Day 103: Bran and Rasnov

The plan for the day was to take a pretty straight forward bus ride out to Bran and stop at Rasnov (which is along the way) on the way back. I took a local bus from the city center to the regional bus station where buses do loops through nearby towns. Getting on the correct bus was pretty straight forward, but the bus wasn't terribly comfortable. Everything was covered in brown and maroon carpeting and their idea of environmental control wasn't air conditioning, but instead hanging 30 air fresheners from the bus ceiling to combat the inevitable smell of a carpeted bus without AC full of people.

I wasn't really sure what I was looking for to know when to get off the bus. My reason for going to Bran was to visit the castle there, but I didn't know if the bus went straight to the castle, or if it was tucked away somewhere. I knew Bran was the next town after Rasnov, so after Rasnov when we reached a cluster of buildings and about a quarter of the bus stood up to get off I figured that was it. Once off, I quickly realized that it definitely wasn't Bran, and the only reason so many people got off together is because they were all travelling together. I knew I was fairly close to Bran, but I wasn't sure if fairly close meant 2km or 20km, but not wanting to sit around for an hour waiting for the next bus I started walking. Luckily it was on the smaller side of that range, probably 3 or 4km to Bran and than another 1 or 2 of walking for me to finally find the castle. On the plus side, if you're going to have to walk along a highway in the heat in the middle of nowhere, a rural mountain valley in central Romania is a pretty nice nowhere to do it.



Bran Castle is marketed as "Dracula's Castle", but in reality it has a pretty loose connection to Vlad Tepes. It's still an interesting piece of gothic architecture from the 1400s and the inside is a sort of museum covering everything from Dracula to Romanian royalty. There isn't too much exploring to be done since ropes and locked doors lead people on a one way path through the building, but the "secret stairway" and balconies looking down into the courtyard were the most interesting bits for me.



Next it was off to Rasnov. The two things I'd been told were worth checking out were the fortifications on top of the overlooking hill and a cave a few kilometers out of town in the woods. I went to visit the fortifications first, and since I didn't know how long it would take and it was already getting into the afternoon I decided to take transportation up. Transportation up in Rasnov consists of a tractor with a big cart 5 times the size of the tractor tied to the back. Going up wasn't too bad, but going down a sleep slope behind a tractor when you're in a massive cart without independent steering or breaks is a bit tense.


The fortifications at the top weren't terribly exciting. Mostly it was just a wall with ruìns in it, and the buildings that were still standing were used for very touristy shops and snack bars. It did have a nice view of the town below and the surrounding forested hills though.




The cave was a few more km out of town, but in the same direction, so I just kept on walking once I was back down. From the parking there was another walk through the woods to get to the cave.

The cave itself consisted of a fairly long tunnel and then one big chamber at the end. We had to go in as a group with a guide who talked about the cave, but it was all in Romanian, so I didn't understand much of it. The central chamber was pretty impressive though, and you could see the stalagtite/stalagmites process in action.



After the cave I walked back to Rasnov. I waited for the bus for 20 minutes and ultimately ended up taking a ride from a local heading to Brasnov for the same price as the bus would have cost. Where he dropped me off wasn't the most convenient, but it wasn't too far to walk once I figured out a route over the hill between where I was and where I was going. I eventually made it back, but a lot of wear on my feet.