At the beginning of every year I make a list of the places I would like to visit sometime over the next twelve months. When I did this for 2015, believe it or not Romania was not on the list; not that I didn’t want to go, but It just didn’t make it to the list for the year. However come mid-January, my wanderlust set in along with my recurring need to just get out of town for a few days. So I got on my favourite site to look for cheap airfare and starting pricing flights from Amsterdam to several places, and it just came down to the fact that a flight to Bucharest for the particular weekend I was looking for was the cheapest. So bam – booked the flight and started doing my pre-trip research.
I think when most people think about Romania they think of Transylvania and the legend of Dracula. And I admit the idea of going into Transylvania and seeing the Carpathian Mountains was very intriguing!! But prior to my journey to find the infamous Dracula, my first stop in Romania was the capitol city of Bucharest. Walking around Bucharest you can see traces of old the Communist regime with it’s the grey block style building, next to some beautiful Art Nouveau buildings. And hidden generally behind these buildings are some beautiful Orthodox churches.
As mentioned in an earlier blog, I am avid proponent and frequent participant in the free walking tours that you can find in most major cities. The free walking tour in Bucharest was wonderful and provided an interesting insight into not only the city but into the history of Romania as well. The tour is about 2 ½ hours long but took us along most of the major tourist sites in Bucharest. Probably the most predominant sight in Bucharest is the Palace of Parliament, which is the second largest government building in the world, second only to the Pentagon. While I opted not to take a tour into this building, tours are offered regularly. The tour also gave a lot of history on the former communist leader Nicholas Ceaușescu, and his ultimate demise. We visited Revolution Square where you can now see a monument (The Memorial of Rebirth) commemorating the revolution that took place in December 1989 that ultimately put an end to the communist regime. After the tour I spent most of the time primarily of walking throughout the city, exploring the old town, which is pretty much all that is left of pre-WWII Bucharest. Bucharest has several large parks, which I would have liked to explore, but being that it was the end of January, walking around in the cold in a park didn’t strike as ideal at the time. Overall Bucharest exceeded my expectations being a much prettier city than I originally imagined and felt that it had a lot of character and culture.
My second day in Romania was consumed with an all day tour leaving Bucharest early morning and headed to Sinaia Romania to visit Peles Castle, then to Bran for a tour of the publicized castle of Dracula and ending in a quick visit to the medieval town of Brasov. Now while this tour ended up being a total of 13 hours, I was so glad I decided to do this. Peles Castle, the residence of Carol I, was incredible set below the beautiful Carpathian Mountains. My visit was highlighted with snow that made the views of the castle and the mountains that much more magical. I have seen so many castles that they generally started to blend together, but this one was an exception. The interior with ornate wood carvings, beautiful stained glass windows, and exquisite furnishings was breathtaking. Part of the design was that several rooms were a designed to accompany a theme, such as a Moorish style sitting room, a Florentine style room complete with Murano glass mirrors and chandeliers, a theatre complete with stage, as well as a music concert hall. There was detail spared in this castle, hidden passage ways, an elevator only used by the royal family as well as electricity throughout, making it the first entirely electrified castle on the continent. I could go on and on about the beauty of this castle, but I truly feel that words don’t do this place justice. This was definitely the highlight of my trip. After Peles we headed toward Bran to visit Bran Castle. While this castle is advertised to be Dracula’s castle, it actually was not. It was the description of the castle found in Bram Stoker’s famous novel Dracula that so closely resembled Bran Castle, which prompted the castle to be advertised as such. Perched up on a 200 foot rock, the castle was actually a fortress that was situated on the border of Transylvania and Wallachia. It served as a fortress for defence against the Ottoman Empire and later on a customs post when travelling from one region to the other. The snow made for some wonderful photo opportunities and gave the castle the old eerie feel that one would imagine of “Draculas castle”. Our tour ended with a brief visit to the medieval town of Brasov. Unfortunately it was raining and it was just before sundown, so I didn’t get to truly get a feel for this place. But would definitely love to come back and stay a few nights – explore the city and perhaps get even better acquainted with the beautiful area of Transylvania.
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Romania and in most particular to the region of Transylvania. Sometimes I just get lucky in my excursions and was so during this particular one with sunshine and 50 degree weather in January for my day in Bucharest. And then snow on my day trip to Peles Castle and Bran Castle. I couldn’t have asked for better weather if I tried. That was another Eastern European country off the list – and country #41 for me to date.
