Road Trip to Brasov & Dracula's Castle

We boarded the bus to Brasov after we finished with lab. Wine, beer and shots were passed from seat to seat as music blared from a portable speaker hung on the straps of a bag in the luggage area. The driver steered around the sharp corners with his elbow while he talked on his phone on the super windy roads. We careened straight towards cars and people so often that I stopped looking out the front windshield. We drove by villages where people lined the sides of roads outside their houses to watch the cars go by. We eventually got to a main road that had switchback after switchback until we arrived in Brasov. We went in to the Rolling Stone Hostel to fill out paperwork. We piled in to a van to our lodgings-what looked like a Soviet Era apartment building in a neighborhood full of funeral parlors. We were on the second floor in apartment number 4. The apartment smelled like rotten milk and pee. The nine of us were divided between three bedrooms. The beds were IKEA specials and were made with children’s sheets. There was an odd extra door that was locked that creeped us all out.

We went out for a quick snack and all had Cuba Libres. I had fries. The next morning, we were supposed to meet up with the rest of the group to go the Dracula’s castle. The man who dropped us off the night before said we could walk back to our meeting place. It took us fifty minutes to get there.  It turns out that it was over three miles. We are calling it the Brasov 5K. It was about three hours to the castle. I have a million photos from that. We then road the bus to Vlad the Impaler’s Fortress. The fortress stands on a hill with 1480 stairs. 1480! The wound through the forest up the hill. It was really pretty, but that was a ton of stairs!

We rode the bus back to Brasov and pretty much all went to bed. The next morning, we got up and headed into Brasov by taxi this time. After we dropped our bags off at the hostel, we went out for pancakes and wandered through the town for the day.  I tried to order another salad at a pizza place next to the bus stop, but again my salad plans were foiled. My salad did not arrive before we had to leave. We just got back to our hostel in Odorheiu.  And now for the photo dump...

Bran's Castle

Stairs to Vlad's fortress

 Armor in Bran's Castle

Fortress

One of Vlad's victims?

Church in Brasov

 From the bus window

Our bus stop in Brasov.

2/9 of the beds fell while people were on them-mine did!

Ewww!

Tag in Brasov

More Bran's Castle

This stairway is so narrow. 

Brasov

My camera switched to the mode where is only picks out one color (blue) by itself. Some of the photos turned out neat. 

Pancakes!

Cheese omelet over pancakes. The pancakes are more like crepes.