We hopped on a train from Bucharest and headed to Bran, a town in Transylvania that is home to Bran Castle (also known as Dracula’s Castle). While Dracula is a fictional character, he is based on Vlad the Impaler, a Romanian ruler who had a reputation for impaling his enemies. While the castle he built for himself is now in ruins, Bran Castle is the castle that served as inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It also hosts the most epic Halloween Party in the world, including a tour of the castle with roaming vampires, and a bumping rave on the front lawn. Naturally, we unleashed our own inner vampires and joined the rest of the undead.
Our first day in Bran, we spent entirely too long perfecting our outfits and then left for the party! Marcus and I were the hottest vampires, Marcus’ mom and sister dressed as leopards, and my mom was a masked flapper. We arrived at the castle to a mob of people with seemingly no organization. After an hour or so, we managed to find ourselves in some sort of a line. We made friends with our neighbors, some from Alaska and one from Poland. Our Polish friend was dressed in a Tigger onesie and definitely brought the life to the party! We were finally pushed through the gates to get our wristbands and then – got in another line! By this time it was freezing, but we were so close! We climbed the steps to the castle and once we were admitted started one of the most epic nights of our lives.
We wandered through the castle, meeting Vlad the Impaler inside along with hordes of vampires. The whole castle had been decorated with cobwebs, spiders, and cauldrons. The castle is unique in its design and layout, as it is set high on a hill and has two stories surrounding a center square. We walked through the whole thing, Marcus scaring children the entire time (more than usual, that is).
After our tour of the castle, we kept the party going and headed to the dance floor. We got some pictures in coffins and then let the undead spirit free! We’re not the biggest partiers in the world, but we had a few dances. After we (very quickly) wore ourselves out, we headed across the street for a late night snack, including white hot chocolate. Yum!
The next day, we decided we wanted to see the beauty of Bran Castle in daylight as well. Unfortunately, Marcus wasn’t feeling so great so he ended up staying home. We had a great girls day without him though! First, we browsed the street stalls leading up to the castle. Everything was for sale here, including beautiful paintings of the castle, wooden dishes, and fur hats.
We made our way to the castle once again, this time exploring the grounds more. We had stunning views of the Transylvanian countryside and spent a few hours just soaking up our last day in Transylvania.
We returned to town and met up with Marcus for dinner in the town of Brasov. The restaurant we picked was in a medieval dungeon underneath a hotel, and we sat in a stone room with medieval decor. The ambience was amazing, but even better was the food! I had duck breast, but Marcus and his mom and sister got steak that they cooked on a hot stone in front of them. It was the most tender, buttery, and soft meat we’ve ever had. And again, each meal was around $17!! We licked our plates clean and walked over to the nearby Black Church. Because it was so late, we couldn’t go inside but we had a great view.
The next morning we headed off to the airport bound for London!!
twokidsabroad.com 