I adore all of Kate Beaton’s brilliant history-and-literature-inspired comics, but this set based on Bram Stoker’s novel is my absoltue favorite, for obvious reasons. Every couple months I find myself on Ms. Beaton’s site, clicking the Previous button over and over again and reading all the way through her entire archive of comics, and I just never get tired of them.
I recently ran across this great documentary about the historical Dracula on YouTube. There are a few really cool shots of Castle Poenari in the snow. I was there in October, near Halloween, when it was chilly and a bit cloudy, but I’d love to see the place in wintertime like that. The documentary also tells some of my favorite weird stories about Dracula, like how he used to keep a golden chalice in the…Continue Reading →
I used the video feature of my digital camera for just about the first time ever while I was at the top of Castle Poenari, to try to document a little bit about the layout and size of the place. The first one is a video showing the entrance into the tower archway, the room below, and the open ceiling above. The second is a look around from the highest point of the castle….Continue Reading →
Some good articles on Wikipedia The Wikipedia articles about Vlad Tepes and Castle Poenari are pretty cool, particularly the Vlad one. Another noteworthy bit of information I picked up in wandering around Romania, which is useful if you’re going there: the castle name is pronounced something like “po-ee-NAR”; in the Romanian language, an “i” at the end of a word is (almost?) always silent. The last “r” is a bit rolled, like in Spanish, but…Continue Reading →
[Part 1|Part 2|Part 3|Part 4] This is part 4 of 4. See part 3 here. Graffiti near the top of the castle. I didn’t deface any of the walls myself, but I did pry a tiny gray rock out of the ground on the main path leading into the castle, to keep as a souvenir. I realized a few days later as I was flying back to Paris from Bratislava that I was flying on…Continue Reading →
[Part 1|Part 2|Part 3|Part 4] This is part 3 of 4. See part 2 here. Here’s me actually in the archway of the tower. I sent my best friend Ben a text message from right here simply saying “I AM IN DRACULA’S FREAKING CASTLE,” and then I realized it was 6am at his place in Philadelphia; oops! A look at the castle wall from the far end. A little background about the place: Apparently there…Continue Reading →
[Part 1|Part 2|Part 3|Part 4] This is part 2 of 4. See part 1 here. Like I mentioned above, a big part of the castle was destroyed in an earthquake in 1888. I believe the gray stones on the left are from the original walls, and the red bricks on the right are part of the reconstruction, but I can’t be sure this is correct. Here’s the view down the other side. They’ve installed walkways…Continue Reading →
[Part 1|Part 2|Part 3|Part 4] OCTOBER 2006: I traveled to Romania for my second time to see a number of things I wasn’t able to the first time, the most important of which (to me) was Castle Poenari — the real Dracula’s castle. Visiting Vlad Tepes’ real castle was a lifelong dream of mine, and it was pretty mindblowing to finally see it with my own eyes. I’ve included a lot of information about getting…Continue Reading →
About this site A while back I noticed that my section on my personal website devoted to my visit to Castle Poenari — the real Dracula’s castle had become by far the most popular feature on the site, so I decided to create this blog — Dracula: History and Myth — as a more comprehensive place for all my information and photos about the castle and my experiences traveling in Romania. I’ve been a huge…Continue Reading →
