"Our ways are not your ways, and will be there for you a lot of strange things," said the sharp fanged count specific to his English visitors, newly arrived by train to Transylvania.
In some cases, things have not changed much since Bram Stoker published the words in 1897 I arrived by train themselves in mid-January and I also find strange things: A picture-perfect medieval town square packed not with travelers but primary school students. "Bagels" stores that do not sell bagels. An Eastern Orthodox priest denounced guitar lessons and improve bee.
Listen, I intend to experience and write about Transylvania with no mention of any vampire or described in a novel by an Irishman who had visited the region. I even requested that my trip tracking Twitter followers abstain from statements related to Dracula.
That's because the real place - now a large swath of central and western Romania and almost certainly place on earth is most often mistaken for fiction - a mountainous and beautiful, ancient cities alive and well maintained, ethnic and political history that is rich and complex. In other words, a place worth finding in itself, does not deviate to mention scary monsters.
That worked until I took the money from the ATM in the medieval center of Sighisoara meticulously manicured. Looking up, I saw a sign: "Banca Transilvania" - and realized I was down the block from the clock tower with a medieval torture chamber below; across the street is the house where Vlad the Impaler, aka Draculae, said to have been born in 1431. A chill down my spine. In my head, trained since "Sesame Street" and "Scooby Doo" day in the way vampires operate, organ music played, and lightning crackled.
I came to Transylvania in the winter knowing that I would sacrifice a mountain hike and agriculture remain popular with summer visitors - but hoping to find a cheaper price, studded snow castles and maybe a day of skiing. And soul-satisfying meal: If there is a dish made for filling the post-slope, the Romanian ciorba de burta, cream-based tripe soup rich, ubiquitous and cheap.
photo
Covrigi at a store in Sighisoara. Credit Seth Kugel
Unfortunately, there is no snow for a month, which means there is no skiing, no dust fabled ancient roof. However, to have the medieval town and the villages of Transylvania for yourself has its advantages. In Brasov, a city of 250,000 people where I spent the day, which means being the only one gawking at the 16th-century Black Church, framing the image through the old city gate, and wondered how almost every building in town is marked "Istoric Monument". However, there are more obvious than others Istoric. Wandering the narrow streets I fell to 1837 small houses with carved wooden doors and faux Corinthian columns bordering the window; in front of the Romanian-made Dacia cars backed up half on the pavement to allow traffic to pass.
Winter temperatures quickly made me more appreciative of the warm bread that sell-from-the-oven bread. In Brasov, I stopped at a shop called Bagel Magic, which actually serves covrigi warm, which is like a bagel Photoshopped like a celebrity for the cover photo - of fat and irregular for a sleek yet curvaceous (without, fortunately, airbrushing out the poppy seeds). Mine cost 1.5 lei, or 45 cents to 3.25 lei to the dollar. Sighisoara, young and old lined up in the rain to pay one leu for covrigi really hot pipe-in window sales Dentistry.
Continue reading the main story
Brasov is the traditional home base for a visit to the two castles in the region: Bran and Peles. They could not be more different.
photo
A "secret" staircase in Bran Castle. Credit Seth Kugel
Bran Castle is probably the most touristy places in Transylvania thanks really dubious connections with both fictional and historical Dracula. But the hordes of summer is replaced by a handful of tourists Romania and school field trip, I really enjoyed the visit (the price of admission 25-lei does not hurt). Perched almost precariously on the side of a hill, the castle - which once served as the headquarters toll collector and post defense against aggressors Ottoman - really seem like the sort of place to live vampire.
In fact, I find, the last house used as a residence by the royal family of Romania before it was confiscated by the Communist government, and was decorated most of that period. (Although at a higher level, things get a little bit creepy - up there, where the wind swirling and whistling outside, I came upon some displays restrained about Dracula.)
Peles Castle is entirely different and entirely more confusing experience. Built by King Carol I as a summer residence began in 1873, the luxury of space is filled with ornate details endlessly, like Versailles to the late 19th century: Carol seems to have spared no expense in Arabic and Turkish themed rooms; surprisingly large collection of European weapons - swords, axes, guns - shown in all its advantages in the space, along with a full-on display of armor and horses will leave fantasist medieval happy. In the next room is a collection of Ottoman and Persian arms, so that the flowers and decoration with the comparison that they look runway-ready Constantinople Fashion Week.
photo
The Hall of Honor at the Peles Castle. Credit Seth Kugel
However, Sighisoara, under three hours from Brasov by train (and free for me, because it was the first leg of my return trip to Budapest already purchased), is tops. I am very picky about the walled cities of the Middle Ages, had stabbed places from Dubrovnik, Croatia, Eze, France, as little more than museum pieces polished. But unlike places (and true to what the guide books say), Sighisoara really living medieval city, which 16th- through the 18th century are still largely inhabited. When I pulled into a place called Medieval Cafe for 5-lei warm winter drink made from black currants, I could hear the children playing in the school yard neighbors; I will then see the same children rushed out of the school on the square in front of the clock tower, which is in many other places will be strictly touristy areas.
The city wall guarded by watchtowers over eclectic, each managed by (and named after) the different guilds of artisans historic - tailors, tanners, cobblers, leather garments fur, rope makers. But the clock tower is a true fairy tale appeal. It was first built in the 13th and 14th centuries; Baroque roof was added in the 17th century, along with the most captivating element, based on the seven statues of the Greek gods and Roman who play every day of the week. Of the corridor at the top (which you reach through the creaky floored museum, 12 lei) you get an incredible 360 degrees of the city; amazing, I can see almost one building, even in the more modern lower town, which appears to have been built in the 20th century or the 21st.
Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story
Want to see the Carpathian villages widely praised, I rented a car (I paid in euros, equivalent to $ 33 per day) and drove to the villages, many of which have impressive fortified Saxon church. Saxon population, which once dominated many villages, since most of the evacuated to Germany, replaced by Romania, Hungary and Rome, the three largest ethnic groups in Transylvania today. (For those wondering, last Romanian census counted zero vampire, although it is mostly taken during the day.)
Continue reading the main story
Latest comments
CKent
February 2, 2014
How many party at Cafe Martini cost? Hello, Editor? Are you there?
Kathy
January 31, 2014
Great article, and I'm so glad you highlighted Sighisoara, one of my very favorite cities in Romania (even if sometimes I might be worried that ...
Danny
January 31, 2014
My wife (born in Romania and fluent in the language) and I did a tour through Romania, including Transylvania, back in 2006 was pretty ...
View All Comments
After passing Biertan, the churches were closed and residents are not very talkative, I found a warm reception mile or so away in Copsa Mare. In the mixed local magazin - Romanian term for a cool shop - a woman who used hand gestures to explain that I had to knock the house next to the church; There, a teenage boy was taken the key and took me through an arched doorway battered. The old church was not anything special, although experience has been entered into. So I left a donation in the bowl and remove the city wandering.
photo
Arched doorway in a church in Copsa Mare. Credit Seth Kugel
It is a village of dirt roads and simple, most of the Saxon style of the house; I see nothing remarkable except a few young girls carrying around a guitar. When a young man pull a bucket of water from the well talking to me in near perfect English, I asked him about the guitar. "There was a woman in the city who teach children," he said.
"Great!" I said. He did not agree. He Orthodox priest of the city, and guitar lessons, he said, is an effort to recruit families for a Pentecostal church in the city. He introduced himself as John (real name Ioan Bico) and seemed happy to entertain me for the next few hours. He may have been a priest, but he holds a sharp tongue tells a chapter of the history of ethnic dogmatic city recently. To summarize: Saxon used to refuse to marry Romania, but when they moved to Germany, people find themselves discriminated against and re-married not only Romania but even more maligned Rome. (He called them Gypsies, and they did not escape from slandering him either.)
He finally invited me over for a beer - alcohol for me, he insisted, because I was driving - and to see the icons he paints and sells her to thicken slightly. He also beekeepers, and I am happy to buy a bottle of honey for 20 lei. The conversation ranged from Hollywood to the Internet for birth control and abortion. (She does not think highly of any of the four.)
I have not eaten since breakfast, so I go back to Sighisoara looking for a reasonably priced meal. Finding a pub-like Martini Cafe near downtown, I booked a party because most customers just drinking beer and listening to the soundtrack lost in the 80's (Springsteen, Tina Turner, Asia). I had tripe soup called ciorba de burta, Mititei (grilled ground meat patties), cascaval panel (breaded, fried cheese), and a large Romanian desserts papanasi (hot donuts, topped with sour cream and currant jam) - and again, dolls, to my guesthouse.
I stayed at Casa Soare, family-run pension in the lower town, 10 minute walk down from the castle, where I've scored a winter discount at 80 lei night - about 20 percent of the price Booking.com - by calling in advance. It was a great place and worth the cost of a simple, but I have two regrets inn. The first - which I do not live in the village or on a farm - can not be avoided: Most rural guesthouse is closed during the winter. But I realized I had missed an opportunity when I pick up my rental car at Casa Baroca, just down the block from the building Vlad Dracul. I got a tour of the place, and it was amazing. Enter through the front door of 300 years, I found the room under a vaulted ceiling decorated with traditional furniture, antique wood stoves, old wooden floors. And winter prices are only a little more than what I paid: 100 lei, down from 140 in the summer.
However, maybe I'm better at my place. Staying at Casa Baroca, I have learned, would violate city ordinances forbid foreigners to lodge in the castle. Admittedly, the law was written around 1515 and may not be valid, but in a city with a torture chamber, you can not be too careful.
In some cases, things have not changed much since Bram Stoker published the words in 1897 I arrived by train themselves in mid-January and I also find strange things: A picture-perfect medieval town square packed not with travelers but primary school students. "Bagels" stores that do not sell bagels. An Eastern Orthodox priest denounced guitar lessons and improve bee.
Listen, I intend to experience and write about Transylvania with no mention of any vampire or described in a novel by an Irishman who had visited the region. I even requested that my trip tracking Twitter followers abstain from statements related to Dracula.
That's because the real place - now a large swath of central and western Romania and almost certainly place on earth is most often mistaken for fiction - a mountainous and beautiful, ancient cities alive and well maintained, ethnic and political history that is rich and complex. In other words, a place worth finding in itself, does not deviate to mention scary monsters.
That worked until I took the money from the ATM in the medieval center of Sighisoara meticulously manicured. Looking up, I saw a sign: "Banca Transilvania" - and realized I was down the block from the clock tower with a medieval torture chamber below; across the street is the house where Vlad the Impaler, aka Draculae, said to have been born in 1431. A chill down my spine. In my head, trained since "Sesame Street" and "Scooby Doo" day in the way vampires operate, organ music played, and lightning crackled.
I came to Transylvania in the winter knowing that I would sacrifice a mountain hike and agriculture remain popular with summer visitors - but hoping to find a cheaper price, studded snow castles and maybe a day of skiing. And soul-satisfying meal: If there is a dish made for filling the post-slope, the Romanian ciorba de burta, cream-based tripe soup rich, ubiquitous and cheap.
photo
Covrigi at a store in Sighisoara. Credit Seth Kugel
Unfortunately, there is no snow for a month, which means there is no skiing, no dust fabled ancient roof. However, to have the medieval town and the villages of Transylvania for yourself has its advantages. In Brasov, a city of 250,000 people where I spent the day, which means being the only one gawking at the 16th-century Black Church, framing the image through the old city gate, and wondered how almost every building in town is marked "Istoric Monument". However, there are more obvious than others Istoric. Wandering the narrow streets I fell to 1837 small houses with carved wooden doors and faux Corinthian columns bordering the window; in front of the Romanian-made Dacia cars backed up half on the pavement to allow traffic to pass.
Winter temperatures quickly made me more appreciative of the warm bread that sell-from-the-oven bread. In Brasov, I stopped at a shop called Bagel Magic, which actually serves covrigi warm, which is like a bagel Photoshopped like a celebrity for the cover photo - of fat and irregular for a sleek yet curvaceous (without, fortunately, airbrushing out the poppy seeds). Mine cost 1.5 lei, or 45 cents to 3.25 lei to the dollar. Sighisoara, young and old lined up in the rain to pay one leu for covrigi really hot pipe-in window sales Dentistry.
Continue reading the main story
Brasov is the traditional home base for a visit to the two castles in the region: Bran and Peles. They could not be more different.
photo
A "secret" staircase in Bran Castle. Credit Seth Kugel
Bran Castle is probably the most touristy places in Transylvania thanks really dubious connections with both fictional and historical Dracula. But the hordes of summer is replaced by a handful of tourists Romania and school field trip, I really enjoyed the visit (the price of admission 25-lei does not hurt). Perched almost precariously on the side of a hill, the castle - which once served as the headquarters toll collector and post defense against aggressors Ottoman - really seem like the sort of place to live vampire.
In fact, I find, the last house used as a residence by the royal family of Romania before it was confiscated by the Communist government, and was decorated most of that period. (Although at a higher level, things get a little bit creepy - up there, where the wind swirling and whistling outside, I came upon some displays restrained about Dracula.)
Peles Castle is entirely different and entirely more confusing experience. Built by King Carol I as a summer residence began in 1873, the luxury of space is filled with ornate details endlessly, like Versailles to the late 19th century: Carol seems to have spared no expense in Arabic and Turkish themed rooms; surprisingly large collection of European weapons - swords, axes, guns - shown in all its advantages in the space, along with a full-on display of armor and horses will leave fantasist medieval happy. In the next room is a collection of Ottoman and Persian arms, so that the flowers and decoration with the comparison that they look runway-ready Constantinople Fashion Week.
photo
The Hall of Honor at the Peles Castle. Credit Seth Kugel
However, Sighisoara, under three hours from Brasov by train (and free for me, because it was the first leg of my return trip to Budapest already purchased), is tops. I am very picky about the walled cities of the Middle Ages, had stabbed places from Dubrovnik, Croatia, Eze, France, as little more than museum pieces polished. But unlike places (and true to what the guide books say), Sighisoara really living medieval city, which 16th- through the 18th century are still largely inhabited. When I pulled into a place called Medieval Cafe for 5-lei warm winter drink made from black currants, I could hear the children playing in the school yard neighbors; I will then see the same children rushed out of the school on the square in front of the clock tower, which is in many other places will be strictly touristy areas.
The city wall guarded by watchtowers over eclectic, each managed by (and named after) the different guilds of artisans historic - tailors, tanners, cobblers, leather garments fur, rope makers. But the clock tower is a true fairy tale appeal. It was first built in the 13th and 14th centuries; Baroque roof was added in the 17th century, along with the most captivating element, based on the seven statues of the Greek gods and Roman who play every day of the week. Of the corridor at the top (which you reach through the creaky floored museum, 12 lei) you get an incredible 360 degrees of the city; amazing, I can see almost one building, even in the more modern lower town, which appears to have been built in the 20th century or the 21st.
Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story
Want to see the Carpathian villages widely praised, I rented a car (I paid in euros, equivalent to $ 33 per day) and drove to the villages, many of which have impressive fortified Saxon church. Saxon population, which once dominated many villages, since most of the evacuated to Germany, replaced by Romania, Hungary and Rome, the three largest ethnic groups in Transylvania today. (For those wondering, last Romanian census counted zero vampire, although it is mostly taken during the day.)
Continue reading the main story
Latest comments
CKent
February 2, 2014
How many party at Cafe Martini cost? Hello, Editor? Are you there?
Kathy
January 31, 2014
Great article, and I'm so glad you highlighted Sighisoara, one of my very favorite cities in Romania (even if sometimes I might be worried that ...
Danny
January 31, 2014
My wife (born in Romania and fluent in the language) and I did a tour through Romania, including Transylvania, back in 2006 was pretty ...
View All Comments
After passing Biertan, the churches were closed and residents are not very talkative, I found a warm reception mile or so away in Copsa Mare. In the mixed local magazin - Romanian term for a cool shop - a woman who used hand gestures to explain that I had to knock the house next to the church; There, a teenage boy was taken the key and took me through an arched doorway battered. The old church was not anything special, although experience has been entered into. So I left a donation in the bowl and remove the city wandering.
photo
Arched doorway in a church in Copsa Mare. Credit Seth Kugel
It is a village of dirt roads and simple, most of the Saxon style of the house; I see nothing remarkable except a few young girls carrying around a guitar. When a young man pull a bucket of water from the well talking to me in near perfect English, I asked him about the guitar. "There was a woman in the city who teach children," he said.
"Great!" I said. He did not agree. He Orthodox priest of the city, and guitar lessons, he said, is an effort to recruit families for a Pentecostal church in the city. He introduced himself as John (real name Ioan Bico) and seemed happy to entertain me for the next few hours. He may have been a priest, but he holds a sharp tongue tells a chapter of the history of ethnic dogmatic city recently. To summarize: Saxon used to refuse to marry Romania, but when they moved to Germany, people find themselves discriminated against and re-married not only Romania but even more maligned Rome. (He called them Gypsies, and they did not escape from slandering him either.)
He finally invited me over for a beer - alcohol for me, he insisted, because I was driving - and to see the icons he paints and sells her to thicken slightly. He also beekeepers, and I am happy to buy a bottle of honey for 20 lei. The conversation ranged from Hollywood to the Internet for birth control and abortion. (She does not think highly of any of the four.)
I have not eaten since breakfast, so I go back to Sighisoara looking for a reasonably priced meal. Finding a pub-like Martini Cafe near downtown, I booked a party because most customers just drinking beer and listening to the soundtrack lost in the 80's (Springsteen, Tina Turner, Asia). I had tripe soup called ciorba de burta, Mititei (grilled ground meat patties), cascaval panel (breaded, fried cheese), and a large Romanian desserts papanasi (hot donuts, topped with sour cream and currant jam) - and again, dolls, to my guesthouse.
I stayed at Casa Soare, family-run pension in the lower town, 10 minute walk down from the castle, where I've scored a winter discount at 80 lei night - about 20 percent of the price Booking.com - by calling in advance. It was a great place and worth the cost of a simple, but I have two regrets inn. The first - which I do not live in the village or on a farm - can not be avoided: Most rural guesthouse is closed during the winter. But I realized I had missed an opportunity when I pick up my rental car at Casa Baroca, just down the block from the building Vlad Dracul. I got a tour of the place, and it was amazing. Enter through the front door of 300 years, I found the room under a vaulted ceiling decorated with traditional furniture, antique wood stoves, old wooden floors. And winter prices are only a little more than what I paid: 100 lei, down from 140 in the summer.
However, maybe I'm better at my place. Staying at Casa Baroca, I have learned, would violate city ordinances forbid foreigners to lodge in the castle. Admittedly, the law was written around 1515 and may not be valid, but in a city with a torture chamber, you can not be too careful.
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