Brasov, Romania – Bran Castle – Travel Photography

Im sitting here in our hostel in Dubrovnik, Croatia, enjoying our view of the Dalmation coast, listening to some lounge music and chatting with our new Australian buddies.  A much needed relaxation after today’s hell of arriving here.  I love traveling, except for the whole, you know, traveling part.  A 14 hour overnight bus, no thank you.  Today we went and laid on the beach and cooked a quiet dinner here at the hostel.  Im sipping a coffee so we can go out later and dance it up somewhere.  Tomorrow we will explore the city center.Ive got lots in store for you since Im so behind on cities but today’s post will finish up our stay in the lovely Romania.  After our short visit in Sinaia, we took the train a little further to Brasov, pronounced Brashov.  We got in pretty late so after we checked into our hostel we just went and had a nice traditional dinner.  The next day we took a day trip to see the infamous Bran Castle.  This day actually ended up being a nightmare thanks to our driver but if you’re interested in reading that nonsense, hop on over to the travel blog.  Im going to keep it positive here and only show the pretty pictures!  Bran Castle is known as being Dracula’s Castle because Bram Stoker took his inspiration from Transylvania and the legendary bloodthirsty ruler, Vlad the Impaler.  So, we of course decided that the Bran Castle was a must see.

Unfortunately after seeing Peles Castle, this one kind of pales in comparison.  However, I quickly became fascinated with the doors.  All of the hinges and handles and knockers were just so ornate and pretty.  Must have doors like this! The wood carvings in these castles are absolutely incredible!

Also, many of the doors (and the doors of the cottages we saw in the village museum in Bucharest) have these lovely traditional paintings.

One of the rooms had these fun shields with different emblems or crests on them.  This first one was my favorite and we ended up seeing it in different parts of Brasov as well.

So our driver totally screwed us and we didn’t make it back to Brasov until hours later than we should have, meaning we only got about 2 hours to walk around the city.  Shame, since it’s such a cute little town.

The Black Church is one of the best known symbols and historical buildings of Brasov.

Pony fountain!

In several of these cities youll find lots of old grandpas playing chess or rummikub in the parks.  I love that!

Brasov has nice streets, lined with beautiful buildings and outside eating.

Here’s the big main square.  We saw these guys above walking around and there was a little band playing with other festivities as well.  Must have been some kind of festival?

After our quick stroll around town, we met up with our new Swedish friend Ludwig (he stayed at our hostel and went to Bran Castle with us) for dinner.  And then we hopped on our night train to Budapest…