Sadly, we also woke to some very sad news. My Mum and Dad's dog Molly had to be put to sleep, she was only 10 years old, but had been very unwell and was diagnosed with cancer. It was such sad news and many tears flowed as I got ready to start the day. We will always remember her, she was such a lovely little dog.
We had the hotel breakfast, and then took a walk to the bus stop, where we had to catch a local bus to the main bus station. We got to the bus station only to find we had a 40 minute wait to get the bus to Bran. It's very hard to get information about getting to the castle, just another sign that Romania is not quite there yet when it some to being prepared for tourists.
The bus left on time at 11:00 am and just before boarding the bus we met a nice kiwi guy and his German girlfriend, so we chatted to them along the way, hearing about their travels and their plans going forward. It certainly made the bus trip go fast and soon we arrived in Bran, about 45 mins.
We wondered when we got there if it would be hard to find the castle or a bit of a walk, well, that was a worry not worth having as the bus pulled up right out front. From there it was just a short walk around the corner to the entrance, the funniest part is as you head up to the entrance, there are souvenir shops a plenty, selling all sorts of Dracula paraphernalia, man, there was some tacky stuff! We got tickets, 30 lei each (around $10, so very cheap), and then inside the gates we went.
We managed to get an awesome view of the castle from the park lands at the front, it's pretty amazing and impressive, certainly better than I had hoped, we both took loads of photos. The we took the path up to the castle and toured inside, filled with winding stair cases and lots of old furniture, it was good to get a sense of the history of the castle and of course read about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula. (A quick google search will give you a better run down of the history than I can). It dates back to 1376, so it was amazing to be in such an old castle.
From our tour of the castle, we took a walk around the castle to see if we could get some different photos and the we boarded a bus back towards Brasov, getting off at a town called Tasnov, home of a mother castle. This time we did not enter the castle, we just took photos from the bottom, we did consider entering, but to be honest, we actually could not find how to get to the entry, no signs and heaps of road works! We were happy not to continue to try and find the entry and after eating some lunch, we headed back to Brasov.
Back in Brasov, we decided to walk back from the bus station, only about 2km, rather than take the local bus, after all, we needed to build up thirst for a beer. It was quite hot though, so when we got back to the hotel, it was time for a shower before heading out at about 5pm for a few drinks and then dinner.
Tonight we went to a restaurant on the main square, we'd walked past a few times and seen the food, but thought it may be expensive being on the main square, they also had no menu out front. We asked to see a menu and were surprised to find that it was actually really well priced, so we grabbed a table out front and enjoyed the lovely views over the square as the sun went down, it was a beautiful evening.
Dinner was delicious too, I had a creamy mushroom chicken dish and Pete had a bean casserole with smoked pork. We also found the service at this restaurant was really good, the lady whilst a little older, was so lovely, and she seemed most grateful when we did leave her a tip which was well deserved because she had been so nice without actually trying, super service!
On the way back to the hotel, we decided to have an ice cream, a caramel ice cram with a waffle cone, so yummy!
We've had a great day, we were very pleased with how our day trip went and found it very easy to get around between the small towns. And Bran castle was certainly a highlight, I'd had low expectations, as I thought it would be packed with tourists, but it really was not too bad.
On Friday we head to Peles castle, I am hoping it is just as good and am excited to go on another day trip.
Until then though folks, have a wonderful day and happy Friday to you all :-)
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