Brasov: Hunting for Vlad.

Brasov is quiet, easy-going, quaint, Saxon and seemingly vampire-free.

On top of Tampa.

I love reality TV. I know that’s not the coolest admission, but sometimes there’s nothing I like more than sitting down, switching off and enjoying the latest in cooking competitions, Geordies getting drunk and attention seekers buying wedding dresses. Although I haven’t caught up on the last few seasons, I like watching The Amazing Race. It combines a few of my favourite things, travel and heavily edited reality drama. A few years ago, the teams travelled through Romania to complete challenges and yell at each other. I watch the show with my regular interest, but there was something really captivating about the location this time. I was interested in the culture and the place looked amazing on camera. Stunning, actually. So I knew from that point that any trip to Europe needed a Romanian leg, especially a trip to Brasov. I guess it’s not so strange, a lot of my travel destinations have been informed by popular culture, just maybe not as low-brow as a reality show. It would have been more impressive to be inspired by a piece of high art or literature, but whatever!

Hollywood glamour.

The train from Bucharest was an easy one. I caught the metro to the main station and started the journey to Transylvania. The ride was very picturesque. Misty mountains, rushing rivers, tall trees and all manner of things with alliterative adjectives. Also, in the tradition of Eastern Europe there was also children playing barefoot and disused items on the roadsides, some with plants growing through them because they have been left so long. You can see why Bram Stoker chose to set his novel here, the scenery is beautiful. It’s beautiful, mysterious and a little bit spooky.

The Black Church.

I’m 4 months into my trip and luckily, I have only been scammed once in Brasov. When you go abroad there are so many warnings about scammers, pick pockets and a myriad of unsavoury types that I have been quite vigilant. Soon you realise that you need to be, to borrow a phrase I despise, ‘alert and not alarmed’. I was warned about Eastern European taxi drivers and their delight in extorting and over-charging tourists. When I arrived in Brasov the hostel was in a location that meant a taxi was the cheaper and easier option, or so I thought. I walked to a cab to get me to the hostel and I did all the right things: I checked his rates on the side of the taxi, I asked him how much, I told him to switch on his meter and I made polite conversation in the hope he would like me enough not to scam me. He switched on the meter and to my horror it started at 5 Euro and went up constantly by dollars every minute. Then he took me the long way, 4 kilometres instead of about 2. With all of those things in play, I paid 25 euros. To put this in perspective, on the way to the train station to leave, I paid 10 lei (about 3 Euros). I told the second driver about it and he was dismayed, at the end he joked, “So are you going to pay me 25 Euros?”, I said I’ll avoid it if I can and he said “Unfortunately I am not a scammer”. It was not a good start.

Hiking through the forest.

One of the main reasons people come to this part of the world is to see Bran castle. The castle is perched on a hill that overlooks the very small town of Bran. Bran is about 30 minutes by car from Brasov and most people stay there and take day trips out to the castles in the area. Due to the popularity of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, based on real guy Vlad the Impaler, people come here in droves. But, they have Bram to thank for the influx of tourists and purveyors of vampire related souvenirs as it’s possible Vlad never set foot in the place, let alone slept over. He was too busy impaling Turks on sticks to rest his head, I guess. I think the castle’s curators have realised this and much of the information inside is about the Royal Family of Romania who lived in the castle in the early parts of last century and the myths of Vampires. Unfortunately for me the castle was underwhelming. It was small, and although well maintained and decorated it was not as grand as one expects when visiting a castle. After seeing palaces like Versailles and the Hermitage, this place really doesn’t compare. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great; but I’m glad I went. Plus, in a shocking turn of events, no one was wandering around dressed as a vampire and charging for photos. Opportunity lost. So no vampires here.

Bran Castle.

Back in Brasov there is stuff to do, but the pace is slow and quiet. This is not a bad thing. For me, it was so nice to be out of the city and to go somewhere that isn’t ‘go go go’ all of the time. On my first day I took a hike up the Tampa Mountain. Brasov sits at the bottom of it and the mountain is home to its version of the ‘Hollywood sign’. It takes about an hour to climb up and not only do you get amazing views for kilometres over Brasov and Transylvania, you can get much closer to this sign than the one in Hollywood. It was great and you’ll all be happy to know my fitness is no better than when I huffed and puffed my way up the mountain in Monterosso, Italy. Down at sea level there is a lovely old town with a vast square surrounded by beautiful, brightly coloured buildings to sit in and watch the world go by. Much of the beauty of the buildings on this street is because of the Saxon merchants who took over the city as a trade point between the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. The Saxons built city walls, created trade guilds, organised the education system, changed the Catholic Black Church into a Lutheran one and of course, kicked all the Romanians out beyond those freshly built walls. There is a church so large that it doesn’t fit within the frame of my camera. Inside the so called Black Church there is a large collection of Turkish rugs that were given as gifts from Ottomans to Saxon traders and a painting of The Virgin Mary that was destroyed by fire, except for her white skin, which remained untouched by the flames. There is also a citadel to visit, guard towers and a long pedestrian street lined with food, drink and shopping. Here, the Vampire theme continues with places named after Drac and more vampire souvineers. Again, no real vampires to speak of.

Sunset at the Citadel.

Speaking of food, I got to indulge my favourite past time, eating, while I was here. I ate from a bakery named Gigi most days. Here I could pick up a Covrigi, a bready snack much like a German Bretzel for 1 lei each (about 30 Australian cents). I ate Romanian paprika pork stew with polenta and drank the local beers. A few fellow travellers and I bought a watermelon from a Roma roadside store on the way back from Bran to Brasov. We picked the smallest one, it was still 6 kilos, but it was the best watermelon I have ever eaten. There is a farmer’s market that runs everyday right near the hostel, so this meant I was able to chuck in with other backpackers and self-cater many nights. We filled the BBQ with grilled meat and veg, ate the freshest fruit and it was delicious. Also at the Farmer’s market was two men selling 2 litres of wine from their farm for 10 lei (almost $4AU), so needless to say I had way to much of that too. Speaking of the backpackers, I have to say I think this was far and away the most social hostel I have stayed at so far. There was always someone to have a chat with. My favourite travellers from the US, Canada, The UK, Ireland, Denmark, Belgium and of course Australia (we are everywhere abroad) meant that sitting down in the kitchen or sharing a meal was just as fun as getting out into the town and sightseeing. After 4 months on the road I am not homesick, but I do miss my family and friends. I felt this hostel was a good remedy for that as I made fast friends with some really great people who were happy to come with me to the castle, to cook dinner, hike up mountains, walk around town and share a slice of watermelon. And we did finish all 6 kilos before I left. Of course, all this social interaction has to take place somewhere and unfortunately much of it happened at a dive bar/nightclub on the pedestrian street in Brasov. I am not a clubber by any means, but I do enjoy a bit of dance floor action. I just really didn’t like the fact that it was like the dark days of 2003 here and everyone smokes inside, As a non-smoker I hate this as by the end of the night my eyes sting and all my clothes stink. At various stages of the night sheets of toilet paper fell from the roof and covered the dance floor, which stuck to your shoes and made you look silly. Also, I struggled with the g-string clad dancers who were gyrating on stage and not only making me feel horrible but setting back the feminist cause 100s of years. Plus, they couldn’t dance, but I suppose they didn’t get the job for their dance training. Luckily the people I went with were so lovely that all this nonsense and cigarette smoke didn’t ruin the fun.

FOOOOOD!

I had time to relax and take stock in Brasov. Luckily for me I got to do it with great people who made me forget about the constant threat of vampires.

Bucharest: “never boring”.

Bucharest is contrasting, commercial, sprawling, overwhelming and trying desperately to be Paris.

B-dul Unirii.

When you’re travelling the main topic of conversation with those you meet is travel. In fact I have told people my travel story so many times I feel I need it tattooed on my face. In this time people feel it necessary to give their opinions on your destinations, usually in the form of hostels to stay at, land marks to visit and places to eat and drink. When discussing Romania’s capital city, Bucharest in these discourses with my fellow travellers the discussion was always the same: “Oh it’s sooooo dangerous there” and “You won’t have to stay long, it’s boring” were common catch-cries. After several of these discussions while stealing breakfast food to eat at lunch, I became quite apprehensive about my trip to Bucharest. Fortunately for me, I rarely trust other people’s negative opinions on destinations and I had to come and see the place for myself.

Contrasting styles.

Luckily there were 3 other people from the hostel heading to Bucharest so I had some company for the journey. So after I spent the last of my Bulgarian leva on delicious cheese filled pastries, we set off on the 6 hour journey. The train ride from Veliko Tarnovo was a long one because of the quality of the train and tracks, but it was a nice way to catch up on some sleep and reading. My first impressions of Bucharest were that is a large and intimidating city, bigger is better and the more grand a building is the more pleased they’ll be. In addition to this, it is such a strange mismatch of styles it is oddly beautiful. 19th century lodgings with wooden roofs stand next to ugly stucco concrete housing blocks covered in billboards and layers of grime. Close by is a gorgeous Parisian style 5 story hotels with spires and intricate detail. Next to this you will find an ultra modern glass office buildings that look like they belong in the most cutting edge city. Hiding behind all of them were tiny churches and monasteries painted in beautiful bright colours. I found myself captivated by the fact that I never knew what was around the corner. Well, actually, one thing is ever-present on the streets of Bucharest, commercialism. The old communist apartment blocks are now giant ads themselves (Oh the irony). Perched on top of or draped across the buildings are large adverts and billboards. Consumerism is in in Bucharest and the streets are lined with designer labels, the ‘old town’ is a mass of restaurants, bars and cafes and has nothing ‘old’ about it. I suppose that’s why they call it the ‘historical centre’ instead.

Billboards.

The mish-mash of styles are all attempts to be different things at different times. To be ‘Little Paris’, an independent communist state, the centre of the Roman empire, a powerful trade route off the silk road and now to be a modern capital. It doesn’t have the effortless elegance that its hero Paris does. It doesn’t have the vibrancy of other European night-life hotspots. But oh how it wants to be those things. Its gentrification is happening before my eyes. Bucharest is trying to be so many things, it left me wondering who the city actually is. The dissimilarities are so huge that it is the contrast that has become the trademark.

Parisian meets Communism.

Many of my wanderings around the city took me down the The B-dul Unirii. This boulevard is the Champs-Élysées of Bucharest and is deliberately 30 cms wider and 6m longer than the street it was designed after in Paris (way to show ’em, Bucharest!). The communist leader at the time even made the city’s river, Dambovita, run underground for his boulevard to be completed to his size and specifications. But this was just one of his strange decisions. At the end of the 3.2 kilometres of the B-dul Unirii is the second largest administrative building in the world (and you get the feeling if they knew how big the Pentagon was, it would be the biggest) Formerly named The People’s House, now, The Palace of the Parliament. The place is stunning to look at, it is so large, white and grand that it takes over the landscape. Speaking of white, it is definitely more that just white in colour, it is also a white elephant. 1000s of rooms remain unused and many areas around it like fences and roads are in a state of disrepair. I was told that in a vote to decide on Bucharest’s most beautiful and ugly buildings it topped both lists. Many locals hate the place because when it was built not only did the government knock down homes for it, the people starved to pay for the massive construction.

The People’s House.

I am really enjoying taking free walking tours in the cities and towns I am visiting and I must say the tour I did in Bucharest was the best one so far. It was led by a former anthropologist and current all-round funny dude. He explained to us much of the communist past and present day realities of living in Romania. He was by no means complimentary of the former regime and was open and honest about his dislike for the House of the People and the way churches were destroyed and moved during the period. He did all this with plenty of gags and knowledge to back it up. All was running smoothly on the tour when suddenly, out of nowhere, a women came up to the group. She was passionate and angry. She told us that life was better under communism; her main points were about education and worker’s rights and how they have been forgotten since the revolution in 1989. I have never seen that before, a local approaching tourists to enlighten them of the ‘truth’. Or her truth at least. I for one was glad to get two sides of the story as I don’t really understand what the people here feel about their past.

A monument to victims of the regime.

I spent a morning exploring Herastrau Park, which although not the best maintained park, was very relaxing. You can hire a bike for free and cruise around the park at your own pace. The area is a weird mix of recreation activities and sculptures that look like they belong at a local garden centre. Interestingly, one area of the park had an area dedicated to literature so there was busts of Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Hugo amongst others. No Romanian writers. The flowerbeds were filled with weeds, the pavement was cracked and the roses are floppy, but it was still nice to be there and escape the incessant traffic on the city’s streets.. Maybe I’ve been in Eastern Europe to long, but I am really finding beauty in the decay.

Herastrau.

Certainly, it seems my travelling companions were wrong. I have been fascinated by Bucharest’s attempts to be Western and recreate a little Paris. It is strange and in many ways quite endearing. As for danger, I’ve seen more unsavoury types on the streets of Madrid, Paris and Rome. There is no problem here. I have barely seen a beggar, which is more than I could say when I was in Western Europe. I tend to believe my guide and Bucharest local when he said to me “Bucharest is a lot of things, but it is certainly never boring”. I couldn’t have put it better myself.