My goal of wrapping up these recaps before the end of the year does not seem to be within reach now. But! We have reached the point of the trip where my luck ran out and the PINCH ME I’M DREAMING spinning on a hilltop mindset finally record-scratched me back to reality, lol. But at least this morning was nice! We’ll get to the bad part another day. First, let’s talk about our day trip to Bran Castle a/k/a Dracula’s Castle!

Bran is about an hour drive from Brasov so we set out around 7AM because this is a place that you need to get to before it opens since it’s such a big tourist attraction (or trap, as some reviews online say! BUT IT’S FUCKING BRAN CASTLE IN ROMANIA, OK? You can’t skip that).

On our long walk from the guest room to the car, we stopped at a cafe that wasn’t actually even opened yet but my big dumb American ass saw lights on and a barista behind the counter, so I barged right on in and ignored the “closed” sign on the door. UGH I hate myself. (Yes, the sign was in Romanian but come on, dumb stoop American tourist – be more aware!!) An older man came out from the back to see what the fuck was happening I guess, and he took over for the barista. To both of their credit, they were extremely friendly and forgiving. They didn’t even point out that they weren’t technically open and the guy even patiently explained the whole Romanian “long black” mystery to me. He suggested that if I wanted a larger size, to do three shots instead of two and I AGREED TO THIS? WHY DID I SAY YES SO CALMLY TO THREE SHOTS OF FUCKING ESPRESSO ON AN EMPTY STOMACH?

Foreshadowing, my friends, lol.

Anyway, I know the “pictures from the car window” is so tiresome, but ROLLING FOG ALONG THE CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS ON THE DRIVE TO THE BRAN CASTLE? Come on. I was hanging out that car window like a motherfucking dog.

Can you imagine living here?! I mean, I personally would hate it because it’s already hard enough for me to go to Kpop concerts just living in PITTSBURGH. Imagine rural Romania!? But I wouldn’t object to living here part time? Like, a month out of the year. Henry can do farm things with a mule while I lay in a field and read books watch Kpop videos on my phone.

We eventually made it to Bran, which was still somewhat Sleepy Town. This was our first glimpse at DRACULA’S CASTLE! We had a good hour to kill so we parked and found a cafe, like I really needed more caffeine after my TRIPLE long black!

We walked to Bran Coffee a bit down the street from where we parked.

IT LOOKED LIKE THIS INSIDE AND I LOVED IT!

THIS WAS NOT MY DRINK. I opted for no drink. Henry thinks this was a flat white, but he doesn’t have a vacation journal that he writes in habitually so we may never know (he just exclaimed from the kitchen that he is sure this was a flat white but it’s also possible that he wants my 1.5 readers to think he’s fancy). I will tell you that my croissant was the worst croissant I’ve ever had – so dry and hard that I would have needed to borrow Vlad’s sucker-fangs to make any purchase on it.

“I love Romania and all but Korean cafes are by far superior,” I muttered to Henry, who said, and I quote (because I wrote this in my vacation journal!!!), “You ain’t kidding.”

Cafe culture in Korea is just…different. It’s a whole genre.

Anyway, after this, we made our way over to the Castle ticketing area where all of the local vendors were noisily setting up their wares and food-stuffs, and it was really starting to feel lively! However, knowing that this place gets super crowded, I started to get the PEE JIG / INDIGESTION feeling that I get when we’re trying to rope drop at an amusement park. Even though Henry booked us guided tour tickets for 9AM AND “skip the line.” We don’t normally spend the extra money for fast pass bullshit but this was an exception.

More on the tour in the next post, because it’s time for me evening feeding.

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