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First Solo Trip: Romania!

Posted by E. L. Jayne on

One thing I noticed about myself in Spain is that I’m constantly challenging and pushing myself outside of my comfort zone. In fact, sometimes it’s hard to notice progress unless I consciously reflect on where I am. I consider myself quite an independent person but also very social as well. I love exploring new places in my city alone, but a solo vacation had always given me some hesitation. When I realized this is when it hit me that I had to face this “mini fear” and book my first solo trip! Ready or not Romania I was coming!!

I chose Romania because it was one of the closest countries I hadn’t yet visited, I knew very little about the country, and one of my close friends at my college had nothing but great things to say about the people and food. At the time my friend, Daria, was telling me about her country, I remember only halfway paying attention because I never thought I would make it that far east in the world. After a bit more research of my own, especially finding out Dracula’s castle resides in Romania, I booked my flight!

When preparing for a trip you have to choose between a few train of thoughts. First, you can either choose to research and plan as much as you can, or just plan the bare minimum. You can either choose luxury and convenience like a typical tourist, or to live like the locals as more of a “backpacking style” trip. Although there’s something freeing about arriving to a foreign country without plans, research has proven that people experience much of the joy in the planning phase of their trip. Hence, I chose to research as much as I could and set myself up for an unforgettable trip.

While searching for things to do in Romania, it was really hard for me not to purchase an all inclusive tour with all the sites I wanted to see with tickets, transport & everything figured out. This is how I traveled in the past working for tour companies as a videographer, which definitely has some advantages. Tour companies have everything figured out such as road closures, random strikes in the country, & just certain things you can’t be prepared for in which they already have back-up plans. My basic plan-of-attack for the trip went as follows: Working from the “why reinvent the wheel” mindset, I copied the itinerary from the tour company I liked the most and made my own for a quarter of the price!

Here’s the basic outline of my trip:

Fortunately, I was able to see everything (& more) I planned to see on my trip along with many unexpected things. For starters, the first morning I woke up for breakfast in my hostel I ended up meeting someone who went to the same high school as me. I was a bit nervous if I’d able to make any friends since I’d be traveling so much with little time but this set me off on a great start to the day. Next, I was off to my first free tour where I met a bunch more friends and even discovered some job ideas. After our tour ended a group of us went to lunch together to try some typical Romanian food. One of my friends even stayed with me until we did the Communism Tour of Bucharest. What I learned on this tour really blew my mind. Walking around central Bucharest, I wondered why everything looked so sad, dreary and almost like a movie set- & then I pieced it together.

Quick history lesson: Nicolae Ceaușescu was the leader of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989; hence the second and last Communist leader of Romania. As communism ended only 30 years ago, there are still a lot of remnants in society. People just a few years older than me have personal stories about what it was like to grow up during a communist regime.

Many of the communist structures of the city are still left in tact because it was more expensive to tear them down than to just rebuild them. This includes the Palace of the Parliament, the second largest parliament building in the world, the heaviest building in the world with over 1 million square feet of marble, and an infamous maze of underground tunnels that leads to the airport an hour outside of the city. Here are some pictures of what I saw:

Communist style buildings in downtown Bucharest
Me in front of the Palace of Parliament May 2019

The morning of my third day meant it was time to head to Brasov, the biggest town near Dracula’s Castle about 3 hours north of Bucharest. Luckily, I met a nice, old German man on my tour who offered to drive me and 2 friends I made in my hostel to Brasov as well, which saved me 5 hours on the train and 50Leu! Since I had everything planned out I was also planning on stopping at Peles Castle on the way, in which everyone was happy to trust my recommendation and let me navigate. Contrary to my family’s belief, everyone thought I was a great navigator!

After arriving in Brasov, I did another tour to get acquainted with the city and meet other travelers. I definitely recommend utilizing these free tours because they’re in almost all cities and they help you get a lay of the land before you’re exploring a new city all alone and it’s a great way to make friends!

The following day I visited the Liberty Bear Sanctuary in Zarnesti, Romania. I was a bit apprehensive to visit a bear sanctuary because I didn’t want to see them treated as pets, but I was pleasantly surprised! Romania is home to over 55% of the brown bear population in the world, and up until recently there was no legislation in regards to keeping them as pets. Many brown bears were kept as tourist attractions outside of restaurants to get more business, kept as pets in small cages, abused in the circus life, etc. This sanctuary is like a heaven to 99 brown bears rescued from situations like these and I was super happy I could support the cause. We took a 30 minute walk around the premises, saw a few bears loving life, climbing trees and bathing in the pools, and I even got to see two wolves who were rescued after their mother was killed. If you’re ever in Romania I definitely recommend visiting this sanctuary: http://bearsanctuary.com/libearty-bear-sanctuary

To continue an amazing day, next was DRACULA’S CASTLE: the reason for my trip to Romania! It was a beautiful, sunny day so walking up to the dark castle on top of a hill wasn’t as ominous as I had anticipated. However, I was almost able to feel the terrors and tragedies that lurked through these same halls on my tour.

Here’s what I learned about Dracula’s Castle (AKA Bran Castle):

  • Dracula rose to fame because an Irish writer, Bram Stoker, wrote a Gothic horror novel in 1897 about a “vampire” man condemned to live for eternity feasting on the blood of mortals. Ironically, Bram Stoker never actually visited Dracula’s Castle, but I did!
  • Bran Castle is situated on a cliff at 2,500ft of elevation surrounded by valleys and hills in the Transylvanian Alps and was completed in 1388.
  • Queen Marie, the last queen consort of Romania, was quite fond of Bran Castle as a residence, and was gifted the castle in 1920 by the town of Brasov, however in 1948, it was taken by the communists then eventually made into the museum it is today.
  • Count Dracula, also known as “Vlad the Impaler,” Vlad Tepes, and Vlad III Dracula, never actually ruled the castle but is said to have been in prison there for 2 months. He is famous for his cruel forms of punishing his enemies and disorderly civilians in the 15th century.
  • Dracula (meaning “son of Dracul”) was derived from the Latin draco (“dragon”) after his father’s induction into the defense of Christian Europe against the Ottoman Empire.
  • He was nicknamed “Vlad the Impaler” because he would take a long, wooden stick and insert it up a person’s anus through to their mouth or upper neck and leave them to die… quite a horrifying image I know. He is said to have killed over 1000s over people this way.
  • Dracula is rumored to still be alive today because no one knows how he died after he lost his power to the throne the 4th time. He is said to be in the form of a bat and is rumored to be seen wandering through Bran Castle looking for his head.
  • My favorite quote from the literature in the castle:

“Vampires are said to have been a necessary invention because they impersonate the dark side of human nature. They are the exact opposite of what people should be like, a necessary landmark to differentiate between right and wrong.”

Bran Castle literature

I spent the rest of my trip relaxing, reading, and writing. I also hiked the mountains behind Brasov and enjoyed some typical Romanian pastries and their famous bean soup in a bread bowl. Since I had just graduated college, this was an important time to reflect and really think about what kind of job I wanted. I met so many inspiring people on this trip who had quit their jobs to travel and are happier than ever before. I also met a guy who works for the largest NPO and has taken a pay decrease every time he’s changed jobs, but has always been doing something he’s felt is more important for the world. Life is too short to not do what you love!

Fortunately, I encountered some pretty good luck on my trip. I made a few great friends and even have a place to stay in Lima, Peru! I thought I would have too much time alone but I actually barely had any alone time. On the contrary, my way home was a different story. My flight was delayed 6 hours and since there are no buses that leave the airport after 11pm I had to sleep in the airport. I booked a BlaBla car at 2am, left at 7:30 the next morning and made it to Granada 10 minutes before my class started, so I had just enough time to Uber straight there with only 2% battery left on my phone!

Overall, I learned a lot about myself and I’ll never forget Romania as the first solo trip I ever took! Noroc!

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