A dream trip to Transylvania

I must have read Bram Stoker’s gothic horror novel Dracula a dozen times. The book stoked my wildest imagination and as a kid, I had dreamt of seeing the home of Dracula — Transylvania.

This winter, I finally made that dream come true.

Transylvania, the central region of Romania in Eastern Europe, turned out to be much more than I’d hoped for. It is home to mountains, hiking trails, wildlife, more than 100 castles and a blood-lusting prince who lived, once upon a time.

As I had learned from the novel, the fictional Dracula was inspired by a lavishly moustachioed Wallachian prince by the name of Vlad Dracula who lived from 1431 to 1476.

His Romanian nickname “tepes” was named after his preferred form of execution: Stabbing or impaling his victims with a wooden stick through their buttocks.

BRASOV: A FAIRY-TALE TOWN

My journey began in Brasov, a small and vibrant town sprinkled with multi-hued, baroque houses and home to just over 250,000 people.

After spending a day wandering around the city’s historic Old Town, I hopped onto the cable car at Brediceanu Alley just outside the Old Town, which took me to the peak of Mount Tampa.

This was the location of the original defensive citadel, but it was destroyed when the ferocious Vlad Dracula attacked Brasov in the 15th century.

From the cable car station, I hiked along the muddy trails and found my way to a lookout point.

Standing alone on the ledge, I drank in the best view in town and felt as though I was on top of the world.

ON THE TRAIL OF Dracula

From Brasov, I followed the trail of Stoker’s Dracula to his legendary home, Bran Castle.

Just a few kilometres outside Brasov, the regal, 14th-century castle stands atop a massive rock overlooking the winding river that divides the regions of Transylvania and Wallachia.

It had snowed the night before and the castle was dusted in shimmering white powder snow. With turrets and towers soaring into the sky, Bran Castle looked straight off the pages of my favourite vampire novel. It was exactly how Stoker described Dracula’s home: Forbidding and haunting.

Sadly, even though Bran Castle was home to the novel’s protagonist, the real Vlad never lived there. Instead, his real home was Poienari Citadel in Wallachia, which has now become a ruin.

Today, Bran Castle is a private museum open to tourists, displaying art and furniture collected by Queen Marie who used to spend her summers here with her family.

Beyond the towns and castles, I was also eager to explore Transylvania’s Fagaras Mountain Range via the famous Transfagarasan Road.

UP THE ICE MOUNTAINS

Transfagarasan Road is Romania’s highest asphalt road and also the world’s best, according to the British car show Top Gear.

Romania’s former dictator, Nicolai Ceausescu, had ordered this road to be built in the 1970s as an escape route in case of foreign invasion. No invasion occurred, but the road is now a major attraction for motoring enthusiasts, especially in summer.

When we visited in winter, a section of the road was closed due to heavy snow. So we abandoned our vehicle and caught the cable car up to my last stop: Balea Lake, a glacier lake more than 2,000m above sea level.

SLEEPING ON ICE

Every winter, the local craftsmen carve blocks of ice into ephemeral, beautiful igloos for the Hotel of Ice.

The Hotel of Ice has a new theme each winter. Last year’s theme was countries and my room, France, featured an ice Eiffel Tower. Spending the afternoon racing around the lake on a snowmobile and swishing down snow-white slopes in a tube, I felt like a child once more.

That night, under layers of reindeer fur and blankets, I drifted to sleep, smiling. I was in Transylvania after all — a place where dreams come true.

TRAVEL TIPS:

Getting there

The main gateway to Romania is Bucharest, its capital city. Several airlines fly from Singapore to Bucharest with at least one stopover, including Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines. From Bucharest, the train to Brasov takes 2 hours and 45 minutes each way, and departs almost hourly from the central station.

Travel info

Untravelled Paths put together the customised trip around Transylvania, which included the Hotel of Ice experience. A four-day Hotel of Ice experience starts at S$540 and includes a stay in Bucharest and trips to the Peles Castle and Bran Castle.

When to go

During winter (November to February), temperatures can dip to 0˚C and snow will fall in the mountains. For hiking, go in spring (April and May) or autumn (September and October), when the temperatures are milder.

Budget

S$1 is approximately 2.98 Romanian New Leu. A restaurant meal costs about S$10, while accommodation prices range from S$30 for a dorm bed in a hostel to S$200 for a hotel room per night.