Itinerary after the fact; places unfold. Improvised travel.

This is your guide to this Romania Road Ways site, the second of our two about Romania.  The first site, Romania Road Ways I, focuses on the places without specific reference to Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler as the west may know him better. This second site, Romania Road Ways II, focuses on places related to Vlad Tepes.

Here is our index, with quick links to the posts.

These trips began as just fun, but have evolved into some more serious discussions by now. So many recurrent themes, war, deprivations, all over Europe. Worth spending time.

If you prefer a formal tour, this one looks good: see photos and narrative at //www.covinnus.com/tours/tour005.html.  Here is a site with a fine introductory set of photographs on Vlad Tepes sites - at ://www.richardleveson.com/Romania3.html/.

.........................................................
Roughly for the Vlad sites: all these as part of our overall two-week car trip in Romania, see Romania Road Ways.

1. Bucharest - fly in, have some Romanian cash with you already - we had $200 - get that at home (ATM's may not be available until Brasov and airport rates are silly), get rental car and immediately head north. Save big cities for the end.
2. Lake Snagov (possible-doubtful burial place, may have been there, still lovely and worth being rowed over). Vlad. monastery island claimed burial place , and Lake Snagov;
3. Bran Castle (not much connection, but tourist-convenient). Bran Castle.
4. Poinari Citadel, Poinari Citadel, at the Transfagarasan Pass (Wallachia to Transylvania)(a real place, climb up, a gradual walk really, to peak) atTransfagarasan Pass,
5. Sighisoara (birthplace), Sighisoara,
6. Bistrita (fictional Bram Stoker "Dracula" site, tavern there),
7. Castel Dracula at Piatra Fontanele (new hotel at place where Bram Stoker's fictional character's castle supposedly located, in central hiking-outdoor-near wilderness type park, some kitsch but fine), Castel Dracula, Piatra Fontanele,
8. Hunedoara, castle of Hungarian John Hunyadi, ruler of Transylvania, sometime ally, sometimes enemy (he ordered the death of Vlad's father), see Corvin Castle, Hunedoara,
9. Targoviste (actual court), Targoviste,
10. Curtea Veche (Bucharest)(actual court, still being excavated), Bucharest court, Curtea Veche,
11.Dracula Club (Bucharest)(themed eating club, kitsch and fun) Dracula Club.

Vlad and current events: Uses of extreme interrogations, torture for political ends

People proud of their heritage, and concerned that Romanian history is being distorted. Here is our guide in Ieud, Maramures, at one of the oldest wooden churches remaining. Extremely well informed and articulate. Thank you.

How to put the history of Romania and its reputation for torture and political repression in perspective. What - and this is highly unpleasant - are the uses of pain in this society, by whom, against whom, and why.

See the long post at Romania Road Ways for this discussion, focusing on the Sighet Prison, Maramures, Romania (at Sighetu Marmetiei, in the northwest); on the tactics of Vlad II Tepes, Vlad Dracula; and our current uses of inflicting pain. Not a nice topic, but timely.

In summary: the post notes that Vlad engaged in torture, to preserve law and order, for which his citizens were grateful, and to fend off the invading Ottomans, for which his citizens were also grateful. That worked for about 40 years. He is revered in Romania, as far as we could tell. See post. Still, his tactics did not last. Just gave a reprieve until the Turks regrouped and came again. Other issues re past President Ceaucescu, and posts.

Overview map of basic Vlad sites

Go here to see a simple map of where these Vlad II Tepes, Vlad Dracula, places are located: //www.activtravel.ro/route-r4.

Some of those places on the map as Dracul sites are new to us - we thought we knew most of them. Add them to your own list.

Or be wary of padding by tourist companies. We were at Bucharest at the Dracula Club on Halloween, where there were American tour guides in a large group figuring out how to package Dracula tours. Not encouraging to hear.

Some said there was just too much distance between sites (this is true - distances) and that they needed filler between, to keep tourists happy (probably true). So, there are spots here added that are probably marginally Vlad. Some tour guides also took pride in saying loudly that they would never eat local food. Sigh.

We stand by our sites here - we researched, drove, and found the most solid. Also, we like places to stay like this - Pensiunca Dracula at Cazare, near Poinari Citadel. A pensione is a rooming house. We did not stay here - it is midday clearly, and we have miles to go. But like this. Most tour groups would not touch it.

Bran Castle, Brasov - Popular tradition but little real connection, if any

Bran Castle, in Brasov, is just north of Bucharest and Sinaia. It gets the tourists because it is so close. A bus for maybe two hours (we went back roads, so this is a guess - we avoid motorways), and there it is.



The people at the castle will tell you that Vlad was only there as a guest once in a while, if even that, or was imprisoned there. It is lovely, well restored, but tenuous in any connection to the historic Vlad Tepes.

Tours do hype the factoid that Vlad lived there. Not so, we were told. See, for example, www.vsra.net/dractour/dractour. They say that Bran castle was a residence of Vlad. Others say Vlad used this castle as home base for his incursions from Wallachia, the southern part of Romania where he ruled from time to time, into the northern section, Transylvania. See www.draculascastle.com/html/branint1. That was not the information we had when we were there. But it makes a buck -or lei, or the new leu.

A recent TV show (this is an update 2/2/07) showed Bran Castle and the town of Brasov, as one of the walled towns that Vlad used in anchoring his rule, especially against the Ottoman invasion. There was no hint of that when we were there.

I read that the government is giving the castle back to the heirs, so it may or may not remain open as a tourist destination. Vlad or not, it is lovely.

The sites do a fine job of comparing the legends with the historical reality, as far as that is known or debated now. We took time to read the exhibits.

Lake Snagov, Monastery - Vlad's island burial

Here we are, in the rowboat being ushered to the island in Lake Snagov where Vlad's body is said to be buried. We started at Bucharest and aimed north to Snagov, where there is a little monastery - on this island in the middle of the lake. See www.bootsnall.com/travelstories/europe/nov03vlad. for an account of someone else's visit to Snagov.

Leave plenty of time. Transport to the island is by rowboat. Go fast, before all this changes to motor launches and noise.

There is a small church on the island, with a priest taking the entry tickets to the interior spot in front of the altar where Vlad is said to be buried. Apparently not. Story is that he was moved (his body - the head was decapitated during battle) to the outside, by the door, to protect it. Then, when places were dug up, no sign -- only chicken or other animal bones.

Still, there are records that he had once been buried in the church. There is the picture of the interior site. Very lovely, really. One novel, "The Historian,"(see post on resources here), has as its focal point where the head might have gone, then the body, and by whom, and what happened to the parts next. Are reunitings always good things?

See and speculate about the stories at www.castleofspirits.com/vlad. - Vlad tales.

Overnight. The only hotel we found was the old communist resort, the Complex Astoria, see www.world66.com/europe/romania/snagovlake. It closes in October - it was already in process of closing completely, and we were the only guests there. They let us in. The website notes only campsites and chalets there. It is a large hotel with atrium, long halls with rooms. Just fine. Check that you know how to work the locks. They are not the same as ours. May take several turns.

Our flight landed just before noon, so we did not have this choice: But do the Snagov trip early in the day. That way, you can plan to go back to the motorway to the next big town (even Brasov), if the Complex Astoria is closed. We saw no alternatives.

If you find yourself in a place without restaurants or hotels, as here (we finally found the Complex) just stop at the Magazin Mixt - at the nearest crossroads - convenience store - and make a picnic. Sit outside and eat, and just be friendly. Lots of horsecarts, people, children.

Links, posts, archives, copyright

Note the long addresses to third party sites in these blogs, and no direct linking. It took months to get all the direct links out and I am not sure it was worth it.

Then note the effectiveness of a good guide who can give info when you want it, at your own pace. This fine one is at Poinari Citadel, Vlad's mountaintop castle ruin.

That ever-present guide is like direct-linking. The issue is how to be sure the guide is compensated somehow for the work that went into putting info together and presenting it when you are on the mountaintop.

But, effective as immediate info is, we have to go the slow route in these blogs because of copyright issues that relate to that remuneration for the guide and piracy. We looked at www.bitlaw.com, after we saw Blogspot's own pop-up reminder to its bloggers about the issues. Those concerns, however, kill the very spontaneity that makes internet sharing so effective. See also the old article, "The Tyranny of Copyright" by Robert S. Boynton, New York Times Magazine 1/25/04 at 40ff.

It appears that nothing is clear in how or when direct links can be used safely. Sharing or building on another's foundation, experimenting, exploring, is seen as verging on piracy. What happened to fair use, new use.

This going by long addresses slows all of us up. We want to zoom from info to fun to music and arts to trivia to history and back. The slowness of separate searches actually destroys what we are trying to do. It breaks the train of thought. We want to encourage exploration, self-education, show people how fast they can find out about things that interest them. And how they could go abroad on their own. Sadness.

We are concerned that people won't look into the site at all if they can't get in easily. That serves noone. Will someone please clear up copyright law to make direct linking that creates a new use/ mixed genre, like educational/history/travel/arts/politics works, clearly fine. Then figure out how to do that, and still see that the originators are compensated for their contribution to someone else's work. Possible?

Until then, open that other browser window, copy as much of the long address as gets you to the home page, and from there to the interior information. It appears that that is the only way to steer clear of the charge of facilitating somebody else's infringing on somebody else's copyright. Regrets.

Reminder on posts: We first put them in chronological order, arrival to departure. So, the dates of posting may not be the actual date a post is put up. Archives are not necessarily earlier posts. They complete the trip. Order changes as we update.

Technorati Profile

Transfagarasan Pass - Carpathian Alps -Route from Wallachia to Transylvania

Hairpin turns, incredible cliffs and a winding road. Stop and take a hike. If you are a worrier about leaving the car, then don't, but you will miss a fine walk.














The Fagaras Mountains - there is a history of hardship and labor deaths from blasting out a way across for vehicles. See //www.expeditionplus.com/2006/07/the_fagaras_mountains_and_the_1. It was built as a way to move troops and ammunition to defend against a feared Soviet invasion, 1968.

The Pass in these mountains is open as weather and season permit. There is a sign at a town in the southern end of the road, Curtea de Arges, that will give the information, we now hear. We didn't know that, but went up anyway, prepared to turn back. It was the end of October - lovely. There are "cabanas" and small hotels. Just don't wait too long in the day to stop. You need all the visibility you can get - not all vehicles have good headlights, and animals may wander in the road.

At the northern end of the pass are Sighisoara, the birthplace of Vlad III Tepes, and Sibiu; entry to the painted monastery areas, and much more. See Romania Road Ways.

More blogs about Romania Road Ways Vlad Tepes - Impaler.

Poinari Citadel, ruin of castle of Vlad III Tepes (Transfagarasan Pass)

Poinari Citadel, in distance, Vlad Tepes, Romania

Vlad's real castle.

At the top of the mountain, look to the left in the photo, is the ruin of the actual castle of Vlad Tepes, where he defended against the Turks, then escaped.

They say his wife hurled herself from the parapets in despair when it appeared that they would be overrun. Vlad escaped with the help of villagers at Arefu nearby. I understand that the villagers still identify with that event and can name the individuals and their descendants.

Vlad rewarded them with land, an unusual step for peasants. For an account of places and his life, see the Vlad sites at www.ucs.mun.ca/%7Eemiller/vlad_romania. Go to the home page at mun.ca and then use as much of the rest of the address as gets you to the sites.

For an account of one who slept out up there, despite the centuries of spooky stories, see the account at www.ventureup.com/travel/dracula.

A guide appeared when we were just about at the top, from a little house up there. Do carry some dollars for people who are especially helpful. They really want them, and deserve to be compensated. I tended to tip in Romanian currency. Dollars: Would still not show dollars in a town, especially to begging children, or too many will suddenly appear. But there is a midground to caution. I also wish I had been more generous with other individuals, like older women sitting asking for money at the monastery gates.

This is the view from the ruin itself.
Poinari Citadel, Castle ruin, Vlad Tepes, view
.
The site is known as the Poenari Citadel. See www.draculascastle.com/html/poenari.

To get there, watch for a small parking area below, near a utilities complex in the valley, and there is a manageable walk up a long S-curve and there are even some long stair steps on the pathway.
Dan Widing, climbing to Poinari Citadel, Castle, Vlad Tepes, Romania
.
Some buses or vans with tourists arrived after we started up. , and a small group was ahead. The ruin is good for climbing around, but not extensive in size. The path is safe, with a pipe-type railing to keep you on track. A group of Romanian teens behind us called the rail The Great Wall of Romania. Lots of laughs - Japanese tourists were ahead of us. Worldwide attraction. But not a crowded place at all.

Sighisoara, Vlad's Birthplace; World Heritage site

The home is now a restaurant. The town is in excellent medieval condition, never bombed, or overrun. See the photo gallery at www.world66.com/europe/romania/sighisoara/lib/gallery.

As in other Romanian cities with ties to Vlad Tepes, there are excellent desciptive plaques. I felt they are not cashing in on kitsch, but being sensible in separating out the historical, even where that is disagreed, from Bram Stoker. The result is to interest people who want to know what is known, as well as those who want to follow in Bram Stoker's characters' steps.

There are entire tours devoted to Vlad. The Romanian Tourist Bureau provides an overview of his life as told in legend. See www.draculascastle.com/html/poenari.

The home is now a restaurant. The town is in excellent medieval condition, never bombed, or overrun. See Sighisoara in photos at www.world66.com/europe/romania/sighisoara/lib/gallery.

As in other Romanian cities with ties to Vlad Tepes, there are excellent desciptive plaques. We felt they are not cashing in on kitsch, but being sensible in separating out the historical, even where that is disagreed, from Bram Stoker. The result is to interest people who want to know what is known. Educational. As well as the fiction-followers, those who want to follow in Bram Stoker's characters' steps.

Sighisoara is a World Heritage site. See www.romanianvoice.com/images/orase/sighisoara.php. The full list of places on the Romanian World Heritage honor roll is at thesalmons.org/lynn/wh-romania.

There are entire tours devoted to Vlad. The Romanian Tourist Bureau provides an overview of his life as told. See www.draculascastle.com/html/poenari.

Bistrita, Piatra Fontanele and Hotel Castel Dracula: Bram Stoker's Dracula Story

Bistrita is the town located near the area where the "Dracula" author, Bram Stoker, located his fictitious Dracula's castle. His character, Jonathan Harker dined at the Golden Crown here. Here is background on Bram Stoker - who was born in Dublin - www.online-literature.com/stoker/. This is the Literature Network site.

On weekends in Bistrita and other towns, things do close down, so don't plan for museums or sites after lunch and especially on Sundays. Here is an overview of the town. See museum.ici.ro/transilvania/bistrita-nasaud/english/istoria%20oras. Again, just go to the home page, then plug in any of the erest of the address that you need.

We had to stay at the Hotel Castel Dracula, of course, past Bistrita and about where the fictitious castle was supposed to be located.


The hotel has a secret passageway and room, that you have to search for yourself and then - gasp - it is there. The Coffin. And cape for dressing up.





Other than that, it is a full-service, no kitsch hotel: good food, books for sale on the Stoker's Dracula-Vlad comparison. Wish for a foggy morning so that driving is risky, and curl up with a good book.

The hotel has been discovered by serious hikers. It is near a wilderness park, with Big Animals, and the trails look great.

There is also a pool table and pub up the tower. For enviro-tourists, despite the name, stay here as your base for side hikes. Any big facility needs upkeep, and they are working on it.

Other accommodations: Usually we stayed at any family pensione, or a "cabana" in outlying areas. A cabana is like a villa, small hotel-hostel-pensiones for travelers, at well-spaced intervals in mountain or recreation areas. All clean, safe, warm, with thin compact mattresses, but plenty of felted blankets in the duvets. The felted blankets, think heavy, tight wool blankets, soaked and dried several times to tighten it up and make the felt, very thick - not like hats. We sometimes put the additional duvet underneath.

Resources: Reading list, chronology, reference sites, compare to Bram Stoker "Dracula"

Overview - There is a historical Vlad III Tepes, who may or may not conform to your own acquired understanding of him. Please put him in his own setting, with the dangers he and his countrymen faced, with the practices of others in his time, and look for his other qualities as a ruler - not just his extreme law-enforcement or cruel deterrent practices. For people who like heavy deterrence, and believe in it, this worked for Vlad but only lasted several decades. The Turks (fill the slot with any other invader) were back. Torture is temporary, and has its backlash.

• For a novel about Vlad, try The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova, 2005, Little, Brown&Co.

• Overview and photos, sites and related issues: www.donlinke.com/drakula/vlad/photos., for Vlad Photos, sites.

• Narrative, chronology, facts and resource list at www.royalty.nu/Europe/Balkan/Dracula. I was interested to see that Vlad was raised by Turks, a hostage as a child, or at least whatever one calls a person who is being kept as a guarantee that the father will conform to what the holder wants. He may have learned much, early.
  

• More photos and a journey log: www.dunwich.org/draculea/draculea. Also, photos at www.ciaoromania.com/draculatour.
  

• Here is a site showing where many stories originated: www.tabula-rasa.info/DarkAges/VladTheImpaler. This is a horror-site, so if you get to the home page, please do not leave in disgust. Just go fast to the Dark Ages section then in the left menu, to Vlad. The written account there is ok.

• Here, an overview with list of resources and footnotes. www.eskimo.com/%7Emwirkk/castle/vlad/vladhist.

The sites for Vlad III Tepes, Impaler, are fine to see, but may detract from the rest of Romanian culture and places. So we put the Vlad sites at their own blog.

Because any visitor will be constantly reminded of Vlad, here are some reading materials to help determine what is fact, with reasonable corroboration, and what is legend, and what is sheer fiction - literally, thanks to Bram Stoker, the author and his "Dracula."

Reading materals here, for your next trip to the library or on-line source:

1. Bram Stoker, "Dracula" (the nineteenth century novel)
2. Elizabeth Miller, "A Dracula Handbook," Gerot Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania (English version-973-96601-4-2) (among books recommended by the Transylvanian Society of Dracula)
3. Ioan Praoveanu, "Castle Bran," C2 Design House Publishing, Brasov,Romania, 1999
4. Raymond T. McNally and Radu Florescu, "In Search of Dracula, a True History of dracula and Vampire Legends," New York Graphic Society, Greenwich, Connecticut 1972.


We had these books with us:

1. Lonely Planet's "Romania and Moldova"
2. History of Romania (paperback, in the house here somewhere, well-dog-eared)

The Name - Vlad III Tepes

All the names and what they mean, collected from a collection of sites:

a. Vlad. First name. See members.aol.com/johnfranc/drac05.

b. III. His father was Vlad Dracul, or Vlad II, I understand, so this Vlad is Vlad III.

c. Tepes. Impaler. See www.royalty.nu/Europe/Balkan/Dracula.

d. Dracula. Dragon, as in Order of the Dragon, to which Vlad's father first belonged, then Vlad. See www.rodoslovlje.com/medieval_serbia/eng/history-dragon.

See www.donlinke.com/drakula/vlad. This is a good site for the historical Dracula.

Hunedoara: Johan Hunyadi - Vlad Contemporary, Ruling Transylvania

This is fabulous. Maybe the best castle in Europe. Never bombed, in process of a fine reconstruction of the wooden parts and others needing preservation. Location=terrible. Abandoned communist era factories all around. Go anyway.

Corvin Castle in the eastern part of Romania. Castle of Janos Hunyadi, Hungarian - allied with Vlad off an on, both against the Turks. Hunyadi also ordered the assassination of Vlad's father and brother.

Hunyadi ruled the northern Transylvania; Vlad ruled the southern Wallachia. Janos' son ruled after him. See Hunedoara Castle at www.world66.com/europe/romania/hunedoara. Janos Hunyadi - John Hundedoara (see Huneduara in Croatia) - or Johan, was a Hungarian nobleman and general who was appointed as administrator of the area by the Hungarian rulers in the 15th century. He repelled the Ottoman invasion for many years. See www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107349.

Some sources credit Hunyadi with saving Europe because he halted the Turkish advance into southern Europe. See www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/endmiddle/bluedot/hunyadi.

The castle is 14th Century Gothic, never bombed, never cannoned. The restorations are splendid. The surroundings, however, are eastern european socialist looming skeleton factories - no glamor entryway - but the trip is worth it. Watch out for heavy air pollution after Cluj Napoca and Deva. Asthmatics take inhalers, and do not even think about the fallout on crops, and that the animals are eating in the fields. People and vehicles barely visible in the smog. How will the EU help with health?

Best history site, History of Central Europe - Vlad Tepes and Romania

Go to the History of Central Europe at mysite.du.edu/~etuttle/misc/europe.htm#Mong. Scroll down to the Romania section. This is the most concise but clear and complete accounting we have found so far.

Lake Snagov

This is not only the Lake where Vlad's burial (?) island at the monastery, is located, so they say. It is also a vacation spot, where fine estates line parts of the shore. As you are rowed out to the island and the monastery, you will also see Ceaucescu's palace, fishermen, and so quiet.

There are plenty of sites for Vlad - see a good collection at //www.donlinke.com/drakula/vlad/photos.

This one suggests that you get off those usual ones, and spend time with the Lake before it also is built up, the more of us that come there. You can stay at the Complex Astoria, a communist-era resort there. This was taken from a dock.

Many homeless dogs. We were told to keep our hands in our pockets, so we did. They trot along with you, just don't pet. Others not so friendly. Don't experiment. We understand that Ceaucescu would not let people take their pets when they were moved wholesale in Bucharest and elsewhere out of neighborhoods that were then razed for big government buildings and boulevards, into high rises. Puppies, show dogs, all set loose. Thousands.

Targoviste, Court, Vlad's Capital, Vlad as Ruler of Wallachia

Targoviste was the capital for Vlad III Tepes during one of his periods of rule over much of Wallachia. It is not far from Bucharest, and in the direction most tourists do not travel. See photo and comment at www.aboutromania.com/dracula4. There is a tall tower, full of exhibits and information. Wind your way up the large stairs and by the end, looking over the countryside from the top, you feel you perhaps have the beginning of an understanding. He was brutal, but is still revered for other things.

Most tourists head north, to Brasov, and Bran Castle (where Vlad either had been a guest a few times, or imprisoned there for a while, but no other connection we were told).

Targoviste has more than this small website suggests, but start here to get an overview: www.world66.com/europe/romania/targoviste.

The stories of Vlad III Tepes, the Impaler, vary. This one seemed reliable: www.royalty.nu/Europe/Balkan/Dracula. Note that Vlad III Tepes is different from the fictional Dracula in the Bram Stoker novel, "Dracula."

I read that Vlad's brutality could have resulted from his exposure to it as a youngster, inflicted on others where raised for a time among the Turks (no suggestion that he was brutalized), and he just got used to it. Others say that he was no worse than other medieval beings, and our own inquisition and carpet bombings and napalm are no winners, just farther removed from the sounds and visuals of what he was inflicting. This site examines what happened in a broader context: members.aol.com/johnfranc/drac05. Photo included. The address is there if you want to contact the Transylvanian Society of Dracula.

Bucharest, Curtea Veche,The Princely Court - Vlad

An earlier post, about Targoviste, used the term, "Princely Court," for that location.

"Princely Court" is also used here, for Vlad's court location after moving the political center to Bucharest. See www.rotravel.com/romania/sites/tour/old.php.

The area is a combination of ruin and structures, but is in process of reconstruction. Its history is given at library.thinkquest.org/C0125971/media/english/Map/bucu. Excavations are ongoing.

Here are photos and a description - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtea_Veche. Good old Wikipedia.

Bucharest, Dracula Club, fried rats to eat

The Dracula Club, Bucharest, Romania
 .
The Dracula Club, Bucharest. Excellent for Halloween. Knock, and a little door in the big door opens and a face peers out. This is a reputable fine food supper club-restaurant, not just a come-on.

You will like the clientele.


Dan Widing welcomed at the Dracula Club, Bucharest, Romania (on Halloween)
.
People emerge from the walls. Enjoy the fried rats - looked like chicken breast with dark pumpernickel breadcrumb coating, pimento puree within, and long tails and whiskers of something, perhaps fried angel hair pasta?

Halloween was dress-up night. Watch for the really good actor who suddenly descends, seeking Mina, Mina, Mina; and grabbing bites where he can. See "Dinner At The Count's" at www.travellady.com/Issues/Issue60/dracula.>. There was a group of American tour guides there, not a friendly group at all. One even said aloud, in the face of a lavish and excellent buffet, that she never ate local food, and I hope she chooses another career.