A Postcard from Transylvania

Transylvania is a region of Romania, about 2 hours drive from the capital city of Bucharest. The countryside is absolutely beautiful; however, on the windy country roads outside of Bucharest, visiting these 3 sites took a whole day of driving.

Bran Castle is the legendary Dracula’s castle. The story of Dracula was based on a notoriously bloodthirsty Romanian ruler named Vlad the Impaler. He didn’t actually live in this particular castle, but the location happens to perfectly match the description of the castle in the book of Dracula, even though the author had never actually been to Transylvania. It’s packed during the Halloween season, but since the day of my visit was completely sunny + beautiful, much of the creepiness factor was absent from the castle.

 

Sinaia Monastery was another stop on our Transylvania adventure. It actually had a tiny museum on the property with the first bible translated into Romanian, which was also the first book translated into Romanian. As a linguaphile, that was a pretty special thing to see. I loved the architecture of this church + the small surrounding grounds.

Next stop was the castle built by the first king of Romania, who was actually German. It is perfectly fairytale-like, like a scene from Beauty + the Beast. Inside, I took a tour of the first floor where the king had elaborate receiving rooms for diplomats + royals from other countries. He also had a large collection of books (ten thousand of them!) + a library with a secret door. Most of the books are now in the Bucharest National Library, but even the small collection left in the castle’s library still reinforced the Beauty + the Beast vibe for me.

Overall, I was completely infatuated with the tranquility of the Romanian countryside. I’m so thankful we had the opportunity to get out of the city for even just a day – completely worth it.