A bat's P.O.V at Dracula's Castle

Bran's Castle was associated in time with Bram Stoker's "Dracula".

Why da' fuck that happened, beats me. But Romanians decided to ride that wave of eerie popularity and monetize upon it. Not enough if you ask me.

The fact is that Vlad the Impaler (or as we call it "Țepeș" from "țeapă", the long instrument entering the body through the ass while coming out around the area of the neck, that this guy used to impale his enemies with) used this castle in a very short period of his life. He was sent here in order to help with incursions in the South part of what today is Romania. It was used, more or less, as an HQ and a rallying point.

Border Castle

As many other settlements, Bran village and the castle that bears this name were set around one of the borders of former Transylvania, which later, as it was natural, united with the two other provinces, to form Romania. It's normal to put the defensive border right here and this can be seen as you approach Bran, coming from the City of Brașov. Between these mountains, Brașov and its surroundings found enough levelled land to develop. The geography of the place is that of a basin between steep mountain and this is visible as you advance towards Bran. The story becomes different as you enter in Bran as the steep hills and mountains appear out of nowhere and narrow the road around "the Turk" little creek.

The King of Hungary gave the rights to the German settlers sent around these parts, to build this mountain pass castle in order to defend the millennial way of crossing the mountains, around the year 1300. The Teutons had one of their wooden fortresses in the area exactly on this stone but the Mongols got it destroyed in 1242 so the pass remained unguarded for quite a lot time. The people in the city of Brașov wanted for sure a way to stop the "bloody immigrants" coming into the civilised world. They might start taking tolls again pretty soon if the things in Bucharest don't come to a normal stop point.

You can still see, apart from the castle, the remains of the border, with its dependencies and the stone wall that was making clandestine passing totally impossible. The part touching the forest, both sides, is the part still standing. That's a clear sign that nature doesn't destroy things like humans do.

Apart from the "vampire" point of view, Bran is touristic also because of its setting. This entry in the mountain pass is so beautiful both in summer and in winter. The mornings are clear and the slopes of Poiana Brașov are within reach in less than 30 minutes (when the road connecting is not in full repairs like it is now). Bran is set between two big mountain formations inside the Romanian Carpathians: "Piatra Craiului" and "Bucegi". Practically the mountains "are falling" upon Bran so the air is very fresh and because of its closeness to traditions, this is a very "Romanian" place to go. There good traditional restaurants and accommodation, that if not luxurious, may attract you through the cosy aesthetics and feelings that will inspire you.

Up in the air of Bran

I woke up pretty early in the morning: 6:30. That's really not something I do usually. Even for important things for work I try to avoid this kind of waking hours. I consider them inhuman. But, for photography it seems I can do it for some reason. At least at this point in my life.

At 7 o'clock I was already consuming my first drone battery. I was planning to take this flight ever since a week ago when me and the colleagues decided to have a meeting in Bran in order to discuss work issues.

The atmosphere was great. The sky not so much.

As Bran is set between mountains, there are very fixed, certain moments of the day when the sun is hitting the castle. And I'm not talking about high noon. I'm talking about mornings (not even evenings) when that certain ray of light hits the eastern facade of the castle (the main one) - the one facing Brașov. Having clouds in the in the morning didn't help at all with that (maximum) 10 minutes window I was hoping for. The ray of light existed but this particular morning it didn't really have the appropriate power: a bit of a cloud was in the way.

The air was chill instead. Fall is here no debate there. I left home like an idiot, no jacket, only short sleeve t-shirts so I had to borrow something. I mainly had my ass stuck to the heated seat of the car while the door was open and I was just having the remote outside. Just enough to have that lovely drone signal between the mountains.

I'm a big fan of "Hotel Transylvania". You know... those cartoons. Having a kid pays well, what can I tell you?!

As I was flying my drone from here to there in the misty air of the morning, gazing in the screen of my phone from the point view of a bat flying home, I could feel the desperation a vampire would get as the Sun was rising.

Damn me if those windows aren't too small to nail that landing through them.

  Posted also on my blog www.ddma.ro, a place on the world wide web where I'm trying to promote Steemit, my writings and my country. In that order. I post through the @steempress-io plugin and I make my life easier (writing and formatting in Wordpress is much easier than on steemit.com or busy.org)