Halloween in Transylvania
The last few days in Transylvania have been incredible! The train ride from Cluj-Napoca was through beautiful autumn scenery with brightly colored leaves, pumpkin patches and scarecrows! I met up with Danny in Sighisora (pronounced She-gah-shwor-ah) to find a crescent moon sliding in and out of thin whimsical clouds. Perched atop the hill, we found the "old town" where we sauntered through the cobblestone streets enjoying the spooky atmosphere. Plenty of black cats, stray dogs and even spider webs. At the stroke of midnight on Halloween Eve, we were next to the clocktower and next to the house where Dracula was born!
On Monday we went to Brasov which is a larger city in Transylvania and a place we figured might have more options for Halloween celebrations. Some guidebooks have dubbed in "the next Prague" which is a bit of a stretch, but the city had great charm and gothic architecture (I actually would take Brasov over Prague any day). Our favorite characteristic of Brasov is the "BRASOV" sign that sits atop the city similar to Hollywood in LA. It is so unexpected here, and well-lit at night. We couldn't resist the temptation to take several pictures of it. We met a bunch of students from Poland at our hostel and ended up going out to a chill lounge bar with three guys, one of which looked identical to Philip Seymour Hoffman. An hour or two ealier, Danny and I had decided on an unconventional costume for Halloween: a tripod. Seeing how there was only us two, we needed to recruit a third leg and Philip Seymour Hoffman, whose name got shorted to PSH, was our choice. He appeared excited when we extended a formal invitation to be a member of the tripod costume.
In the morning, Danny and I went to the Romanian equivalent of Home Depot and purchased all the material for our costumes. I promise to post pictures of our final costume on here tomorrow. Once the costume had been crossed off our to-do list, we decided to try to visit the Bran Castle (yes this is Dracula's castle). We followed our hostel's directions and got on the right bus and then off at the last bus stop of the route, but were surprised to find ourselves in the woods. As it turns out we caught the right bus in the wrong direction. Our options were to wait 30 minutes for the next bus or take a hike. We elected for the latter option. It was gorgious in the woods. We could not have asked for better Halloween weather as it was sunny with a real crisp chill in the air. We were hoping to locate the BRASOV sign on our hike, but had to turn back before finding it, in order to avoid losing all sunlight. If there is one place you don't want to be lost, it's Transylvania woods on Halloween. Back at the hostel we found PSH and assembled our costume. Once everything was set, we went into town where an Irish Pub was having a large Halloween party. Everyone gave curious looks when we were walking around as individual legs, but then laughed and cheered when we all united on stage as a fully-functioning tripod. At one point we all got on stage while the Romanian news filmed us singing Yellow Submarine. We were confused as to why they had us singing but just went along with it. We later found out that they thought we were three submarines with our tripod legs looking like telescopes. As things were winding down at the Irish Pub, we left and were looking for the next stop of the night. In the street we met these Romanians who thought our tripod was hillarious. They invited us to come with them in taxis to a club. They took us to this crazy club with all Romanians (I am almost certain that we were the only 3 foreigners there). Danny took off his tripod leg while using the bathroom and when he turned around someone had stolen it. As a result, PSH and I decided to ditch our costumes as well. I belive our costume was too progressive for the Romanians and that we may have been drawing unwanted attention. The Romanians were super friendly and bought us lots of drinks and introduced us to their friends. Like all of Eastern Europe, the women are mega-attractive.
We got back to the hostel around 6 in the morning and had 3 hours sleep before getting a train to Bucharest in route to Bulgaria. In Bucharest we had to switch trains and paid a little extra to have a sleeper. Worked out perfectly because we were able to catch up on sleep. Arrived in Veliko Turnovo this evening just in time to watch a "light and sound show" in the old fortress from the balcony of our hostel.
Tripod pictures coming soon...
On Monday we went to Brasov which is a larger city in Transylvania and a place we figured might have more options for Halloween celebrations. Some guidebooks have dubbed in "the next Prague" which is a bit of a stretch, but the city had great charm and gothic architecture (I actually would take Brasov over Prague any day). Our favorite characteristic of Brasov is the "BRASOV" sign that sits atop the city similar to Hollywood in LA. It is so unexpected here, and well-lit at night. We couldn't resist the temptation to take several pictures of it. We met a bunch of students from Poland at our hostel and ended up going out to a chill lounge bar with three guys, one of which looked identical to Philip Seymour Hoffman. An hour or two ealier, Danny and I had decided on an unconventional costume for Halloween: a tripod. Seeing how there was only us two, we needed to recruit a third leg and Philip Seymour Hoffman, whose name got shorted to PSH, was our choice. He appeared excited when we extended a formal invitation to be a member of the tripod costume.
In the morning, Danny and I went to the Romanian equivalent of Home Depot and purchased all the material for our costumes. I promise to post pictures of our final costume on here tomorrow. Once the costume had been crossed off our to-do list, we decided to try to visit the Bran Castle (yes this is Dracula's castle). We followed our hostel's directions and got on the right bus and then off at the last bus stop of the route, but were surprised to find ourselves in the woods. As it turns out we caught the right bus in the wrong direction. Our options were to wait 30 minutes for the next bus or take a hike. We elected for the latter option. It was gorgious in the woods. We could not have asked for better Halloween weather as it was sunny with a real crisp chill in the air. We were hoping to locate the BRASOV sign on our hike, but had to turn back before finding it, in order to avoid losing all sunlight. If there is one place you don't want to be lost, it's Transylvania woods on Halloween. Back at the hostel we found PSH and assembled our costume. Once everything was set, we went into town where an Irish Pub was having a large Halloween party. Everyone gave curious looks when we were walking around as individual legs, but then laughed and cheered when we all united on stage as a fully-functioning tripod. At one point we all got on stage while the Romanian news filmed us singing Yellow Submarine. We were confused as to why they had us singing but just went along with it. We later found out that they thought we were three submarines with our tripod legs looking like telescopes. As things were winding down at the Irish Pub, we left and were looking for the next stop of the night. In the street we met these Romanians who thought our tripod was hillarious. They invited us to come with them in taxis to a club. They took us to this crazy club with all Romanians (I am almost certain that we were the only 3 foreigners there). Danny took off his tripod leg while using the bathroom and when he turned around someone had stolen it. As a result, PSH and I decided to ditch our costumes as well. I belive our costume was too progressive for the Romanians and that we may have been drawing unwanted attention. The Romanians were super friendly and bought us lots of drinks and introduced us to their friends. Like all of Eastern Europe, the women are mega-attractive.
We got back to the hostel around 6 in the morning and had 3 hours sleep before getting a train to Bucharest in route to Bulgaria. In Bucharest we had to switch trains and paid a little extra to have a sleeper. Worked out perfectly because we were able to catch up on sleep. Arrived in Veliko Turnovo this evening just in time to watch a "light and sound show" in the old fortress from the balcony of our hostel.
Tripod pictures coming soon...
posted by Jason at
2:12 PM
1 Comments:
Halloween in Transylvania, now that is a once in a lifetime experience, no make that more like a very unlikely experience. Can't wait to see the tripod pics. You are a riot. Gayle
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Anonymous, at 9:23 PM
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