famed city of Brasov. The town was ordered by King Andrew II of Hungary in 1211 to fortify the town and help protect Hungarian borders. The city was also used a a stopping stopping spot on the trade route. In 1689 a great fire broke out destroying much of the city. It took years to rebuild and when they did they had built tiny streets in the neighborhoods that we specifically for firefighters. Now the street we saw is the second smallest street in the world. Locals have taken it over and is a place where you can come and write messages on the walls. Likewise, it is legend that if you kiss on this street your love will last forever. We walked down the street, me alone haha, and ended up at the Black Church. The Black Church was built in medieval times by the Transylvanian Saxons. The church was held by the Lutherans and while all of the other churches in the city burned down with the Great Fire the Black Church remained. Being built of stone it was saved from the fire but the smoke is what gave it it’s color and also its nick name, The Black Church. You can pay a small fee and go inside but we skipped that. We wound our way down the street to a giant square. The square was filled with shops and restaurants. We got 45 minutes to walk around and explore the city. I decided this was the moment to get food.

I walked around and found a nice cafe that had seating outside facing the square. The waiter came over and I asked him what traditional food would he recommend. He told me about a meat dish that came with peppercorn sauce, traditional garlic bread, and local vegetables. Sounded great to me and along with it I had a Romanian beer and a lemon liqueur. I had plenty of time, or so I thought, but soon the minutes were ticking by. There was 15 minutes before we had to meet in the square and the waiting told me it would be about another 10 before the food arrived. Starting to feel a bit of stress I saw the food making its way out. Little did I know what I ordered was a full presentation. The dish came on a wood board with a hot stone in the middle. The waiter the added some liquid to the meat, lit it on fire, and placed it on the stone. He the sliced the meat and fed one to me exclaiming, “PERFECT!” There was now 1 minute before we were all meeting and I could see our group slowly arriving. Here I was with a full presentation meal and a waiter who put on a brilliant show but had no time to eat it. He finished the presentation and I clapped and then promptly asked him for a box. The look on confusion was real. He couldn’t understand why I would ask him for a box. I tried to say that I was on a tour and we were all meeting and I had to go. He sort of slunk off and sent out a box. Now it was past the meeting time and I could see everyone standing around by the fountain. I tried to call the tour guide to let him know what I was coming just I had gotten in over my head with the food. He finally picked up and I explained and he said we will wait for you and then call the car. I just shoveled the food in to the box and the waiter insisted I take the entire pizza shape cut loaf of bread with me. I hustled across the square and met up with the group. I said I was sorry a 100 times and offered everyone some bread as a make up. A few made the wise joke that I had taken the vampire thing to far and there was no need to bring garlic on to the bus. We boarded and it was back to Bucharest.

The drive was 3hrs and I enjoyed my sliced filet on the bus haha. Everyone chit chatted amongst themselves until we returned to the city. The bus dropped us off at our respected locations. David, Beth, and I exchanged numbers and said our goodbyes. I headed back to the hotel to drop my stuff of. The tour in total lasted about 8hrs so was nice to get back to the room. You can’t keep a good man down, so I picked up my phone and headed back down the street where I had passed earlier in the morning a casino. It would be foolish not to at least check it out right? It was called Max Bet and was just a black door. I opened the door and it was two small rooms that had various slot machines. I had exchanged currency that morning so figure I play for just a few. Typically when I go to Vegas I will put in $100 and slowly play. Well, $100 Ron is only about $20usd so I got to sit and play for quite a while for the same money. I didn’t particularly win but they did have free beer so I had one of those, played, and then left. I returned to the room about 11 and was ready for bed. I didn’t really have much direction for the next day but would figure it out. The tour was top notch and I would have been incredibly sorry to miss it. The guide was great, locations were cool, and other tour guests were great. Here is a link to the tour in case you are ever in Bucharest. On to tomorrow!