Meriwether's Musings: Bran Castle

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Bran Castle

As a disclaimer, funds that were raised are not used for tours or sightseeing. All donations are in a separate account.

July 4th, 2015

Allie (BC, Canada), Ashley (Minnesota), Heidi (BC, Canada), and I waited for 30 minutes at the bus station, hoping we were in the right place. When our bus never arrived, we decided to take a taxi to the castle. We all piled in the car, including Anca the rescued puppy, and told the driver we wanted to go to Bran Castle. He was an older gentleman and he began motioning with his hand in my face (I ended up in the front seat) and refused to drive away. Come to find out, he was telling me to fasten my seatbelt! Up until then, none of the taxis I had ridden in had seatbelts. I thanked him profusely, and he started the car. It soon became evident he did not speak a word of English, and the combined Romanian skills of we four girls were still quite pitiful. Since I was in the front seat, he chose me as the spokesperson for the group. He would rattle off something in Romanian, and I would respond in English. It went back and forth, with each of us speaking louder in the misguided hope that an increase in volume would magically produce fluency. It was quite comical, to say the least. Heidi was laughing so hard in the backseat, she was crying. The driver picked up his cell phone, called some man name Florin, and handed me the phone. I answered and Florin said, "He does not speak English, but he wants to make sure you know the price will be double because he is driving you far outside the city limits." After our conversation, Florin spoke to the driver and let him know we were okay with paying double. We were all cracking up by then, including the taxi driver. He just shook his head after the ordeal and would randomly chuckle throughout the drive, certain those American and Canadian girls had lost their minds.

The construction of Bran Castle began circa 1378.

Many legends are connected with Bran Castle. It is said the castle belonged to Count Dracula (Vlad Tepes), but nobody has any proof. Vlad Tepes/Vlad the Impaler (1431-1476) lived only for a short time in the castle and only as a guest. He was a ruler revered by Romanians for standing up to the Ottoman Empire. Known as one of the most dreadful enemies of the Turks, Vlad started organizing the state and enforcing the law by applying the death penalty and impaling all those he considered enemies: robbers, cunning priests, treacherous noblemen, beggars, usurper Saxons. In fact, he fought against everybody who tried to replace him either by his step brother Vlad the Monk or by his cousin Dan the Young. The historians nicknamed him Vlad Tepes while people say he was Count Dracula because he used to sign with his father’s name, Dracul “The Devil”. Dracula is derived from the Romanian word for devil or dragon. Source: Romanian Tourism