Stranger Facts than Fiction
With intriguing links to Bram Stoker’s fictitious Dracula, the very real blood thirsty Vlad the Impaler and much more recent tyranny in the form of Nicolae Ceausescu, Romania has been on my destination list for some time. And at the beginning of the month I headed off on a four night trip to this not so sinister Eastern European nation.
A three hour flight from Leeds/Bradford, touching down in the classy capital of Bucharest then another two and a half hours drive through lush spruce hills and valleys brought me to the Transylvanian city of Brasov. A surprisingly large city but with an easily walkable old town, which was my base for two nights. Old churches, medieval Saxon walls, ornate building facades and cobbled streets made for a glorious setting helped by warm autumnal sunshine.
The adjacent Mount Tampa overlooking the city allowed me to get my step count up via a lovely winding hillside climb surrounded by greenery. The mountain is topped by a Hollywood-style sign and offers panoramic views of Brasov, the surrounding Carpathian mountains and the bright red cable car that provides an alternative route to the top.
Close to Brasov is the lengendary Bran Castle. Built in around 1377 by the Saxons, its duty was to serve as a guard against an expanding Ottoman Empire. More recently it served as a royal summer residence for Queen Marie of Romania in the 1920s, and today it operates as a museum. The myths surrounding the association of Stoker's gruesome vampire with the stronghold are intriguing given that the writer never visited Romania. Similarly, Vlad the Third (Vlad the Impaler) has a very loose connection with the castle and never lived there. That said, it’s a marvellous site with its dramatic hillside location, steep-pitched towers and winding staircases - iconic in its own right.
A return to Bucharest on a slow but scenic train journey metamorphosising from green to urban sprawl, where an inexpensive and user-friendly metro system made for easy travel around the city. Taking a guided walking tour shortly after arrival allowed me to get my bearings of this very attractive city, likened to Paris for a similar architectural-style. A plethora of cafes added to the resemblance of the French capital, and I indulged by trying the Bucharest-born Joffre cake at Casa Capsa restaurant - a chocolate lover's dream!
A return to a darker tales, but sadly not fictitious, from Romania's recent history and the dictatorial leader Ceausescu. There’s no better example of this man's lust for power than the Palace of the Parliament. A colossal edifice that holds the record as the largest civilian administrative building in the world. Ornate and eye-catching it may be but it was the sheer upheaval of its construction that’s truly staggering. Close to three square miles of the old city was destroyed, including many churches and a hospital, and 40,000 people displaced to make way for the vast Palace. Today, 70% of the building remains unused and the cost of heating and electricity is more than $6 million a year!
My taster of Romania proved memorable for all the right reasons and I hope to one day return to this interesting and attractive east European nation.
@RomaniaTourism @bucharest @ukinromania @brasov @canonukandie
Comments