May16 Dracula !!!

Today was the day to go off and visit Bran Castle, the home of Dracula. Armed with 10 cloves of garlic, we set off through Bucharest toward Bran. We passed some crumbling apartments which are in very bad repair but still occupied. No wonder the general look on the citizens is that of despair. On past the Parliamentary Palace which stands out to all the as a place of wealth that they will never have. MacDonalds is here in full force and quite visible as is KFC and even Burger King.
Bucharest is the "Paris of Romania" with it's own Arch de Triumph. Small churches are burried everywhere and they are proof of the survival of religion during the communist regime. We passed some lovely homes and also some slums before arriving in the Carpathian mountains which were beautiful and reminded me of Bavaria.
Then we visited Bran Castle, returned via the same raod and finished the day with a wonderful Italian meal at teh hotel.