Saturday, January 27, 2007
AMERICAN DUO DARES DRACULA'S LAIR!
That's how the headlines should have read after I and my NDI colleague Scott Andersen spent a boy's weekend earlier this month in search of a legend. After a three hour Saturday drive due north from Bucharest into the Transylvanian Alpine town of Arges, seeking the true mountain fortress retreat of the infamous Romanian ruler Vlad Tepes III, or Vlad "The Impaler."
Most know that Vlad was a partial inspiration for Bram Stoker when he set about writing the world's most notable vampire tale: Dracula. In point of fact, Stoker mades his Dracula a 19th century Transylvanian Count who claims direct lineal descent from the 15th century Vlad Tepes. The real Vlad was son of Vlad Dracul, from whence comes the name Dracula. "Dracul" is the Latin/Romanian word meaning Dragon. Vlad the Impaler's father had the name added to his own in recognition of the fact that he had been made a knight in the Holy Roman Emperors' famous Order of the Dragon. The Vlad family were lesser nobles in the H.R.Empire, tasked by the Emperor to protect the southern flank of Christendom against the Turks along the border between the mountainous region of Transylvania and the flat Wallachian plains below to the South. The Real Dracula's castle guarded an important pass through the mountains into the heart of Christendom. Vlad failed to hold the fortress continuously, but his ruthless and bloody means of terrorizing his Turkish and political enemies made him a legend beyond his own borders and time.
Legend has it that Vlad impaled 20,000 Turks outside his fortress. The site was so abhorrent that the Turkish ruler Mehmet who had just moved north fresh from sacking Constantinople, fleed with his forces back to the city the Turks would now call Istanbul. Yet, Vlad impaled thousands of his own people as well. In the town of Sibiu (see more about this beautful city below) 10,000 subjects were punished in this gruesome manner. Such gory tales have led to tales and legends of ghosts and curses surrounding the true castle ruins of Dracula - Vlad the Impaler, all faithfully handed down from Romanian father to son.
Scott and I dared to find out what this site had in store for its visitors ourselves...
The castle of Vlad lies 1,470 steps straight up the side of a mountain! The pain you feel in your lungs and legs as you make the long climb, breathlessly fighting the desire to quit and turn back, is enough to make anyone believe the place is cursed! It also reminds Americans why Dracul is a swear word in Romanian!
Somehow, asthmatic and out of shape, I made it to the top. I admit, I thought twice about giving up and rolling down the stairs back to the car! But curiousity and a little dash of shame kept me moving up! (Had it not been for the three couples of young Romanian teenage lovers that came happily racing down past me as we neared the top, I probably never would have sucked it up and pressed on, but I wasn't about to look like the lazy American who couldn't climb the same stairs teenaged girls climbed without a drop of perspiration!) Scott, the nephew of a famous American mountain climber, made it up in far better shape. A conquering hero atop the Transylvanian world!
A recent Discovery Channel program told of Romanians who made the same trek up to the Fortress at the turn of the 20th century, and the ghostly blue lights they witnessed swirling up from the valley floor through the dense forests of the mountains surrounding the ruins. We saw no lights, but the view of the valley was spectacularly memorable nonetheless!
Tired but filled with enthusiasm after our triumph, we returned to the little town of Arges for the evening and spent a relaxing night eating in the town's newest restaurant: INDIA. The food was cheap and actually tasted Indian... a bonus.
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