Chasing Count Dracula!!! - 3

Rising straight above a rocky headland, the locality of the small Bran town is surrounded by thick undulating forests. Though Bran's connections to either the real Vlad Dracul or the fictional Count Dracula is thin, but it's amazing to follow how a century old guesswork made by a few have strongly tied the Dracula legend with this castle. However, the castle with or without Dracula surely stands right on the borders between Transylvania and Wallachia principalities - drawing endless curious tourists and horror aficionados.
Getting to Bran while locating the castle was not a problem, but to find a suitable cheap accommodation was. Nearly all hotels within the 3 kilometre radius were closed were closed as the school holidays season ended by early October. The temperature had dropped well below 8 degrees. Restaurants only near the castle were opened. Their opening hours too were short. Nevertheless, after three hours of wearisome strolling, this traveller finally managed to get a room at a nameless hotel.
It was the first time I began to feel the bites of costs travelling in Europe. Contrary to cheap rabbit hole rooms found in Asian hotels, the rooms here either came with a kitchenette or a common kitchen for private cooking. For convenient travelling the clients either hired a car, cycle or a bike. Moreover, entry fees to museums and monument sites seems to shoot-up without any prior notice, costs of picking up/dropping off cars in different points are huge; cigarette costs and arm and a leg.
Not many quick eateries are found beside the roads. Easy to get, cheap and expedient travelling options like tuk-tuk or auto rickshaws like in Asia is missing�etc�Etc�But as they say 'where there is a will, there is a way' and at the town of Bran my will was unremittingly winning against all odds.
Also this writer wasn't there to have a taste of rare Romanian luxury, but to keep an appointment with the Count booked more than couple of decades ago. So when I had the first glimpse of the Bran castle, I couldn't help recalling how the Count greeted Jonathan Harker in the novel - enter freely and of your own free will! I am Dracula, and I bid you welcome Mr. Harker to my house. Come in, the night air is chill, and you must need to eat and rest. The words seemed strikingly similar to my current reality in Bran. I arrived here out of my own free will. The early evening temperature was freezing. I was famished after a three hour drifting in search of a room and frantically needed some sleep.
The night seemed short perhaps for the good sleep. After gobbling down couple of instant noodles, this writer headed for his long desired appointment. The castle is now a museum open to tourists, displaying art and furniture collected by Queen Marie. As I joined the long queue facing the ticket counter, I spotted a sprawling shopping mall located on my left, consisting no less than some 50 souvenir shops and stalls - committed to promote and capitalise on a fictitious horror myth.
 It was a sprawling vampire industry selling over 300 various types of Dracula merchandise. Whatever, climbing up the castle's conical towers, it was soon getting clearer how the setting matched so close with the description in the novel. Inside one can explore the rooms individually or by a guided tour. Even more exciting is that, one would learn more about Queen Maria and the vanished Romanian royalty than Dracula.
Built and then re-built, this royal residence and favourite retreat of Queen Marie of Romania was also used as a hospital during the Second World War until finally refurbished as a museum just seven years ago before being opened to the public. Several displays are devoted to the late queen and her belongings are amorously displayed alongside video footage. One of the finest rooms is her husband King Ferdinand's former bedroom, with decorated furniture and ceramic fireplaces. Most of the squeaky-floors are furnished with bearskin and antique pieces. Some of the narrow staircases are really spooky.
 This more of a British Tudor like castle offers a series of overwhelming views of the neighbouring rustic valleys until one reaches the couple of rooms dedicated to the Dracula legend on the top floor. Though the castle can easily be a tourist site by its own credibility without Count Dracula but the crowds, as expected, had jammed the entrance to those rooms.
 The cover of the first edition, Stoker's portrait, to photos of Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee and all other film memorabilia displayed in the walls only echoed the unimaginable strength of a cult born out of some facts otherwise pure imagination.
 If the novel had fascinated millions, then the later movies made out of it had also established and defined horror movie making and iconic Hollywood figures. Spanning for some 15 years and through a series of eight hammer horror movies, the actor Christopher Lee would have been 'just another actor' had he not played Dracula.  Given the character's global popularity, it has been reported that as of 2015, an estimated 219 films have featured Dracula in their major roles - making it second only to Sherlock Holmes (223 films). Not only, has Dracula had a significant impact on the image of the vampire in popular culture, folklore, and legend but believe it for sure, it has confidently placed Romania in the global tourism industry too.
The fact is - you won't find a single travel book on Romania without elaborate details on Dracula sites on them. Here in Romania he lives in the minds and bodies of the people. Hence, he is ubiquitous.
 The scene a vampire biting a beautiful woman's neck, perhaps, suits no other country other than Romania. For this country is no short of beautiful women. Groomed at par with western world standards and with less arrogant attitude, they are seen in attractive shapes and complexions. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but be it dark or blonde hair, brown or blue eyes following a slim and slender physique - Count Dracula couldn't have found a better place to hunt for his birds of prey.
However, chasing the Count was my long cherished dream, and I have done it without Bram Stoker.

The writer is Assistant Editor,
The Daily Observer