We travelled by train through the Carpathian Mountains to Bucharest, a city of 8 million.  It’s quite a contrast to the other places we have seen in Romania.  It’s unkempt and uncared for, with angry graffiti and parks filled with weeds to complement the massive Communist era buildings. We went for a tour of the Palace of Parliament, the second largest government building in the world, after the Pentagon.  It was built under the direction of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in the 1980’s but has never been finished. It has 1100 rooms decorated with chandeliers and gold. A palace nearby was also built for his wife and second in charge Elena.…

We left a previous century in Viscri to join a traffic jam going to Bran Castle. Vlad the Impaler may or may not have stopped here once, but it’s known as Dracula’s castle. It’s very popular, with tours for Halloween and princes from the Middle East renting it for parties. It was hard to move inside the castle for all the tourists, and even in the many shops outside. We got through the traffic to the nearby town of Brasov. It has a beautiful town square where our hotel is located. There is a funicular up the hill to the Hollywood style town sign, and the area where Vlad impaled…

We travelled into the Transylvania area, through hills and forests. We stopped in Bistrita for lunch, where the Roma or gypsies were making themselves known. They were the last of the Asian people to migrate to Europe, were originally enslaved, then freed with nothing and nowhere to go, without status or citizenship. I bought a pasty for lunch while a gypsy with babe in arms touched my arm to beg for it. On to Sighisoara, a picturesque medieval hilltop town with pastel homes and cobblestones. Its claim to fame is that Vlad Tepes, of the Dragul family, was born here. He became known as Vlad the Impaler, sticking his enemies…