Quite simply, GO TO ROMANIA! I had only heard good things about this country before I came, and now I know that they were all justified. From my experience, the country is both beautiful and accessible. It’s certainly not Germany or Austria (and not really that close to those countries either), but looking out the train window at the thatched rooftops and clock towers, I don’t think you’d know the difference. I spent my 3 days here in the mountains with one day devoted to exploring castles and the other 2 exploring quaint and lively towns.
But I’ll start from the beginning.
After Bulgaria, I expected to see a similar post-Soviet haze over Romania, so imagine my surprise when the alphabet wasn’t Cyrillic. And even more interesting, the words that I saw all over the train station seemed to be heavily French-based. (Which I later learned had, in part, something to do with Romania being invaded by the Romans way back when, and Latin being widespread.) In my first day in Romania, I tried multiple times to communicate with people in Russian, but not only did they say no, they said no vehemently. One woman leaned back in her chair, threw her arms in the air and laughed, “No no no, no Russian.”
I later got the local explanation for this strong reaction to Russian in Romania. My tour guide, a girl about my age who spoke perfect English (never having lived abroad, which is quite impressive), said that her parents and others their age were forced to learn Russian in school, and that left a bitter sense of loss at not having the chance to learn English or French instead. At this point, I realized that it’s time for me to reassess my understanding of former Soviet countries. I think I tend to lump them together with Ukraine, but Ukraine is somewhat unique, as its history with Russia extended much earlier than the Soviet Union. But countries like Romania have a very different pre-Soviet heritage.
To pitifully summarize centuries of history, Romania has Turkish, German, Austrian, Hungarian and Russian roots. (And these are only the ones I remember from our tour. I’m sure there are more.) These roots aren’t only the stuff of many centuries past: some of these occupancies occurred around the time of WWI. So, to explain the presence of castles, fortresses, fortified cities and fortified churches, you’ve got to look at the numerous times Romania has been invaded.
Rasnov
Rasnov (pronounced rashnov) is a small town with a unique layout. It was designed by the German Saxons who were brought to Romania to populate the areas conquered by the Hungarians. Their style was to build houses that were connected, so that they formed a wall which would provide fewer areas for enemies to sneak through. The town of Rasnov is at the bottom of a hill/mountain, and at the top is Rasnov Fortress. If the town was about to be attacked, everyone would run up the hill into the fortress. And the strategy worked pretty well. Accept for one thing: there wasn’t a water source in the fortress. The 1 time Rasnov was conquered was because the enemy found their external water source and prevented the Rasnov people from getting to it. They surrendered after about a week, but then were able to buy back the fortress a few years later. After that, they made 2 Turkish prisoners dig a well, promising them their freedom when they finished. It took the men 17 years to dig the well, but unfortunately they didn’t get their freedom. Bummer.
The fortress is in bad shape these days, but it’s getting some much needed renovation. It’s mostly just rocks with a few redone buildings. Nothing too amazing to see, but it’s got a great view of the mountains, and it’s really close to Brasov, where I stayed.
Bran Castle
Bran Castle in Transylvania has a lot of history to it. It’s a medieval castle that was given by the people of Transylvania to Queen Marie after Romania was unified. Queen Marie was a very interesting woman who seems to have captured a special place in Romanians’ hearts. She was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria and also part Russian, and she married the soon-to-be king Ferdinand when she was 17. Marie and Ferdinand were the king and queen of Romania during WWI, and Ferdinand, who I guess was a bit of a push-over and also a German, was influenced by his wife not to join Germany during the war. By joining the allies, Romania was able to reunite some of its principalities at the end of the war, something for which the Romanians were very thankful to Marie.
Marie was a beautiful woman who apparently never went anywhere without a photographer to take her picture, and she is rumored to have had many lovers, one in particular. She was very kind, and apparently when she came to Bran, which was often, she would bring candy for the local children. Because Bran is a small town, and the castle is medieval, Marie made efforts to keep the castle modest and not overshadow the quaint atmosphere of the town. She loved Bran Castle so much that she asked to have her heart buried there when she died.
But Bran Castle has another story. It’s commonly known to tourists and souvenir shops as Dracula’s Castle. This is incorrect, but interesting nevertheless.
Dracula is the main character of the novel by Bram Stocker. She sets the novel in both Romania and Britain, but never in Bran. In fact, the town in Romania where her story is set doesn’t even have a castle. She apparently got most of her inspiration for the Dracula character from a man called Vlad the Impaler. Vlad’s father was a member of a Christian group whose purpose was to free Romania from the Turks. This group’s emblem was a dragon, and the word for dragon is draco. So Vlad’s father was often called Draco, and his son Vlad was called Dracula, which means “son of the dragon.” (OR, according to the tour guide from Sighisoara, the words for dragon and devil in Romanian and German are similar, and somehow were confused, so much so that that Vlad was known as the Son of the Devil, rather than dragon.) Vlad was called “the impaler” because his favorite form of punishment was impalement. This involved sticking a sharp wooden stake of a person’s anus and out the mouth or neck without touching any organs. In this way, the impaled would die a very slow and painful death. While this is quite brutal, Vlad at least seemed to have a very strong sense of ethics. He impaled people for laziness, theft and lying. An intense punishment for a seemingly small offense, but his principality was one of the safest. Despite this sense of security he created, the people hated him because you never really knew what would upset him. There is a rumor that one woman was impaled because Vlad saw her husband wearing pants and a shirt that were too small for him, and he thought it was because the woman was too lazy to make him new clothes. The printing press was around at this time, and people hated him so much that the stories about him were greatly exaggerated, but he is still known as something of a national hero for spending most of his life trying to free Romania from the Turks.
But as to Bran Castle being Dracula’s Castle. That’s simply myth. There is no record of Vlad the Impaler ever spending even one night in Bran, and his castle, nowhere near Bran, is in ruins. The assumption is that someone who had read Dracula visited Bran and thought, “Hey, that looks like Dracula’s castle,” and the idea spread. According to our tour guide, the myth was encouraged by the Soviet Union when they exiled Romania’s royalty and confiscated their castles. They encouraged the idea of separating Bran Castle from the royalty, and though very few people travelled through Romania during the Soviet Union, the idea, once encouraged, stuck. Today at the base of the castle the majority of the souvenir shops have Dracula souvenirs, and if you didn’t know the real history, you would think that you really were at Dracula’s Castle.
Sinaia
Peles Castle (pronounced pelesh) in Sinia is, without a doubt, the coolest castle I’ve ever been to. It’s straight out of Beauty and the Beast, and you know how I like my Disney movies….
On walking around the corner and seeing the castle, I immediately knew this would be one of the sights I’ll have seen on my trip. The outside immediately conjures up ideas of German or Austrian heritage, and the theme is carried throughout the inside of the castle. (Unfortunately, you have to pay a lot to take pictures inside, so no pics. You’ll just have to take my word for it that this is a must see in Romania.) The woodwork in the castle is just amazing. There is so much detail, and the style is deep and rich. The castle was built by Romania’s first king, Carol of Germany. It took 40 years to finish, and has a little bit of just about any part of the world. The style is German, but almost every room in the castle has a theme. There is a Turkish smoking room covered in pillows and rugs and filled with hookahs, there is a French mirror room and theater/cinema, a music room covered in paintings from German and Romanian fairy tales. There is an armor room with weapons from Japan, England, and just about every country Romania borders. It was one of the first castles to have electricity, and there are something like 30 bathrooms and 160 rooms.
You are required to put slippers over your shoes to protect the floors, and you can only walk through the castle with a guide. No wandering around on your own. The castle is in a really cute mountain town that I think might also be fairly expensive. It looks expensive, at least. Apparently when the king built his castle there, all the rich people of Romania followed suit. It was an hour’s drive from Brasov, and I almost didn’t even go, but I’m so happy I did. That would have been a bad thing to miss
Sighisoara
I arrived in Sighisoara (pronounced siggyshora) around noon today, and Julia and I basically spent the day exploring the Citadel, which houses the majority of this city’s charm. And there is a lot of charm. This is apparently one of the oldest, most authentic German Saxon towns still in existence in Romania, and they’ve done a lot to keep the place in its original form, as well as to hold on to its German roots. At first, I thought the bright colors of the buildings, many recently painted, were way off the track of keeping things original, but our tour guides told us that in fact, those are the original colors of the buildings. Each residence is privately owned, but still, residents are required to keep things as they originally were. Windows, doors, colors, style, everything.
The entire Citadel is cobblestones, as is most of the lower portion of the town, and it’s hilly. Julia and I walked around on our own for about an hour, then realized that there wasn’t much else to see. Julia had a look in her travel book, and found a place that gives free tours, so we headed there.
At first glance, I had thought the International Café was going to be an overpriced restaurant for tourists. I wouldn’t have gone there if I didn’t know that they offer free tours, and that all tips from the tour and the restaurant income go toward an organization that helps the local poor population. In the first 10 minutes of our walk from the hostel to the Citadel, we were approached by 4 beggar women, 3 of them with children, and I’m pretty sure all were Roma. While the Citadel itself, recently renovated and clearly full of wealthy tourists, seems to be doing ok for itself, you can’t ignore the fact that there must be some people in need in this town.
The International Café, it turns out, is run by a non-denominational Christian organization called Veritas, which was started by a Scottish woman who spent a lot of time in the States. (As I would have guessed by looking at the menu: lasagna, smoothies, peanut butter and jelly—only an American would put that on a Romanian menu.) Local high school or college students volunteer during the summer giving tours around Sighisoara, and all the tip money they earn goes to Veritas. Veritas has a special needs program, programs for visiting the local elderly, and programs to assist poor children in the area. It also has American college students who come for a semester for internships in the social work or teaching fields. It seems to be quite an interesting organization, and I was really inspired to see how self-sustainable and cross-cultural this organization appears to be. Also, it’s encouraging to see that the tourist money in this town is going to more than just the pockets of store and hotel owners.
Julia and I were the only people who signed up for the tour, so it was more like a walk through the city with 3 girls. The 2 tour guides are students at the local high school, 17 and 18 years old, and their English was great. I mean, really, I was so impressed. Considering I teach English to girls just about their age, I know what the standards are. When we told them we were Peace Corps volunteers in Ukraine, the girls got really excited. Over the past few years they’ve worked with 2 Peace Corps volunteers, and they had so many good things to say about them. One girl said that even though the PCV only works with them once a week (his main job is working in a nearby village), her English has gotten so much better. “Thank you thank you, Peace Corps.” That’s just a great thing to hear as a PCV. The Peace Corps in Romania will be leaving in the next 2 years or so, as it’s been decided that PC is no longer needed here, and the girls said it was so sad because the organization is a great thing. They would like to have the same type of organization in Romania.
I’ve said this, I know, but I was very impressed by these girls. They said that they are inspired by working in the special needs and elderly programs with the American college students, and they had a true concept of what volunteerism is. I got the feeling that this city has a good thing set up, and it was an encouraging and unexpected experience.
Brasov
Just realized I forgot to mention this city where I spent 2 nights. Brasov (pronounced brashov) is quaint, cute, worth the trip and a good base for day trips to the neighboring towns. You could probably see the whole city, the interesting parts, in about a day. After that, as with most of Romania, it would have been a great idea to go hiking. I, unfortunately, do not have enough time for that, but if I ever come back to Romania, I’m going to leave some room for the woods.
Also, an interesting note about the woods of Romania, one of Romania’s dictators, I have no idea who, decided to fill the woods with bears because he liked to hunt them. Now, Romania is overrun by bears. The bears are taking over the forests, and when the signs say “Watch out for bears” they really mean it.
