Castelul Bran

My last post was intended to be put up 2 days ago, but because there are 15 ways for the internets to fail and only one way for them to work right, I haven't been able to post. Yesterday was the day we tracked Dracula all the way to Bran and its fantastically beautiful castle. I was a little disappointed that the walls weren't dripping with blood and there was no torture chamber, so I feel a little conflicted about the castle. Really, Vlad himself only stayed there one night and the castle is really a story about the number of times Transylvania has changed hands over the centuries. The castle is beautiful, very homey, and I could live there so if someone out there has 80 million euros to drop, I'd like to talk to you. Meanwhile, the castelul should be marketed as a beautiful spot, not the craptastic tourist trap that it is. We saw more Dracula nonsense than I would care to remember, and a lot of other things that don't relate at all. Case in point: one tourist shop sold jester hats, don't know why, and another sold black vibrating dildo lighters. No joke.

Today we went to the Orthodox church to see a service and attended meetings with architects who have convened with the Emanescu Trust for a conference to figure out how to best rehabilitate the houses & structures here without destroying the character. Really interesting stuff.