Brașov
ROMANIA
Transylvania's Wine, Spirits, and Legends
By LYNDI
Sunday, February 25, 2018
Up to this point, traveling around Bulgaria had been a breeze – regularly scheduled buses and trains made it easy to get where we were going, and surely traveling to top tourist spots in the country helped. But getting from Veliko Tarnovo – a moderately well-traveled town – to anywhere other than Bucharest in Romania was no joke.
We took a 7:30am bus from Veliko Tarnovo to a town called Ruse (Roos-ay) on the border of Romania and Bulgaria, which only took about an hour. Unfortunately, our connecting bus to Bucharest didn’t leave until 12:45pm – meaning we had 4 hours to kill in a small border town on a Sunday morning when nothing was open and the temperature was, oh you know – 8 degrees Fahrenheit. So we tried to make the best of it. We stored our bags at the bus station and went out looking for something to eat. We walked through what appeared to be a ghost town blanketed in snow and ice, desperate for an open sign. We eventually found a “4 star hotel” (in quotations because surely the 4 stars were subjective based on what we saw…) and I splurged for the all you can eat breakfast.
After filling my belly with cold coffee and bread and butter, we finally found a coffee shop in the town center that was open – and conveniently hosting a disco! Well, not exactly, but with DJ music pumping loudly at 9am on a Sunday, we weren’t exactly sure what else was going on. So we killed some time drinking nice lattes and watching the Winter Olympics until the painstakingly slow clock finally ticked towards 12:45pm.
The border crossing was a breeze and the bus soon began making stops within Bucharest. We truly had no idea where to get dropped off to find onward transportation to Brașov, but we assumed a drop at the airport would be a good place to start.
So we hopped off at the airport and were quickly swept onboard a bus bound for Brașov. Having zero Romanian leu, we had to hold up the whole bus while Aaron ran inside to an ATM and prayed that his USAA card wouldn’t shut him off like it did when we arrived in Bulgaria. But we were in luck – and soon headed off to our first Romanian destination!
After arriving at the Brașov bus and train depot (and thanking our lucky stars we weren’t going the opposite direction to Bucharest, considering traffic was at a standstill as weekenders made their way back to the capital), we took a local bus to the Black Church, delighted that we had found an affordable hotel right on the main square.
Casa Wagner was a beautiful hotel with dark wood features, free breakfast, a helpful staff, and rooms that were blissfully warm and toasty. Each room also had a mud room separate from the main sleeping room – at first we thought it was a nice luxury, but soon found that in the desperately freezing temperatures and thick blankets of snow outside, was more of a necessity when we had to take off cold and wet layers every time we entered.
Mondays are not great days to explore a lot of cities, considering museums and info centers that work hard on weekends take the day off. Brașov was no exception, which made our efforts to find information on tours and transportation options much more difficult. We had an ambitious agenda for our week in Romania: castles, Dracula, ice hotel and snow hikes. We didn’t know exactly how to do any of the above – but that’s never stopped us.
So we trudged through the soft snow laid on Brașov’s streets, took in some sightseeing as we went, and made a little progress by talking to Casa Wagner’s staff and finding the limited information online, and soon found out that Bran Castle was open to the public on Mondays. And we were off!
You don’t travel to Translyvania and not follow the legend of Dracula. A public bus dropped us off at the foot of the hill that hosts Bran Castle, long recognized as the home of Dracula, but also completely debunked by history and facts. What we do know is that Bram Stoker – an Irishman – visited Translyvania while doing research for his book on a vampire that slept in coffins and haunted the countryside by night.
It is entirely possible that Stoker modeled his character after the 15th century ruler of Wallachia (as Transylvania was then known) named Vlad Dracul III. Ol’ Vlad was infamous for his brutality towards enemies during the many wars he fought against Ottoman and Hungarian forces. After one battle, Vlad had his captured enemies impaled on stakes along the border to his territory to scare off other attackers, giving him the well-earned nickname “Vlad the Impaler”. As far as we know, he wasn’t allergic to sunlight or garlic, or “vant to suck anyone’s vlood”, but perhaps his reputation was inspiration enough for Stoker.
No one is entirely sure how Vlad came to be associated with Bran Castle – the description of Dracula’s castle in the book doesn’t match Bran Castle that well – but it might be related to the fact that the castle on the hill looks spooky and has dramatic architecture. Well, that and to attract tourist suckers who will pay for anything related to vampires. (Get it? Suckers? Man… I’m nearly positive no one has used that pun before).
At the base of the castle is an historic looking peasant village plying all types of Dracula and vampire goods. By far the best thing on offer is “vin fiert” – the hot wine that would provide a lifeline for Aaron and I as we explored Romania’s great outdoors in sub-zero temperatures. We explored that unheated castle on our own and basically lost all feeling in our extremities – there were some interesting exhibits on Vlad Dracul and the region’s history, but most of it was period pieces from Queen Marie’s tenure in the castle. It was still interesting to explore, but when we had to pretend to peruse the gift shop multiple times and go to the bathroom just because those were the only two heated places in the palace – you know it’s time to go. Luckily, the bus station also sells vin fiert, so we bought a (few) rounds while we waited (it’s survival!!) and took blazing hot showers upon our return to Casa Wagner.
That night we ventured out again for some local brews at La Biblioteca and finished off the night at an underground Moldovan wine bar. We were the only patrons at the bar, so the friendly staff enjoyed practicing their English with us, as we happily enjoyed improving (okay – creating) our Moldovan wine palate. And – as we found is typical in this part of the world – finished off the night with their version of spiked rubbing alcohol, in this case tuica. And what do you do when you stumble out of an underground bar with warm and empty bellies only to find you missed last call at all the restaurants? Stop in for a quick bite at KFC naturally. And then wonder why your body feels like a garbage disposal’s contents the next morning.
So finally it was Tuesday! Things in Brașov began to open to tourists and locals alike, so we took the opportunity to hop on a train to Sinaia to explore Peleș Castle – an ornately decorated palace that is one of Romania’s top tourist destinations for the grandness and scale of its grounds.
It was a short train ride to Sinaia, from where we walked the mile or two uphill to the castle. We tried to take a shortcut and got pretty lost – and eventually had to trek through a couple yards leaving some fairly discreet footsteps in the snow – but eventually found the path leading up to the palace. I was getting pretty excited as we marched through the snow – Peleș was another top reason I was looking forward to our Romanian portion of the trip.
We arrived at the gates before anyone else – what luck! There wasn’t even a line at the ticket office – splendid! There wasn’t even anyone in the ticket office – what? There was even a sign saying the palace was closed on Tuesdays – WTF?? So we’d traveled all that way and planned our trip around a castle viewing that wasn’t even open. On a Tuesday of all days??!! So we took some photos of the outside and then I sank my disappointment in an overpriced latte at the tourist shop. Conveniently open on Tuesdays.
Back in Brașov, we explored more of the microbrews in town (Timișoreana is the best by far…), grabbed dinner from a hostel nearby, and took what would turn out to be our last shower for the week. Little did we know that our Romanian adventures were just about to get underway…
