TRAVEL: Romania - In Search of Dracula!

The other week, myself and three of my friends went off on a little adventure to Romania in search of Dracula!

Dracula is such an enchanting story and, like complete tourists, we were utterly drawn to the castle that inspired Bram Stoker.

We made a long journey over to Brasov after a brief stop in Bucharest, which seem like cities that are two worlds apart.

Bucharest is a bustling capital, with a beautiful old town centre with cheap eateries, but with a contrasting poverty line that is hard to ignore. Before we left, we all caught a documentary which detailed the issues the Country has faced post communism. With orphanages all being closed, many helpless people have taken to the streets and taken up home in the sewers. It was truly a story of a very interesting community dependent on drugs. Whilst having a coffee outside the main station on our way to Brasov, we saw people casually entering and leaving the sewers. It was shocking because all those around them, including police officers, taxi drivers, general commuters didn't bat an eyelid. It was moving and disturbing and a real eye opener into the lives of those in the capital.

On a lighter note, our first night in Brasov, as an utter contrast, was at an airbnb which we secured for about £20 for the four of us in total. We stayed with a local guy, who was really good fun and offered us a drink that evening. We wandered out to the main town centre that evening which was bustling an busy (their Sunday is our Saturday, because most people have Mondays off!) It felt secure and comfortable, families were out walking late, our host left his door unlocked, and there didn't seem to be any signs of trouble.


Our next stop the next day was of course, Dracula's Castle!

As well as lots of fun tourist shops, the Castle itself was quite interesting and it was fun finding the secret staircases and getting lost. There wasn't much mention of Dracula himself really, or Bram Stoker, but this didn't bother us because we got caught up in the excitement of it all and bought lots of trinkets from the tourist stalls there.

Our last night in Bucharest was fairly tame, we were all exhausted from all the travelling and didn't get to travel much or explore Bucharest as much as I'd have liked to, but we had a really great time anyway. Romania is cheap to eat and drink in, a bottle of wine was setting us back around the region of £6 in a restaurant, which was good and bad news for us, as it meant we got through too many!

The whole trip cost around £60 each including hotels and flights from the UK. A weekend well spent!

Have you got any holidays booked? Have you ever been to Romania? Let me know!

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