Dave and Josh are…
In Bran and Rasnov, Romania.
Well though we escaped the human chainsaw our sleep still wasn’t serene as some couple decided they wanted to make out excessively for most the night. It took us a while to figure out what the hell the smacking sound was (I thought Josh was dying of thirst, he was thinking much worse of me.) but while I could tune it out in the top bunk, Josh had to deal with the trauma of them touching him at one point (the bunks were very close together at points).
At least if we aren’t sleeping we can guard against vampires, though at this point we are both a little disappointed that they haven’t tried. I mean even if we aren’t vampire material or our blood is too low class, would it kill them to make a casual attempt? Just for our ego’s sake?
Well we gave them one last chance as today we journeyed to the Transylvanian castles of Rasnov and Bran.
Rasnov was amazing. Perched on a hill overlooking the valley it unironically embodied everything a castle should right down to the chains for hanging enemies out to starve.
And if the castle was a bit rough and unfinished in parts (for a major tourist attraction there was a lot of random trash strewn about) it made up for it with its spectacular views of the valley it commands.
Even better in that valley is what (on closer inspection) appears to be abandoned nuclear power plant. That juxtaposition was awesome though I think Josh and I made a mistake in not trying to get someone to drive us there to explore. Nothing like bringing home some used fuel rods as souvenirs. Or getting the chance to get superpowers.
The second castle, Bran, was shitty in every way that Rasnov was awesome. For starters it bills itself as Dracula’s even though Vlad never had a damn thing to do with it. In fact it wasn’t even a damn castle, it was a chateau. And it was packed with tourists who all seemed to have paid $5 for the right to take pictures in it (Charging for use of cameras in addition to admission is something Romania seems really into.) despite the fact that there isn’t one interesting thing to photograph in the whole place.
Josh and I sped through it as fast as possible, all the while feeling like we were in a line at Disneyworld looking at their elaborate, yet still boring, efforts to make the waiting area look like part of the ride. Outside we took two photos, before wandering off through the tourist trap mess outside. Even there they screwed it up. There was little Dracula merchandise and instead the kind of random tourist crap you could find in any tourist hole. The most vampiric thing we could find was a broken down fake wooden coffin shoved in the back of an open barn. Lame.
Back in Brasov, Josh finally ate something other than vegetarian pizza. Yeah let’s take a minute here. For all the crap I get about lousy eating habits and being picky I am better than vegetarians. Josh has eaten nothing but chocolate sandwiches (pictured above) and pizza the whole time he has been here. I understand that Romania isn’t ready to be vegetarian friendly but nevertheless I look like a worldly cuisine compared to this guy. (But chocolate sandwiches are damn tasty.)
Sadly, our time has wound down in Romania and we had to leave the magical land where werewolves lurked round every corner and every newsagent gave your change in gum (bizarre but cool). We looked desperately around the train station hoping for one last cinematic reunion with Maria but it was not to be. Instead we just got approached by some little dude who looked like a Romanian Pancho Villa and was sketchy in the extreme. At 9pm we boarded the train (thankfully separate from the company of the 150 crazy prepubescent school kids that also got on) and slept as the train lurched out of the land of the undead (and Yugos which are kinda like the undead).