Little Blue Birdie's Diary

At Dracula's Castle

Dear Diary,

We landed in Romania just two days ago. We faced many hardships during the course of our journey to Romania from the United Kingdom. We had to rest for two days, because we were too tired and feeble, but our enthusiasm made us feel good to be back on our journey of visiting important places around the world.

Remember, I told you about Uncle John? He had advised us to visit Bran Castle, situated near Bran, in the immediate neighbourhood of Bravos. This is a national monument and a landmark in Romania. Uncle John had given us pictures of the castle. So, we decided to visit it.

The castle fortress is situated on the border between Transylvania and Walachia. In addition to its unique architecture, it is famous because of the strong myth that it was once the home of Vlad III the Impaler, a famous or infamous ancient warlord. However, there is no evidence that he ever lived there.

According to Robin, the Impaler spent two days in the Bran prison, as the area was occupied by the Ottoman Empire at the time. Because of the (disputed) connections between Vlad and the fictional character Dracula, the castle is marketed to foreign tourists as Dracula's Castle, said Robin.

The castle is open to tourists like us; they can either view it by themselves or as part of a guided tour. At the bottom of the hill is a small park to which examples of traditional Romanian peasant structures (cottages and barns) from across the country have been moved.

When we looked through the window, we saw a magnificent sight; the ground was covered with snow. There were trees all around the castle. It was really beautiful. The cool weather made us happy. It was wonderful.

According to books, the castle had passed through royal hands for many generations. For many years of the early 20th century, it had been the main home of Queen Marie, who, despite her British birth and upbringing, became quite a Romanian patriot.

"The decor of this castle is mostly from her time; it includes traditional furniture and textiles that she collected to highlight Romanian crafts and skills," said Robin, who had grown really fond of the place.

It had been inherited by her daughter Princess Ileana, and was later seized by the Communist government of Romania in 1948. For many years, the building was unsteady, but after restoration in the 1980s and the Romanian Revolution of 1989, it had become a tourist destination, allowing all in the world to enjoy its beauty.

The legal heir of the castle is the Princess's son Dominic von Habsburg and in 2006, the Romanian government had returned the castle to him (Habsburg is an architect in New York City).

Apparently, Bram Stoker, who fashioned portions of his character Count Dracula, based on aspects of Vlad the Impaler, used Bran Castle as the model for Dracula's castle. Bran Castle was subsequently featured in multiple film adaptations of Dracula, and has informally become known as Dracula's Castle.

We had a fun-filled day at Dracula's Castle. We played a lot and scared each other saying that Dracula is coming. We even played with snow. Everyone seemed to like the place and no one even thought about leaving until it was dark. In my last journal, I wrote about the caves in Romania.

We'll see the possibility of visiting a cave soon. Romania seems to be an interesting country with lots of unusual places to visit.

Await more exciting information, brought to you from more exciting places.

Bye!

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