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dragone -> RE: "Heir puts 'Dracula's Castle' for sale" (7/6/2007 10:33:30 AM)
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Hello: I've been there, photographed the castle, It is really neat, not scary, just old. There is a secret passage from one floor leading to the top terrace, that is so narrow and so steep, the further up you go, the smaller it gets, and for a while, I stated to get clastrofobic. The Castle sits atop a hill overlooking the major highway, the surrounding area is like a swiss chailet village. The Castle Bran, was never the castle of 'Dracula', or Vlad . But of the Family. Vlad's Castle is just a tower, nothing more, with something like 700 steps to get to it.
The Romanian government will sell just about anything to anyone with the money, However, now that they are in the Euro system, of Europe, they are renovating the entire country, fixing roads, and enforcing traffic controls, (watch it smiley). The police stand by their car, a speeder is coming down the road, they motion them to slow down, if not, (since they are just standing there, what the hell, keep on rollin'...right)...no, they radio ahead, and the next cop, in his car stops you.
So, I'm driving back to Bucharesti, at night, in my Dacia, and in the lights, I pick up this reddish glow, the further I go, the more red on the road, then, low and behold, I'm driving through the carcass of a horse, who has been split in two, by this semi truck...a dead horse is really very large, really big. The animal is on either side of the road, split in two.
So, I'm up in the casperian mountains, and I see this creaming stuff ahead of me, and I drive, low and behold, a herd of sheep, in the road, must be 200 or more, blocking the road, and I'm in the middle of them, inching along.
I'm driving along at night, wham, I get hit, a dog runs smack into the side of the car. So I go to the garage, for repairs, and the talk is, everyone has a count of dead dogs, one mechanic laughs and jokes we should have dog kill decals, on the sides of the cars.
The drivers are insane, INSANE, F*****G INSANE.
Sibu has undergone a miraclious change, the center of Old Sibiu has been brought back to as it was in the 1500's, cobbled stone, old shops. The wall, which surrounds Old Sibiu, is the very same wall, actual, that has been there since the medivial times. Old Sibiu, is the cultural capitol of Europe. The museum is,..... as they have virually very little to display, a lot of rugs. The occuping Germans and Russians stripped Romanian to the bone. Raped the treasures.
The entire country has these Churches, Monastaries, and they are the same as they were in the 1400's, still holding services today. The cemetaries look like a trash dump, overgrown, unkept, markers turned over, it looks just like the cemetaries, in the horror movies. The family leases the plot, for 10 year periods, or longer, 30 years, or 100 years. The family is responisble for the grounds upkeep of the plot, and you can see the old folks carring their shovels and rakes, to clean the weeds.
Horse wagons still rule the road, everywhere are they. Gypises have their wagons, encircled in a gyspie cammp, all like a movie.
The people are friendly, the young women all wear very seductive street clothes, boots galore, netted stockings, the sweaters, they are gorgous. The OLder women who survived the Russians are your typical buruska cobvered tanks, with those old cotton socks, and have absolutely no smile whatsoever. The young men look like bums, as does the older ones. Beggers galore, cripples everywhere begging money.
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