'Probably the Best City in the World'

Brasov. Two hours by train and I was dead center in the country and on the very edge of Transylvania. It still felt familiar. And then on the bus ride into the old section of town, I passed it. Transylvania University (of Brasov). It really exists. Another TU! I felt like popping in and taking an alumni walk through the sister-school. But I didn't. I did, though, meet two sisters who had recently graduated from Transy Brasov. They ran the hostel I stayed at. We swapped stories and experiences. They were worlds apart.

I was here to see castles. From what I had been told, this was the base-town to do it from. And there were plenty of tour options, promoting the opportunity to see and visit Dracula's castle - Bran Castle - among others. At first, I was stoked to see the Count's dwelling quarters, the setting for Stoker's thriller and one of the actual residences to Mr. Vlad the Impaler. But I found that none of this was true. Vlad never lived there and Bram never knew Bran ever existed. Argh. With the myth balloon popped, I opted for a much better plan than Bran...

Anne, my new friend as of Sighisoara, was meeting me early Wednesday morning for some castle crusading. Anne was all-energy and up for an adventure, so we decided to hitch-hike (44km) to the town of Sinaia, site of one of the best castles in all of Europe - Peles (the Royal Palace). So we picked up some lunch food from the market, dug up a cardboard box for our road-side sign and headed off. This was going to be so much easier with Anne! Once outside of town, the plan was for Anne to hold the sign to Sinaia, eagerly waving down a ride with her Dutch-blond hair and inviting smile, while I hid behind a bush off to the side with my beard and our bags. Genius. Foolproof. And though it took some strategizing on the proper location for our plan to take full affect, it went off without a hitch. Picked up and dropped off outside the gates in less than an hour.

Peles. Wow, this place was ripped right out of the pages of the classical fairy-tale books. I half expected to see Shrek and Fiona wandering out of the backdropped forest to meet up with Donkey munching on the well-groomed green lawn sloping down from the castle's courtyard. It was hard to imagine that anyone besides cartoon-ized figures actually roamed these grounds. We took it all in, including a 45 minute tour of the lavished interior. It's amazing what money can buy.

We had completed our mission early and there was still plenty of light left in the day, so out again came the sharpie and we flipped the piece of cardboard to write: Rasnov. It was on the way back to Brasov, not directly, but in the general direction. Again it took some time to find a logistic spot to flag down motorists and again we went with the Anne plan-of-attack while I sat back out of the way and watched. Bingo, another taker. He was a burly middle-aged man with a buzzed head, a five o'clock shadow and a fully grown mustache. He was driving a van. If I had been by myself, I might have been a bit intimidated and have tried my luck with another passerby, but Anne had no qualms, so we hopped aboard. We weren't quite sure if he was going to take us all the way to Rasnov, but as we approached the junction (jamming to Genesis' I Can't Dance), we found our driver was more than happy to make the detour from his regular route. What service. Another successful drop off at another castle's gate.

It was fun hanging with Anne. We had things in common and plenty to talk about. It was nice sharing dinner conversations, slurping down the thickest hot chocolates of all time and just hanging out. She left the following day and I went back to exploring solo.

Brasov has all of the walled-in medeival town sites anyone could ask for (and even more in the surrounding areas). From guard towers, churches, cathedrals, fountains and squares, historic buildings and even the most narrow street in Europe - all surrounded with quaint cafes and shops and mom-n-pop markets and a friendly old-town feel that can't be beat - Brasov delivers the goods and may even live up to its umbrella-proclaimed title of 'Probably the Best City in the World'.