Transylvania

This is it Dracula's Castle!  Count Dracula is a fictional character created in the 1897 Gothic Horror Novel written by Irish author Bram Stoker.  He used this Castle in his novel as the setting for his novel and even has a picture of this castle in his novel.  This castle sets on the boarder of Transylvania and Wallachia, thus making Transylvania and the Bran Castles famous as the home of the legend of Dracula and Vampires.  Our guide told us that Romanians have never believed in Vampires only Zombies and that is where the tradition of having garlic over your door came from.
This castle is so famous it has 3000 people a day go through it!  It is situated on a mountain sitting above a cute little village named Bran, which of course had lots of tourist stuff and hotels. It is my favorite castle we have seen so far.
Now for the real story behind the castle and the connection with the real historical guy nicknamed Dracula  (son of the devil).  The Bran Castle is a national monument and landmark in Romania.  It was originally built in 1212 as a fortress and did not have a door, the soldiers used ropes to get into the fortress over the wall surrounding the castle.  In 1242 it was destroyed and then rebuilt in 1442.  Now the castle was used in defense against any one trying to over take Transylvania.  The Bran Castle played a role a militarily strategic role up to the mid-18th Century.
In 1920 the castle became a royal residence for the kingdom of Romania.  It became the favorite home and retreat for Queen Maire.  It continued to be owned by the royal family until the communist regime kicked the royal family out of Romania in 1948.  But in 2005 the Romanian government past a law that any possessions taken by the communist regime would be restored back to the original owners, so the castle is back in the royal family again and is now open to the public for tours.

Here is the front door to Dracula's Castle, it was super scary.

I loved this room, we came up through the secret passage way you can see in the book shelf.  Queen Marie used this secret passage to leave the room whenever her husband came up the normal stairs.  Apparently the King never knew about the secret passage way.  The castle was originally built in all stones, so the passage way was in all stones, it was narrow and dark and creep,  We loved it.  This room was the main room that the royal family would spend most of their time.  They had 6 children.  The view was amazing from this floor.  When the royal family took over the Castle the Queen of course didn't go for the rugged stone look, so she had the Castle up dated, it really was the first Castle I have ever seen in Europe that was the way you would picture a Castle.  It was very interesting and the history lesson we received from our excellent guide was fun and we learned a lot about Romania and the Castle.

This is called the Black Room because the furniture is very dark and notice the desk is at the window to give the Queen a great view of the beautiful forest of Transylvania.

Even though this is a King's bed it was not King size.

During 1456 to 1460 Count Dracula (Vlad de Impaler) is said to have killed from 40,000 to 50,000 European civilians he concerned to be "useless to humanity" by using a a sharp pole through their body.  (now you know why he got the nickname 'Son of the Devil') Well, legend has it that Count  Dracula himself was imprisoned in the Bran Castle and that his head was chopped off and his body was never found.  Wow, now that is a creepy story right?  So, it is said that the author Bram Stoker got his idea for his novel from the historical Count Dracula.
So, I hope you have enjoyed your little history class on Romania Folk lore and history all mixed together. 
We really enjoy the opportunity we have to be able to travel and see Europe.  Our mission gives us the permission to travel, all other missionaries are not able to travel outside of their missions, but as Church Education Missionaries we have a different kind of mission than all regular missionary.  We are responsible for the young people in our whole mission and their Church Education.  We travel to be trained or get the young people to special conferences and to the Temple in Germany, where we are going next week.  We had a great conference this week with Elder and Sister Rasband and Elder and Sister Richards, I will write about it tomorrow.  We are still apartment hunting for a place with Internet and closer to Centar of Zagreb, wish us luck.
I give you all my love.  The Church is true and Jesus Christ Lives and I am thankful to be a special witness of these two eternal truths! 
from carrie with love