Dracula Has a Marketing Problem

Getting to Bucharest wasn’t exactly a direct connection for us on this trip. Admittedly, this stop was a bit of an afterthought that we squeezed in after everything else was booked. We arrived after about a 24 hour transit from Jax to DC to Munich to Istanbul to Bucharest. We’ve gotten a little better over the years at getting some nap time on flights. Also, killing 6 or 7 hours at the Turkish Airlines lounge in Istanbul wasn’t exactly painful. Seriously, this lounge has to be seen to be believed: two stories, multiple hot and cold buffets, alcohol bars, espresso bars, every hot and cold drink imaginable, a movie theater with popcorn, an indoor driving range, video games, RC car race track, showers, laundry, sleeping suites, “massage therapists” walking around, a roving fancy dessert cart in addition to multiple dessert and pastry buffets… totally ridiculous. Nonetheless, we were still pretty tired when we touched down at our hotel in Bucharest about 9 pm and just crashed out directly.

We spent the next full day touring a few places around Bucharest and Braşov. We saw Peleș Castle and Bran (Dracula) castle. We also toured around old town in Braşov (about 3 hrs from Bucharest) and finished up with some nighttime shopping back in old town in Bucharest, where our hotel is located.

Peleș Castle is the royal summer castle, an absolute necessity since we felt every bit of winter during our visit. It’s at about 900m elevation in the Carpathian Mountains, a destination that attracts a fair number of skiers. The castle itself has some fairly interesting Bavarian style accents in architecture and decorations and is situated amongst some striking scenery. Otherwise, I have to admit the castle itself isn’t particularly noteworthy when put against any number of others around Europe. We also visited Bran Castle (“Dracula’s Castle”) which was sadly very unimpressive. I’m not sure what I expected, as I really didn’t visit with any prior knowledge of the place. I had a sense that there was a real person that “Count Dracula” was based on. As it turns out, that’s actually being very generous. In short, Dracula is modeled somewhat after a noblewoman accused of murdering hundreds of people, but named after a different guy known as the “impaler” and “devil,” and his castle is sort of inspired by Bran Castle (No, not “Bram Castle” like Bram Stoker, because that would actually be cool, it’s “Bran” named after the town it’s located in).

Look, Dracula is made up…. I get it. But stories developed from complete BS never stopped plenty of tourist traps from cashing in like crazy. Just look at the “ghost tours” in New Orleans or St. Augustine. Complete garbage, and yet plenty of suckers (like us) will happily line up for it and have a great time throwing our money at you in the process. These guys are missing an opportunity. And if trying to cash in on Dracula is too much of a reach…. I have one word for you: Gypsies. Wait, no, two words: Gypsy Curses. If you can start with that premise in any number of movies (“Thinner”, “Drag Me to Hell”, ….”Big”), surely you can terrify some tourists and their children with it.  Alas, though, one thing Bran did have was some great carnival-style sweet treats: kürtőskalács (chimney cake) and Lángos (Fried Bread). We got the chimney cake sprinkled with cinnamon and the fried bread smothered in chocolate. Now, these seem to be claimed and voraciously gobbled up by Romanian locals. However, both of those sweet treats actually appear to be Hungarian in origin, adding further to our perception that this country has both a marketing and an identity problem. We’ve had a good time though… The place has seemed reasonably safe. We haven’t been accosted by beggars, touts, or scammers. Authentic or not, the food has been pretty good. What else can I say? The people have been nice and the internet has been fast… no real complaints here.

We had a pretty relaxed visit our second day back in Bucharest and did some shopping and sightseeing around “Old Town” here. We had a great meal of pork knuckle, cabbage and polenta (can we just call them “fancy grits”) at Carul Cu Bere. I definitely recommend a stop at this place for Romanian fare in Bucharest… very nice restaurant with live music and great service. If you’re in old town, you definitely should also stop by for a little browsing at the Cărtureşti book store. It has to be one of the most beautiful in the world. Seriously. We also enjoyed checking out the nearby multistory shopping mall. It had a few international chain stores but was predominantly local businesses that made for some interesting shopping.

As we were packing up to leave and I was considering our time here, I couldn’t help but think that maybe our prior visits to some of Romania’s neighbors may have unfairly colored our impression of the place. It’s hard to say, because you can never really divorce yourself from the prior experiences you arrive with. Through that filter, we couldn’t help but see Hungarian and German influences, or direct copies, as well as smaller versions of attractions from abroad. It’s hard at this point to look at a “Triumph Arch” as anything particularly noteworthy. With all that being said, we enjoyed our visit and would still recommend a few days here, particularly if you’re touring through the region. I’m not saying you need to make a special trip, or, like, take a honeymoon here, but Romania does have its own charm.

That pretty much wrapped up our time here and we caught an evening flight back to Istanbul. I’m not sure when the next update will be. We may save our update from Turkey until the end of this trip. Here’s our Romania slideshow: