Transylvania: Day 6: Dracula Castle and Grave

Today was one of my favorites. In spite of spending about six hours on the bus throughout the day, we saw amazing things. We started with one of the most anticipated events: A tour of the official "Dracula Castle." This is also known as Bran Castle, and it was never a residence of Vlad the Impaler. It was built much before his time, on the border between the kingdoms of Wallachia and Transylvania, as a border post and customs stop. However, when he became Prince he used the castle as an occasional hunting lodge. It's become the official "Dracula" castle because he did go there a few times, but more importantly just because it's the best preserved castle of that time period in Romania's history. It was a beautiful castle, with awesome-nerdy stuff like a secret spiral staircase. After the castle tour we got about an hour to buy souvenirs at the "Dracula bazaar;" I got a handmade authentic peasant's blouse.

After a bus ride (and getting stuck in a traffic jam due to the first available ski weekend in the Carpathians), we toured Peles Castle, the 19th century palace of the more modern Romanian rulers. It was extremely ostentatious, but impressive in its own way. I prefer older castles, like Bran Castle.

After a quick stop at a monastery and another bus ride, our final stop of the day was an amazing one at Snagov Monastery. This is located on a little island in the middle of a large lake. Until a few years ago, the only way to get to the lake was by boat or by walking across the frozen lake. The monastery is completely maintained by a single monk, who didn't seem too happy about his assignment.

Snagov monastery was created by Vlad's grandfather, and Vlad always said that he wanted to be buried there. When he was killed, it was on the island, and he was beheaded. The body was buried there, but the head was sent away. The head was eventually returned, but his remains were moved three times before finally returning to the place where he wanted to rest in peace.

The devotion of the monk was quite moving, and the church there was very beautiful. But the island itself and the entire experience were super creepy. To get there now, we had to walk across a fairly long bridge in utter darkness. In addition to being Vlad's place of rest, the island housed about 30 political prisoners over the years who were killed via drowning and are now said to haunt the island. I actually snapped two photos of the outside of the church, and they appear below. They are taken about 5 seconds apart, and in one it appears that there is a blue mist hovering over it. That is definitely a ghost!!!

Tonight we're in Bucharest, and there are political riots happening all around us. We keep hearing sounds that the lobby staff told us are bombs, and we saw a big crowd of people walk past shouting things and waving a flag. It's been an exciting day!

The Ipad Blogger app won't let me choose the order of photos that appear here, so the order isn't what I would choose, but the photos show: (1) the ghost hovering above Vlad's grave, (2) Peles Castle, (3) the outside of Bran Castle, (4) the inner courtyard of Bran Castle, and (5) the exact same photo of the church housing Vlad's grave, taken 5 seconds later, with the ghost gone.