November 2, 2024

After a nearly 2 hour drive though the lovely Romanian countryside and some specatualar forest areas with fall trees that burned a brilliant fire of color, we rolled into the town of Bran known primarily for it's impressive castle perched on a hill overlooking the town.

Despite no evidence that Vlad III, Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula ("Son of the Dragon") spent much time in the castle - if at all - it did not stop enterprising Romanians from marketing the heck out of it as "Dracula's Castle" - especially durning Halloween.

After a Halloween night bust at Sigiu (see post) and getting tantlizingly close to some real Dracula (tourist) worship in Sighisoara (see post), we finally found ourselves in a veritable Translyvanian Draculapalooza!  We landed smack dab in the middle of a Halloween fair with themed food, souvenirs, a haunted house and, the main attraction, a tour (in costume) of Dracula's Castle (well, at least Bran Castle, which Dracula, aka Vlad III may, or probably may not, have lived, or, let's be honest, even set foot in).  

While Francesca and the kids ate lunch (note the pic above of the server in full costume - love it!) I decided to get some photos of the castle unencumbered by the little ones.  I had asked our Pension front desk guy where I could get the iconic photos of the castle from afar and he told me of a small path, away from the tourist section of town that offered the amazing views I was seeking. He warned that it required a short, but very steep climb up the side of the hill, up to the cross, but I was not deterred.  And I am so glad I did as the views were, as advertized. See for yourself below. 

I was so enthralled by the view and the photographs that when it was time to leave told Francesca and the kids to wait in the car while I climbed back up the hill - in the pitch dark - to take some night shots of the castle. See below. 

Then we went back to our Pension to check in (they were not ready for us when we arrived previously) and got into our costumes.  Those of you who know us know that we are a HUGE Halloween Family - and by that I mean I am a HUGE Halloween person and my family has no choice but to come along for the ride.  For the past 10 years we have hosted an epic Halloween party at our house complete with a themed box maze made entirely out of cardboard. 

As you can see, we always have a family costume to go along with the theme.  This year, we were all inspired by the masquerade masks we saw in Venice, Italy and decided that we would each make one DIY style around individual themes. 

Turns out they were not as easy to make as the YouTube video Francesa found, but we completed them nonetheless.  We had to make them in Morocco as we needed a few days to make them, let them dry and paint them and then carefully transport them on 3 plane flights to Romania.  Thankfully Merrill shoe outlet store in Marrakesh was kind enough to give us a bunch of sturdy shoe boxes to store our masks for the journey.  

We all voted Francesca's The Best Mask award.  She really knocked it out of the park!

Despite having purchased a ticket to the castle and having a time slot (7pm), it seemed like the event organizers were letting anyone in (not limiting at the door ticket sales) at any time.  The result was a VERY long line up the side of the hill to enter the castle (about 1 hour!) and a VERY crowded self-guided tour through the castle.  If I'm being honest (and I am) the best part of the castle was on the outside, the inside and tour weren't all that, especially for it being super crowded.  But there were moments of fun inside.

We didn't buy the after party tickets as they were super expensive (like 400 Euros!!!) and it started at 10pm and we were leaving the next morning at 7:30am. But we did take some pics with some of the stuff set up for the party goers. 

All in all it was a pretty awesome side trip to Romania.  The countryside is beautiful and I think we all really LOVED the weather. After having been in some very hot destinations (Greece, Bosnia, Slovnia) it was refreshing to have to put our sweatshirts and jackets to good use.  But not too cold so that we were uncomfortable in our costumes. 

A worthwhile side trip indeed, but now it was time to continue with our regularly scheduled Worldschooling Adventure.  Off to the jungles of Thailand!