Last week Radu and I went on a short trip. We seldom travel now and we spend a lot of time indoors, so we decided to visit a few places in our country. Even though we talked about this trip for weeks, we kept putting it off. And one day, we just decided to go. So we got in the car and we went to Brasov – our first destination.
I’m not going to lie, it was not a perfect trip. We did not see everything we wanted to, we had a fight and we often felt like we were in a hurry. But we saw some beautiful places and we created new memories. And perhaps, most importantly, I came back home with a new sense of appreciation for our beautiful Romania!
Our destinations
We decided to go to Brasov to visit the city and two other attractions in the area – The Sphinx and Babele and the Bran Castle. Unfortunately, we only had one day to see these places, so we had to be efficient. We first wanted to see The Sphinx and Babele (The Old Women). To get to visit them you can either hike or take the gondola. We did not want to hike (because of lack of time and experience), so we waited in line for the gondola. But after two hours of waiting in line, we gave up. We realized that getting to the actual place where the Sphinx was and back might take us the entire day. So we decided to move on to the next thing on our itinerary.
Bran Castle
I had been to this castle before, but I loved the architecture of it and I wanted to see it again. Plus, Radu had not visited it yet, so we both wanted to go there.
Bran Castle was built on a cliff, in the 14th century. The role of the castle was to defend the region against the Ottoman population.
You may have heard of the castle since it is rumored that Dracula lived here. One thing is sure: Vlad the Impaler, the one who inspired the stories about Dracula and vampires, did live here at one point. Some people believe that this is the castle mentioned in Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula”, but this may not be true.
To get to the castle, you walk up a few stairs. On the side of the stairs, there are many posters advising you not to wander around the castle at night since you might run into Dracula. You get to the castle and you begin the tour. The great part is that the tour is structured in a way that allows you to go through all the rooms (the ones available for the public). As you keep walking, you go from one room to another, you pass through a narrow corridor, see a small terrace and go out to the balconies that look out to the courtyard.
As I said, I loved the architecture of the castle. The courtyard is probably my favourite thing about it and you can see it from almost any part of the castle. But to be honest, the rooms themselves are quite underwhelming. I’m not sure if this was not a luxurious castle or if this was considered luxury in the past. So don’t expect to see a lot of expensive furniture and decorations.
There were many tourists visiting the castle while we were there. This can make the experience a bit tiring at times. But I was really happy to see that many people from foreign countries came to visit this place. There were people speaking English, French and Spanish so it’s safe to say that Bran Castle is quite famous! I definitely recommend visiting it! You can read about the rest of our trip in the next posts.
Fun fact: It is said that Bran Castle also served as a location for some movies. If you want to make a movie with vampires, where would you film that but here?
I remember that a singer also filmed a music video here. She is Natalia Oreiro and the song is called Como te olvido. You can watch the video here.
Bran Castle Infobox
Built in: 14th century
Location: Bran, near Brasov, Romania
Address: Str. G-ral Traian Mosoiu, nr.24, Bran
Visiting hours:*
April 1 – September 30
Monday: 12PM – 6PM
Tue–Sun: 9AM – 6PM
Last Admission: 6PM
October 1 – March 31
Monday: 12PM – 4PM
Tue–Sun: 9AM – 4PM
Last Admission: 4PM
Entrance fees:*
Adults: 40Lei (8.5€)
Seniors (65+): 30Lei (6.5€)
Students: 25Lei (5.5€)
Pupils: 10Lei (2 €)
School groups (>20pax): 5Lei (1€)
Official website: http://www.bran-castle.com/index.html
* This information was taken from the original website and it may change.