ROMANIA IS UNDERRATED! 🇷🇴 Exploring BRAȘOV and DRACULA's Castle

[Music] oh my God [Music] good afternoon and welcome to very hot very beautiful rashov Romania we got all settled in no big deal last night and we are ready to go it's of course late in the day as per usual and we are heading to get some lunch we're gonna make a few little sightseeing stops along the way but first how cute is this neighborhood that we're staying in it's like a 15 minute walk from Old Town just kind of outside of things they call it the village or something like that and it is very village-like just watching everybody out the window over my coffee this morning first of all I don't know if you can hear it you can hear chickens second you can just watch the people walk by this morning a sweet old man and suspenders carrying two big things of milk was just like walking down the street and then he leaves one outside of a door of somebody knocks on it she comes out grabs her milk and they're just like hollering back and forth in Romanian it's just very like community and village-like and it's it's Charming it's charming and we've only been here I don't know 12 hours anyway let's go get some lunch make a few stops and get this day going come on [Music] yeah the old town of brassov dates back to the early 1200s of the 13th Century A.D y'all and this town is incredibly beautiful the first thing you notice as you drive in is this huge hollywood-like sign that says Bradshaw up on the Mountaintop that overlooks the old town it's so colorful and so beautiful also rashov is one of the most famous and popular towns in all of Transylvania and the population I believe in 2022 is somewhere around 275 000 residents here and y'all I am just so excited to go explore this town I'm excited for summer in Europe we've been in Europe and it's been summer but my little weenie butt was having a hard time with some of those chilly temps and I have put my sunscreen on and my sundress on I'm ready to be hot we'll see how long that feeling lasts [Music] so pretty I mean we've been walking three minutes and I'm just like this is delightful it's so charming and Romania really has a very specific architecture type as soon as you're driving around you're like that looks Romanian you know whereas sometimes other European maybe like Western European stuff they have their own but maybe between France or Italy they might look similar but Romania has its own style for sure foreign [Music] [Music] 's gate which is one of the oldest medieval Gates here in Bradshaw I believe this was built in the 1500s by the Saxons and the Saxons actually ruled for ashov from the 13th century all the way until the 17th century and Romanians actually were not allowed to own property inside the old town of Bradshaw during the Saxon Rule and they had to enter the town through this gate this was literally the only gate that the Romanian people could enter Bradshaw through and unfortunately they had to pay a toll and a fee to actually get into the old town which I find crazy because like we are in Romania but those were the times of the Saxon Rule and also fun fact today over 90 percent of the population here in brassov is Romanian so how's that for a bit of a turnaround [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] as you're walking down the main road towards Old Town you might see up above on the wall a iron arrow pointing in the direction of an Alleyway and it says Stratus Fiore that is the name of this teeny tiny street that we are currently on this is the third most Narrow Street in all of Europe and they most narrow in all of Eastern Europe and certainly in Romania as well it was originally built for firefighters to be able to cut through the buildings to put out fires quickly and efficiently but today it's a bit of an art installation in 2018 the city let resident artists local artists kind of decorated how they saw fit so there's lots of little colors and interesting shapes all around kind of emphasizing the windows it's also become quite the graffiti spot lots of people like to come write their name or their Instagram handle whatever they feel like a little Doodle I think anyway way it is quite narrow but bigger than like my elbows I believe it's 44 inches wide 80 meters long it has a great Breeze nice cross breeze so if you're really hot like we are there's shade and there's Breeze [Music] foreign [Music] into the main Square here in Old Town the council Square y'all and it is beautiful it's painfully adorable it just has that classic like European pancharellas and everything is so colorful and so sunny and Eastern Europeans love their flowers I feel like maybe because it's usually very cold anyway yeah everything is just very alive I love it I love moments that actually feel like a vacation I know it looks like Jordan ice life is Perpetual vacation but that's really not the case at all but just sitting here we're in the Square about to have a delightful lunch under the shade it just feels quintessential European summer we just put in our order so we'll show you what we got in just a second service was so sweet so nice and can I tell you nowhere that I have traveled and we've been to several countries now do they assume I'm local more than in Romania which leads me to believe that not very many tourists learn how to say like hello and thank you because that's all that Jordan I know and every time we say it they start speaking to us in uranium they handed me a Romanian menu and then they're like oh English and I'm like yes please yes please I faked it really good for about two words but anyway it's kind of nice kind of flattering this is oh where are we oh my gosh I'm just so excited I forgot to tell you where we are we are at a restaurant called ograda normally you know don't have your meals right in the city center we know that we know that but this one had excellent reviews and so far so good sometimes it's worth it we'll see if the food's worth it our waitress recommended they're eliminated it's an elderflower lemonade and I had my eye on it anyway so I was like yeah definitely let's do that I didn't know it was like a slushie which is so exciting because it's so hot I'm tough about the heat but it is it is quite hot this is so yeah it is like I'm on location I got slushies I got sunglasses [Music] you want some yeah oh first course has arrived and it is looking beautiful colorful we got two starter dishes we got this eggplant dip salad situation that's got like a real creamy eggplant dip with like local cheese and tomatoes and scallions it looks amazing it smells amazing and it's served with Transylvanian potato bread which is very exciting I actually really love potato brand it's not something I get a whole lot and then we have what was called a vegetarian tart chock full of like cabbage Tomatoes maybe Peppers it has a little side salad as well and some maybe Tzatziki or some kind of yogurt dressing let's dig in it's got a nice saltiness from the cheese the scallions make it so bright that's delicious very nice on a hot day okay I got the vegetarian tart with homemade yogurt there's some kind of crust on the bottom like a pastry crust and it's delicious the cabbage is really good it's a warm dish not cold and it just has its Savory cabbage and onion and cheese flavor to it and the sauce is really good too it is like a Tzatziki it has cucumbers in it and it's yogurt and it's delicious the brightness of it really balances out Savory of the Cabbage really good and here is the bowls with the sour cream but just to be careful because the pot is really hot okay thank you main courses have arrived we have a bean soup and we have a dish called b-u-l-z with cheese from the town of bran which we will be stopping by I think tomorrow right anyway main dishes and I'm gonna give a little disclaimer that I only give like once in a blue moon on this channel we have ordered a dish with meat in it yes we consider ourselves vegetarians sometimes we have meat because it's very hard to travel and not eat it mind your business okay let's eat y'all the other reason we eat meat sometimes when we travel is we want to try the local Cuisine wherever we are and Romania food happens to be very meat heavy so we're gonna eat a little bit of meat in our Cuisine here that's good that's very good yeah it reminds me of Texas like like a pulled pork sandwich or something I just got one little bite of it and the flavor is just like exploding I'm out right now it's so good and the beans it is delicious that's taking me back to my roots a little bit all right let's dig into this booze bulz it is a baked polenta and this uh restaurant had it either filled with cheese or filled with ham and one meat dish was quite enough so we got the cheese one and it is literally like gushing with cheese and then served with a sour cream is decadent it really is I couldn't do that just as my main meal alone Dairy times 100 is what it feels like because you top your cheese with sour cream but you know what I would you know what I would do if you had like a group of four I would order this on the side that way you could split it and just have a little bit because it's quite rich but very tasty very tasty let's go explore a little bit of Old Town what do you say yes [Music] we are now heading to the black church and this is the largest Gothic cathedral in all of Eastern Europe and this thing just imposes over the main Town Square here in Bradshaw and it is beautiful it got its name the black church because of the fire that happened in the 1600s and all the smoke from the fire basically covered the walls of the church in black is no longer black anymore so if you're confused about the name that's how it got its name thank you [Music] thank you okay the black church is a beautiful very quick visit it reminds me very much of the Marines cathedral in France gorgeous again it's always my secret weapon to come into the side of church and just cool down kind of take everything down a bit tickets you can purchase in the gift shop which is like right across the street very easy to find I think they're around three USD but something that is kind of unique and interesting about this place is they have high school students at the front as tour guides for free and they do tours I think in several different languages including German Romanian English and maybe one other and I just think it's really unique and interesting way to sort of get to know locals have the students practice like public speaking and their language skills and also get to learn a little something so that's neat on to the rest of our day I guess speaking of black stuff the clouds above us are looking awfully black there is a big race we're gonna duck into the coffee shop right across from the cathedral to get out of this and hopefully wait it out for about an hour we were turned away the coffee shop is closed right now so they're letting us through these restroom which is a good thing so if you're in the church you can go there and actually use the restroom but we're gonna go down the street to another coffee shop it's just windy right now we're at a construction site and it's so dusty our faces you better watch out you turn into Mary Poppins oh now it's raining you better come under here [Music] [Music] we just got an extreme weather alert to take shelter basically for 45 minutes from 4 30 pm to 5 15 PM which we did we were at a coffee shop here we're at book coffee shop and like the service upgrade is awesome they have a bunch of cold espresso based drinks hot drinks cocktails wine champagne everything all looks really good uh yeah the store is supposed to bring like heavy rain Hill strong winds and we're just going to take a shelter here and wait it out and then hopefully you'll do some more of the stuff that we had in our itinerary today this place is great they're very proud of their product I got a whole beautiful explanation of my drink which is in a cold brew tonic I'm normally a sweet coffee kind of a girl I like to put sugar in it this doesn't need it it's so nice and refreshing and a really great way to pass time while the storm blows over [Applause] [Music] we're doing an impromptu honey and different food tasting they sell all kinds of stuff peanut butter is honey that they make here in Romania and he said you want to try them and I said yeah I do [Music] that was the honey it's very delicious very delicious [Music] yo the Romanian Hospitality has just been so great everybody here is so friendly so hospitable so welcoming like this is just an example it's one small example of the mini that we've had here in Romania so far with the brief taste test of the products they gave us this cold brew for free as well just to try it because it was like going on with the flavor of the beans from Ethiopia and how fruity and flavorful and it's all wonderful this this is the foods delicious coffee's delicious the atmosphere here in the Romanian Hospitality thank you foreign [Music] alcohol and he's like I'll bring you some more water you need water and I was like yeah no kidding I'm on like a Hospitality hi I'm gonna call it they were so sweet if Mike ever sees this I think he must have been the owner because he was just like giving us tastings and telling us all about everything and then he was like oh you're going on a road trip have you made your plans already let me tell you and he was giving us suggestions oh my gosh just absolutely so sweet we go in for coffee and next thing you know we're having a food tasting and being sold on all kinds of delicious food Goods which I don't mind at all because you know you gotta eat and then it's alcohol and then it's a puppy dog parade anyway highly recommend I think we're gonna take one little stroll we kind of missed out on getting to take the cable car today because basically it closed during the rainstorm we had to wait out the rain for so long we might try to do that tomorrow but for now we'll just take a stroll to kind of walk off our coffee our alcohol and our food and then that'll be the end of today but let's go [Music] scooters I've never met a hopscotch that I didn't hop scotch you know what I'm saying she cracks me outside sometimes y'all y'all this park is beautiful like all the different types of trees and the flowers and the details ah the parks in Romania they're incredible if I just always love a good Hopscotch you know it's fun [Music] chickens have so much to say this morning good morning again it's our last full day in beautiful Bra Shop and The Morning has just been just gorgeous and peaceful that Sunrise oh my gosh we have rooftop access at this Airbnb and we've been up here every day practically just enjoying the atmosphere this neighborhood which is just so close to Old Town is such a Vibe if you'll allow me to call it that there's chickens there's people going about their day up on the hill there's always somebody working in their Garden it is so idyllic and beautiful and peaceful even later in the morning like right now it's I don't even know probably almost 10 o'clock at this point still just the only thing you can hear is chickens and birds and maybe a little bit of human activity in the distance anyway we need to get moving we have one main activity today and that is also known as Brand Castle I think it's a good hour drive away from bra shop so we gotta get in the car and get going for one last touristy item here in Russia [Music] oh all right we just got a parking spot a little bit confusing but like there's parking right in front of the castle here and it was five lay per hour so only about one USD per hour we got two hours let's go to get to the entrance of the castle you gotta walk through basically this huge outdoor market and their event is selling all sorts of stuff you can get cheese and meats you can get hats you can get souvenirs they are definitely capitalizing on the draculating as Jordan mentioned we went to a little bit of a souvenir Gauntlet but that's all right the food actually did smell very good taking off this was not busy at all two adults 45 each 90 total I think that's like seven USD each so not bad at all oh Jordan is telling me it's nine nine USD each per ticket and it's a beautiful property so far we need to kind of make our way up to the castle and start exploring oh yeah [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] you can get a very nice glass Breeze way up in the castle I can just imagine Queen Marie kind of walking around her bedroom and Auntie chamber right there and you can hear the birds and it creates such a nice gust it's not even that cot in here but I'm just enjoying the wind it's nice it's a beautiful day this is awesome the whole first part of the tour were kind of just big open area rooms and I was like this is honestly kind of simple and just Pleasant it doesn't seem creepy at all like the Dracula stories portrayed but this is pretty cool getting to go inside the tiny little walls and staircase a big castle that was fun I felt like you're sneaking somewhere [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I've got the best seat in the house we came through and opened up to these gorgeous views and beautiful fresh air and we thought we'd take a moment to talk to you about Bran Castle also known as Dracula's castle and you may or may not know that Dracula wasn't actually a real person Bram Stoker who was an Irish author wrote the book Dracula went on to become the most famous horror story in the entire world but there's a lot of misinformation confusion a mix of folklore a mix of reality all swirled together to create that story he the author actually never visited Romania or this castle at all but he did a bunch of research in London through different museums and Records to create the story and he described Castle up on a rock in Transylvania and so a lot of people assumed maybe this is the one that he was talking about perhaps there was another one that he was actually talking about and then the character of Dracula was Loosely based on a real person Vlad the Impaler I'm glad actually never lived here I believe he lived in a different Castle but he had the nickname of Dracula which was kind of a mix of two Armenian words for Dragon and devil the name devil was kind of given to people who were either like very cunning or very cool and he was known to be exceedingly cruel mix that with some Romanian folklore about the Living Dead and all this kind of stuff and you get a great story of you know great story for the ages but not reality or anything like that I'll tell you what though this Castle has capitalized on that for tours and purposes and they claim it as Dracula's castle so we'll just go with that [Music] thank you let's do that Jordan said she's the bats I'm like those are those are birds he's really funny trying to make a little Dracula joke [Music] another scary movie [Music] foreign [Music] ER and they smell absolutely delightful definitely don't miss out on a nice stroll through the park that's right on the property of the castle it's very peaceful very beautiful just a few places to get snacks and drinks and things gorgeous kind of wanted to give final thoughts on Bran Castle Jordan and I both said it was significantly smaller than we thought that it was going to be but it was still very pretty after pelish Castle Bran Castle seems plain but they were built in completely different times I mean literally centuries apart so it's not really fair to compare and the whole Dracula stuff neither of us like super are into it so we're just like well yeah you know kind of interesting I personally find the history of its most recent residents way more interesting Queen Marie and her daughter princess Ileana were seemed to be amazing women I mean I'm no like monarchist but they did some really cool stuff in their Time Queen Marie was pivotal in convincing her husband Ferdinand to like join in on World War one with the Allied Forces and all this kind of stuff and then she was pivotal and taking care of injured soldiers and her daughter would go on to do very similar stuff her daughter princess Ileana was the first woman in Romania to basically have an open sea like captain's license if you will she was a pilot she could drive boats she went on to be a wartime nurse as well like really amazing both of them were great artists and interestingly Queen Marie after the death of one of her daughters became a Orthodox nun I guess out of grief and wanting to do something different with her life she became a nun and then went on to be Mother Superior of a Convent in Philadelphia and the USA interesting I found their history fascinating I always love a good you know strong female lead if you will today that will wrap up our time I hope you enjoyed we are on to new destinations tomorrow so we'll say see you in the next one

Channel: Keep Going Places

Views: 87,484

Keywords: romania, dracula, brasov, brașov, bram stoker's dracula, vlad the impaler, vlad tepes, transylvania, travel vlog, eastern europe, dracula castle, bran castle, brasov romania, braşov, vlad dracula, romanian food, transylvania romania, romania castle, romania travel, europe travel, couple travel, full time travel, road trip vlog, trip vlog, tourist vlog, bran romania, transylvania castle, romania tour, romania vlog, europe vlog, brasov walking tour, brasov travel, brasov vlog

Id: WH6H36GGWSM

Length: 27min 32sec (1652 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 02 2022