Romania road trip part 2: BRAN CASTLE, where are the vampires?

From a castle to another castle

We are now driving to the Bran Castle and it takes around 1 hour to get from Sinaia to Bran – the village where our following destination is located. As we are slowly approaching the core of Romania and leaving behind the Prahova County, we enter into Brașov County and likewise in the renowned historical and cultural region of Transilvania.

The village between the mountains: Bran 

Here we are still surrounded by mountains, Bran being situated in the Bran – Rucăr pass, between two large mountain massifs, namely The Bucegi Mountains and The Piatra Craiului Mountains. Thus, the landscapes are outlined by many hills and mountain peaks covered with wide spread forests and human settlements.

Over the years, due to the popularity of Draculas castle, Bran have become one of the most visited and world famous Transylvanian travel destination, so the village has changed too, offering visitors a variety of places for accommodation in hotels, guest houses, huts or airbnbs, local traditional products served in restaurants, handcrafted products and so on.

Tourism have developed in the area, Bran Castle and its surroundings being looked up both by Romanians and foreigners who are curious about the myth of Dracula and his protected, hidden dwelling amongst the mountains.

Do you wanna buy something to remember? 

After we park the car, speaking of which we are kind of lucky to find a free parking space, we start walking towards the entrance of the castle. The street in front of Bran Castle is full packed with little stores selling mostly souvenirs from small magnets made probably in China to t-shirts with the imprint of Dracula, Romanian blouses called "ii", fluffy socks and sweatshirts and strange hats representing animals or ugly masks.

On the left side of the entrance is located The Bran ethnographic park which we wanted to visit when we got back to the castle, but the place looked empty and closed.

How much it cost to visit Bran Castle. Yes, we can take photos, thanks! 

There are same people wanting to visit the castle, but we do not have to wait in line to buy our tickets which, by the way, cost 25 lei meaning 5.20 euros per person for students. If you are not a student than you have to pay an entrance fee of 40 lei meaning 8.30 euros.

In the ticket price is also included the amateur photo/video fee, thus, in comparison with Peleș Castle ( of which you can find our more about by clicking the blue writing ), here we are allowed to take as many photo as we wish - as long as we don't do a professional job of it – and that’s why throughout this article I included may pictures that I really enjoy taking while exploring the Bran Castle. In this regard, the location has some golden starts because it helped me to improve this travel journal.

When you can visit Bran Castle

The visiting hours are starting with 9 AM and finishing with 6 PM from Tuesday to Sunday. On Monday the castle opens up at 12 PM and closes at 4 PM, so as you can see, the historical monument can be visited in any day of the week according to the visiting hours of course.

Entering a medieval atmosphere: a construction from the Middle Ages 

We get inside the front yard and follow the pedestrian way leading to a high hill on which the castle had been raised almost 650 years ago. Wow! We enter in the medieval construction by climbing up some steep stairs. The wind is blowing and the atmosphere is grey adding a dramatic vibe to the place, specific to all of the stories including the Dracula character.

Visitors can walk freely and as much as they want inside the fortress with or without a guide which is a pretty good thing if you want to take your own time to discover your favorite parts of it. At first, we are introduced in the inner yard of the castle from where the exploration begins.

The cozy fire places and the feeling of holidays 

We pass through many rooms, we climb wooden stairs and get to know the interior of each corner. Among the exhibits objects that impress me the most are the fire places or the old traditional stoves that have an interesting design, being very large and simply but yet beautifully decorated by the floral painted terracotta.

As we are walking, the old wooden floor is making strange noises, being quite creaky – is the floor doing sounds or should we worry? – The wooden furniture is also impressive being carefully handcrafted and notwithstanding the passing of time.

We can as well feel a festive sensation, like the Christmas holidays are approaching because the tables are flourished with red tablecloths and arranged with candles, wine glasses, plates and tableware as if for Christmas Eves dinner.

Vlad Țepeș or Santa Klaus? Who are we searching for? 

Another catchy exhibited piece that we look at is the costume of Vlad Țepeș, the Romanian ruler which is associated with Dracula and from whom all the vampire legends have started.

The truth is that, in medieval writings, Vlad Țepeș is depicted as a monster, a very cruel person which enjoys to see the people who disobey him or the traitors being punished in gruesome and painful ways.

Analyzing his clothes, we come to the conclusion that actually the costume is coincidentally ( or not ) similar with Santa Klaus s red suit. Let the conspiracy theories and weird stories to start!

As you can see, the red and white hat has also similarities, so we are here for a vampire or for Santa Klaus? The Dracula character created by the Irish writer Bram Stoker has, like Țepeș s clothes, a black cape over a red robe, the official dress belonging to the Dragon Order of which he was part. Besides, in this room, there are two other objects standing out: a golden crown and a medieval armor.

The view from the terrace

At same point, we get out on the terrace from where it opens up a wide and wonderful landscape over the Bran pass, the old commercial route and its forestry surroundings. It seems like we are on the castle's roof but even if we want to stay here longer to admire the view, the blowing wind is creating problems, especially to our hair.

A inner look of the castle's courtyard 

We move inside again and stand on the inner balcony that is also decorated with long red materials and fir garlands making the medieval construction to appear even more alive and actually it just feels like a medieval banquet is about to begin.

The balcony goes all around the castle giving us a image over the configuration of the building in itself including the white walls, the red roofs and the central courtyard where we see many people standing around the fountain waiting to throw money in for good luck.

After same time of going around the balcony, which is probably my favorite part of the building, we get down the stairs and out in the courtyard. From here we look at a different perspective of the medieval fortress that is quite imposing with its tall walls and towers.

The fountain is not so deep as I thought and the bottom is covered in a layer of money. We find a book of impressions and my quest friends are leaving here very cute illustrations and writings which I cannot understand because they write in Korean.

The Time Tunnel, an experience we missed, but worth trying

A new addition of the monument building is "The Time Tunnel" which, I far as I understand, consists in an elevator that goes down through rock for more than 30 meters offering a multimedia experience. Unfortunately, we don t go inside the "Time Tunnel" because we have to pay an extra fee for it and decide that is maybe not worth it only because we don't actually know how cool and awesome the experience would have been.

As I am documenting myself more for this article, I find the official website of Bran Castle where they have a promotional video of the new point of attraction. Watching it, I discover how entertaining the entire experience is and I start to regret the fact that I missed it.

So, if you are visiting Bran in the future, I highly recommend you to try the Time Tunnel too, I am sure that you will not regret it especially if you are attracted by scary but funny happenings or understanding the history through technology.

My favorite souvenir ever: a book about Transylvania

In our attempt to exit the castle, we stumble across a little shop with specific souvenirs. Here, looking through the objects and souvenirs, I discover a book which I browse through pages and decide to buy it because it has what I searching for, more precisely, myths and stories from the hills of Transylvania.

The book is funny animated by paintings representing each story in a naïve but beautiful way. I notice that the book is only available in the Romanian language and I think that it should really have an English translation too because in my opinion is one of the best souvenir to get from Transylvania. Romanian folks, I recommend you to get this book, you will not regret and it cost only 5 lei ( 1 euro and something ).

If the myths of Dracula are not true, believe me, the stories from this book surely are and I can see aspects from its pages while travelling through Transylvania like for example the churches's towers where people are keeping their beloved bacon.

A summer royal residence

Like Peles Castle, Bran Castle used to be a royal residence as well starting with the year 1920 when the castle is offered to Queen Maria of Romania, who restored and arranged it as a summer residence of the royal family. After the queen dies, Bran Castle is passed to the Princess Ileana who builds a hospital in Bran – "The Hospital of Queens Heart".

More myths surrounding the region of Bran and Transylvania

Throughout the castle there are many informative panels about the rooms, the exhibited objects and about the stories and myths born in this place. Even if Dracula is not a character created by Romanians, its myth derives from various popular beliefs in the existence of evil spirits called in the Romanian Mythology ghosts or “strigoi”.

We read a story about them and find out that these ghosts are having a normal life during the day, but at night, their souls leave their bodies and go haunting people. As Count Dracula and all of the vampires, these evil spirits haunt from midnight to the first light of the morning, when their power fades away. Do you remember about the creaky floor I told you about earlier? Should we worry now?

Experiencing "The Haunted House" 

We finish visiting Bran Castle with a feeling of mystery. We pass the entrance, walk on the street with many shops while my friends are looking for souvenirs and stop in front of the "Haunted House" thinking if we should give it a try or not.

We enter in the front area, there are strange, scary noises coming out of it and we can also hear people screaming. Hmm, should we go or not? Same of us want to do it, others don’t have the enough courage. Finally, we decide to pay for the tickets ( which cost 25 lei – 5 euros ) and prepare ourselves to be scared.

We stay together, holding our hands in the entire journey through the haunted house and, yes, there are some really scary parts in there, especially a guy who is wearing a monster, death costume and starts coming after us.

The experience is terrifying but at the same time is entertaining and funny with many screams and laughs. So, if you are disappointed by not getting scared into Bran Castle, than you should accomplish your desire by trying the "Haunted House". Taking photos or videos is not allowed inside, so I cannot share images from this haunted place. 

Other things you can do nearby Bran: The Mountains

In the beginning of this article I write about how Bran is placed between the mountains, thus other activities that visitors can do here are linked with hiking.

For example, there are a few trekking routes starting in Bran and finishing at Omu Hut, at an altitude of 2507 meters, Omu peak being the highest top in the Bucegi Mountains.

The hiking paths are long and challenging – I’ve been on one of it myself a couple of years ago – but very beautiful passing among forests, meadows, rock formations that are creating worth seeing natural landscapes, but before people adventure themselves on these paths, they should inform about it. In this regard, I recommend the website of Munții Noștri where they are providing very accurate maps and detailed information – in English too – of each trekking path.

If you are on a road trip like us and came a long way to here, than you should also visit another medieval fortress named Râșnov located at about 10 kilometers away of Bran and Valea Cetății Cave situated at 3 kilometers of Râșnov.

Small conclusions and the moving forward to the next destination

I have been to the Bran Castle when I was a teen and I think that, in comparison with that period, the place has changed and improved. The medieval fortress seems to be well administrated and preserved and now, with their new point of attraction – "The Time Tunnel" – the travel destination is even more attractive, proving involvement in keeping Bran’s story awake and alive.

We look back one more time at the old medieval construction situated up there on a hill and try to remain with its image in our memory, than we leave for the next destination: Brașov.

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