Dracula Simulacra*

We drove from Sucevita south and west into Transylvania, in the direction of Bistreti, to a hill overlooking the Tihuta Pass. It was still raining, low clouds obscuring the scenery, so we stopped at the Hotel Castel Dracula. We'll see the scenery tomorrow, hopefully.

Although it is not nearly as cheesy as one might expect, the Hotel Castel Dracula is an important site on the world map of simulacra.* The hotel is a 1980s communist-era theme-hotel, located precisely on the spot where Dracula author Bram Stoker said the Dracula castle was.  (Of course, Dracula is an entirely fictional character in an entirely fictional story). (More on this later: Vlad the Impaler was a real historical character, far more horrible than anything Stoker or his numerous successors could imagine). (Although Romanians sometimes claim he has been maligned; he only impaled bad people.) The building itself is hardly what one might expect--just a 1980s hotel/motel--and the Dracula theme is, if anything, understated. We had a large Romanian dinner, enough for two dinners, really, asked about staying overnight in the parking lot, they said sure, and then even gave us the password for the powerful wifi on-site. Life is good. But no water.

Their eagerness in inviting us to stay over has got me wondering. So I am watching The Fearless Vampire Killers again just to make sure I haven't missed anything we might need during the night...garlic strands: check (well, garlic powder); crucifixes: check (improvised); spike and mallet: check (in the tool kit). Extras available in the souvenir stands.

*Look it up

The Hotel Castel Dracula

Courtyard

Wall decor in reception area

Restaurant place mat; turns out the Dracula cocktail is mostly blue curacao

Romanian sour pork soup; made Campbell's vegetable soup taste exciting

My mixed pork and polenta dish; so hearty I'll get two meals out of it

Vicki's weenie schnitzel and frites

Bust of Stoker in the parking lot

Typical souvenir fare, conflating Dracula and Vlad; hey, it works!

PS The sun has gone down, and the hotel is now all lit up...

My Home's in Montana, I Wear a Bandana...

Actually, we're feeling pretty much at home here in Moldavia, northern Romania...

Logging trucks thundering by...

And by...

Fishin' cabins down by the creek...

Nice log homes...

Pretty nice

Log furniture and chain-saw sculpture

More fishin' cabins

Log home construction sites

Just like in the Bitterroot

Mills...at least that's the way we remember it, 1995-2008

But then Montana never had fortified monasteries (well,

maybe compounds of a different sort)

Nor Roma encampments

Painted Monasteries of Bucovina, Part II

More of the painted monasteries...

Detail of the Constantinople siege, Moldovita

Sucevita, the largest of the painted monasteries

Ladder to heaven, on the north wall

On the south wall, the Tree of Jesse; interestingly, Jesse (reclining, as always), 
is surrounded by twelve Greek philosophers

Plato was the only one I could definitely identify

From the north exterior wall, detail of the Eden mural; expulsion

A nun; interestingly (to me, anyway), the three monasteries we visited are all 
relatively thriving, nunneries, many of the women we saw young

Interior at Sucevita

Dome at Sucevita

"Peace, man"

The parking lot at Sucevita Monastery was ample, nice, outfitted for RVs (14 lei one night, 4 the next), electricity, but no potable water. We even saw other campers, from France and Germany, there. Anyhow, it rained all day Wednesday, so we stayed there, also enjoying the free wifi at the Iermia Motel Restaurant down the road. Nice people. Very inexpensive food and drink.

Thursday (today), despite the clouds and rain, we are heading south to Transylvania. In preparation, we watched one of my favorite 60s films, Roman Polanski's great The Fearless Vampire Killers. Very dark, dry humor. Vicki hated it. "I'm really a night bird." "Oy vey, have you got the wrong vampire!"

Painted Monasteries of Bucovina, Part I

Our main goal for Moldavia was to see a few of the painted monasteries of Bucovina. We drove to Gura Humorului to see the first of three, the (I swear I am not making this up) Humor Monastery.

We parked for the night, of course, at the Humor Monastery parking lot; here, 
the next morning, the meter maid is cheerfully counting her receipts, after having 
charged us 4 lei ($1.20) to spend the night; we cheerfully paid

The tower at Humor Monastery; these are all fortified 
monasteries; Romania has been  contested land for aeons; 
the monasteries we visited in Moldavia are all 16th-17th
century; fortified and garrisoned, the paintings both inside 
and outside the churches intended in part to educate and
embolden the troops

Humor Monastery; nothing funny here, really; beautiful,
though

Detail of one of the murals, which literally cover the building, 
inside and out

At the next painted monastery, Moldovita, a beautiful exterior mural depicting 
the 1453 siege of Constantinople; enlarge to see the Turkish cavalry, cannons, etc.

Porch fresco detail; a classical look, I thought, or maybe Byzantine

Another detail from Moldovita; somehow reminds me of Monty Python..

Interior dome at Moldovita

Monastery museum at Moldovita, towers, wall

Moldovita

Strange decor at Moldovita; Byzantine? Feather dancer?

Out of the Marmures and Into Moldavia

Having seen the high points in the Marmures, we drove on, east basically, into Moldavia, Romania's northeastern province.

Another colorful domicile

Romania entered the EU in 2006 or 2007, but has a very long way to go in 
coming up to EU environmental and other standards; sadly, most of the rivers 
look like this

The Wagon Wheel Restaurant/Hotel/Firetrap (in an unnamed town where we 
stopped for lunch)

Our route took us through a pass at the northern end of the Carpathian Alps, 
showing first snow of the season (the latitude here is about like Newfoundland)

New church at the pass (the people live in hovels, the 
children beg, but God and the priests are doing OK)

Road wash-outs and cave-ins are not uncommon, especially on the secondary 
road we were on

Another beautiful new church in a small town, now in Moldavia

Moldavian bus-stop shelter...we saw scores of these

And when your motor scooter dies, you can always count on Old Bess

Another unfinished building, this one, I think, to have been a ski lodge in the 
Carpathians

Getting the wood in for winter; this man proudly posed (jeez, I am glad I don't 
have to do that anymore!)

And in every yard, a decorated well