Sunday, September 09, 2007

Accommodations.

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We leave directly from airports, to more open country. It gives a chance to get accustomed to the car, maps. We have no fixed destination for the first night.  Just have cash on hand.
  • Eastern Europe may not be familiar to you.  See some videos for your own orientation about history:
Romania History Part 1 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=43...h&plindex=0;
Romania History Part 2 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=43...h&plindex=0
Romania History Part 3 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=43...h&plindex=0
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1.  Distances. Accommodations.
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Distances are substantial between the Vlad sites, so plan to stop many times along the way.  For distances between major towns, see Romania Driving Distances
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Most every town has several choices for accommodations.  No reservations are needed.  This idea makes some people nervous, so we include some possibles here.  Never once did we need a reservation anywhere in Romania, however, and all was safe, clean, and our choice of location.
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Prince Charles sponsors guest houses.  There is also a new category of accommodations, thanks to Prince Charles - he has been fostering the preservation and renewal of traditional structures, and use as guesthouses, see Prince Charles, sponsoring Guesthouses, other preservation sites.
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We enjoy the spontaneous stop, or seeing where we might have stopped had it been the end of the day - example Pensiunea Dracula at Cazare, see http://www.pensiuneadracula.ro/near Poinari Citadel.
  • A cazari is an apartment, we understand, and a pensione is a rooming house. We did not stay here - it is midday clearly, and we had miles to go.
  • Why travel on your own?  You can find places like this, that most tour groups would not touch perhaps because it does not have those ridiculous stars that mean only conformity. 

Pensiunea Dracula, Dracula Pensione, Cazare (accommodation), Arges, Romania




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2.  Overview map.
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For a simple map of where these Vlad II Tepes, Vlad Dracula, places are located, see  http://www.activtravel.ro/route-r4.
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Vlad tours:  beware that some tours may add filler sites to break up the tedium of buses only going to "Vlad" sites.  Those added ones, may be really peripheral: added by tour companies to beef up the ads. 
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Tour guides.  Watch yourselves.  You do not make good diplomats when not officially on duty.  Is that so?  You get overheard anyway, including by local people. FN 1
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3.  Counties. Regional highlights by time of year
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See a map of all the counties, click and find the accommodations. There is also a side menu by town.  County map, Romania - Tourist Accommodationsin Romania. Many sites are in Romanian: go here for another map of accommodations, http://www.cazari.ro/, and click to translate.  Cazari is not a town, it means accommodations.
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FN 1 

Bucharest at the Dracula Club on Halloween. There were American tour guides there, on tour themselves, in a large group figuring out how to package Dracula tours. A "Romania" tour without the specialty would be better, with highlights for Vlad. We stand by our Vlad sites here as the most historically solid.
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Some guides were discussing the long bus rides between sites (this is true - distances) and that they needed filler between, to keep tourists happy (probably true). Some tour guides also took pride in saying -- loudly -- almost like a brag, that they would never eat local food. With attitudes like that, especially so rudely said loudly, some of us would never take a tour.
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Saturday, February 03, 2007

Lake Snagov, Snagov Monastery - Vlad's island burial? Complex Astoria

Lake Snagov, 
Snagov Monastery, 
Burial, Possible once,  Vlad III Tepes
Complex Astoria
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1.  Lake Snagov.  This is a traditional resort area now, and about 18 miles from Bucharest. It looked like a perfect first destination.  We avoid motorways, so arriving there took longer than usual.  If you are pressed for time, take the motorway. Arrival is worth it. Even if you get lost, you will be safe we found.
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Lake Snagov, Romania. Rowing to monastery from Complex Astoria



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2.  Complex Astoria.  We had trouble locating the guidebook's recommendation for overnight, the "Complex Astoria".  No wonder:  it had closed for the season (we were there in October). Still, we drove in and enough maintenance and other people were there -- got a room.  The alternative would have been to drive on to Brasov.  See FN 1
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3.  Roma.  On the way, the first glimpse of rural Romania was stark. We drove through small, dirt poor either peasant or Roma villages. We believe they were Rom, or Gypsy, because of their darker skin and such poverty.  Along the road: old women bent double under firewood, gaunt faces in doorways. We could not be sure at that early time in our visit.  Everyone was helpful, pointed the way.
For any candidate in any country for any substantial elected office: what have you done to promote the well-being of the Roma population in your borders? Education? Structures? Jobs? Health?
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4.  Dinner when there is no dinner.  Magazin Mixt.
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That means convenience store. We had a fine meal from a general deli (dried sausage, rolls, cheese), a kind of bodega, at a village. People came around to stare, but we felt welcome.
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There were no other cars out there in the country where we were, dirt road, dirt houses, dirt everywhere, no amenities, even so close to Bucharest. There were deep ruts from the wagon wheels, and horses. Horse carts. That has probably changed by now, with the funding coming in from the EU membership. Has it?
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2.  Snagov Monastery:  The only way to get to the island monastery, and the alleged burial place of Vlad;s body (the claim) is by rowboat. Strong young men at Astoria will do the rowing. Leave plenty of time. Transport to the island is by rowboat. Go fast, before all this changes to motor launches and noise. See it at http://www.bootsnall.com/travelstories/europe/nov03vlad.
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The Monastery:
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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. See http://www.draculas.info/gallery/picture_of_monastery_of_snagov_vlad_the_impaler_grave-12/  This looks like a Romanian offering an overview, to be preferred over the tourism sites, see http://dracula-transylvania.blogspot.com/2008/04/snagov-monastery.html
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Apparently he is not there any more.  The story tells 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 to find him, there was no sign -- only chicken or other animal bones.
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Still, there are records that he had once been buried in the church.
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The interior is lovely. One novel, "The Historian," by Elizabeth Kostova, see http://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm?book_number=1589 focuses at one point on where the head might have gone, then the body, and by whom, and what happened to the parts next. Are all reunitings good things? See and speculate about the stories at http://www.castleofspirits.com/vlad. - Vlad tales.
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FN 1.  Complex Astoria
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Overnight.  This had been a communist resort, still is a resort, see http://mapcarta.com/28166480.  Use your translator at http://www.tourismguide.ro/tgr/complex_astoria_snagov_1778.php.  Beware that it is seasonal. This was October, and just past the tourist season. More at http://www.world66.com/europe/romania/snagovlake. It was already in process of closing until spring completely, and we were the only guests there.  Nervous?  Why.  It's too late to go elsewhere, we don't travel fancy, our backpacks are all we have, and without faith in human nature no travel is worth it anyway.  When the door would not lock, we stuck a chair under the knob as seen on TV.  Done.
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Be sure to have some cash -- either from the US or an airport exchange or bank ATM because not all places are equipped to do credit cards once the place is closing.
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There are many campsites and chalets at the resort. The main building is a large hotel with atrium, long halls with rooms. Just fine. Back to locks. Check that you know how to work the locks before accepting the room and unpacking. They are not the same as ours. May take several turns. As it turned out, ours would have locked if we just kept turning, and turning.
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5.  Timing an arrival somewhere:
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Our flight landed just before noon, so we did not have this choice: But do the Snagov trip early in the day. That gives time to go back to the motorway to the next big town (even Brasov), if the Complex Astoria is closed.
If you find yourself in a place without restaurants or hotels, as here (we finally found the Complex) just stop at the nearest 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.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Brasov: Bran Castle - Popular tradition for Vlad. Not really Vlad.

 Brasov, Bran Castle
This looks "Dracula" but was he ever here? Probably not.
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1.  Bran Castle, in Brasov, is about 70 miles north of Snagov Lake, where the island monastery claims to hold Vlad remains, or did. Bran is about 87 miles north of Bucharest.  Brasov gets tourists because Bran Castle looks good, is indeed a real and very historic castle, see http://www.draculas.info/travel_transylvania/bran_castle_history_i/, and is not far Bucharest's airport.  It is located in a confluence of trade and military routes, defending against the Ottomans, and became wealthy with customs and other fees and duties.
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2.  Vlad's armies also attacked Brasov, but that did not relate particularly to Bran Castle. See the Draculas Info site.  The Bran Fortress is pivotal to Romanian history in its own right:  the incursion of Vlad tourists thinking this is pivotal Vlad does the castle a disservice, diminishing interest in real history.
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The guides 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 significant connection or any connection at all to the historic Vlad Tepes.
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Tours do hype the factoid that Vlad lived there. But it makes a buck - or lei, or the new leu.  For the claims, see, for example.
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, but we see now that he had other connections to Brasov.  He was arrested near Brasov by Matthias Corvinus; and he later, for other reasons, led an assault on the town and impaled many on a nearby hill.  It was a successful commercial town, with many influential Saxon merchants.  Vlad led an assault on Brasov (no mention of Bran) to break the hold of the Saxons.  Credibility of all the accounts historically is questionable, but they clinched his reputation. See overview account at http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/vlad.html.

3.  Vlad the Impaler and "Impalement"

Impalement:  this was also a means of "crucifixion", see Crucifixion, history, uses, variations for etymology and more information than you want to know.  The point is that the method was common. Did Vlad do more than most? Probably, or not? Takes more research than merely looking at woodcuts with agendas, making a point.
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4.  Return of property.
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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.
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5.  Comparing history with legend
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Some 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.