Ryan Hellyer

Carpathian mountains

Here are some photos I took of the Carpathian mountains in Transylvania. The area is known for it’s high population of brown bears, chamois, lynxes, werewolves and vampires.

Bran’s castle is the location the Transylvanian locals pimp as the castle of Count Dracula. The actual castle that many believe to be the castle of Dracula is Poenari, the ruins of the castle of Vlad the Impaler who was the inspiration for the Count Dracula story. However Poenari is not actually in Transylvania at all, it’s over the Carpathian mountains via what is apparently a very rough road, so I never visited it. Instead of visited the locals like to market as the Dracula castle and which does look like something that Dracula would have lived in.

Transylvanian farms, a blast from the past!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am no expert on farming practices. However, I do know shear craziness when I see it, and cruising past on a train and seeing people cutting grass with skythes and tilling the land by hand definitely fits the bill for a new level of craziness. I even saw some people cruising along with a tractor, but instead of spreading what I assume was seed from the back of the tractor via an automated system, they had five people hanging off the back spreading it by hand!? I felt like I was viewing some sort of strange Amish like group, but in reality these were just regular old Romanian farmers looking to make a buck.

Brașov

Brașov is a beautiful little town in Transylvania, Romania. I used the town as a base for exploring the surrounding region and as somewhere to chill out whilst on holiday. There are lots of great restaurants and bars to go to and they’re all insanely cheap. I highly recommend checking out the place if you are ever in Romania. It is an excellent stopping point enroute to the surrounding castles or if you are heading north from Bucharest.

Me standing near the Brașov sign.

View from inside the “B” of the View of the Brașov sign on Tâmpa

View overlooking Brașov from the sign on Tâmpa

Random grave behind the Brașov sign on Tâmpa

The Brașov sign up close and personal

Râșnov Citadel

Râșnov Citadel is a historic fortress overlooking the Râșnov township in Transylvania, Romania. The locals proudly declared that Hollywood copied their innovative sign idea, but judging by the smirk on their faces I suspect it was somewhat the other way around 😛