I've been to a few Halloween parties in my life - though not THAT many as where I grew up (Malaysia), Halloween wasn't a big deal - but the one I attended this year undoubtedly THE WINNER of the BEST LOCATION FOR A HALLOWEEN PARTY award.

This year, I got to celebrate Halloween at Bran Castle, Transylvania courtesy of G Adventures. In case you didn't know, Bran Castle is also commonly known as Dracula's Castle. Dracula a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler, who, as it turns out and funnily enough, is likely to have never set foot in the castle. In fact, Bram Stoker, author of 'Dracula', may not have even known about the castle.  Read more here. 

BUT STILL. HALLOWEEN PARTY AT DRACULA'S CASTLE.

 G Adventures currently has an exclusive agreement with Bran Castle to hold a Halloween party there on the 31st October. This means that the ONLY WAY you can celebrate Halloween at this famous national monument ON THE DAY ITSELF is via a G Adventures tour.

Of course, there are other parties organised at the castle taking place on other dates around Halloween . A quick Google search will reveal more information, but you know it's not going to be as cool as dancing with skeletons, spider webs. and fake blood on the spookiest night of the year!

The link above takes you to the 7-day trip starting and ending in Bucharest, Romania for Halloween 2019. There will also be a 3-day trip available to book soon, and this was the trip I went on.

 

HALLOWEEN IN TRANSYLVANIA VIA THE SPOOKMOBILE

In the 3-day 'Halloween in Transylvania' tour, we travel to Bucharest the day before, i.e. arriving on 30 October. So just in time for the party and perfect as a short break especially if you're coming from within Europe.

It was my fourth time in Bucharest and I was happy to be able to see my Romanian friends Cristina and Mihai once more. I last saw them when I visited Bucharest in May 2018 (read post: Bucharest - More Fun in the Sun!), so it was good to catch up again, albeit it was only for a brief moment in between our busy schedules.

 On Halloween morning, we met everyone outside the hotel where we were staying to start our journey to Brașov, which is a beautiful city on the way up to Bran. It's the 7th biggest city in Romania.

There were some 200 people who had travelled to Romania to attend the party and everyone was excited. 

This included our host/CEO (Chief Experience Officer) Stefano, who was from Italy but whose last name was the name of a French city. Stefano was very enthusiastic even though I imagined he must have done the trip before. I wondered how difficult it must be to stay enthusiastic all the time. He did a good job!

Our journey to Brașov took over 3 hours using a two private buses. G Adventures staff cleverly brought a bunch of Halloween decorations and had us all help set them up inside. I think everyone had fun stretching the wooly faux spiderwebs that spread through the entire bus. I admitted our bus did look super cool. I called it the Spookmobile. 

The other bus didn't have any such decorations, so we felt like our bus was the better one (it was).

BRASOV BRUSH-OFF

We stayed in Brașov over the next two nights - it was to be our base during the Halloween shenanigans. Most people opted to stay in Bran. closer to the castle, but I think Brasov was a fine option as it was such a pretty little town. It even has its own Hollywood-style sign in the hills.

After checking into our hotel which was right on the square, I went out for a walk with Agathe, a new friend I'd made in the bus. We had a nice lunch. Brașov had a lot of colourful buildings and seemed to have the kind of light that Lisbon has - a shiny, magical glow. I liked Brașov.

I told myself I'd use the spare time scheduled for the next day to wander around to take photos of the city. Now, we had to hurry back to the hotel to get ready for the Halloween party.

I had a bit of a problem. I didn't know what to wear for Halloween in Transylvania. 

I love fancy dress but I am no good at looking scary. I think I'm on the opposite side of the fancy dress spectrum - I like rainbows and glitter and sequins and neon face paint. Fairy lights instead of spider webs. I don't want my skin to look deadly pale - I want it to SPARKLE!

In between my hectic travel schedule during October, I only managed to piece together this ridiculous-looking, giant headband out of leftover tulle I saved from a tutu workshop at hoop camp last summer.

Cristina had given me a bag of Halloween make-up to use, including black and white face paint, glow-in-the dark nail polish, clip-on fangs, and fake blood. There was also a can of glitter hairspray, which was the only thing I used. I'm really not a fan of looking dead..

So I don't know what I went as. I used a lot of glitter on my face and wore a dress that matched my headpiece and it was good enough for me!

A TOUR OF BRAN CASTLE - HALLOWEEN EDITION

Fourth time in Romania, and I finally make it to the famous Bran Castle / Dracula's Castle. It looked COOL. Sorry about the grainy photo. Oh and those creepy things on the ground are just mannequins, not real people.

We got there via taxi from Brasov. The ride took about 45 minutes and we were there by about 7pm.. or was it 7.30pm? My giant headpiece kept bumping against the roof of the car during the journey and it felt as though I was too tall for the car, which is rare.

At the castle entrance, we met with some of the people who had opted in to a private tour of Bran Castle as an extra on the itinerary.

The 14th century castle was dressed for Halloween much better than I was.

The castle was decorated with all the usual things you'd expect at a Halloween party - pumpkins. candles, lots of fake spiders and their webs, bats etc.

We were guided through secret staircases and tunnels - there were so many rooms the whole thing felt like a maze. I like mazes!

What's funny is doing the tour with a group of monsters, ghouls, zombies, and Adam's Family characters (mostly Wednesday Adams actually). Most people arrived wearing very creative costumes - this made me feel rather underdressed but it was good entertainment just watching other people.

Admittedly, I didn't pay too much attention to the guide, who I am sure was sharing a lot of interesting information. It's hard to concentrate with all the scary-looking people lurking around..

LIKE THIS GUY:

He was definitely the scariest person that night. THOSE EYES. He was also big and tall. Like a monster looming.

I don't actually know what character he's supposed to be, if any. I'm bad at these things - apparently there were a lot of interesting movie or TV characters represented in the Halloween crowd that night but I hardly recognised any of them. I thought they were cool anyway.

HALLOWEEN IN DRACULA'S CASTLE - PARTY PICS!

Since it was a private party with only about 200 participants, it never felt too crowded - in fact the number of people felt just right.

The party took place on the castle grounds as well as at a teahouse at the bottom of the castle. So there was a lot of walking up and down, which was tiring but also kept me warm.

It turns out we were incredibly lucky with the weather, which was mild. I was told that last year's partygoers had to endure near freezing temperatures.

At some point there was a fire show on the field outside the castle, although it was mostly just one man practising fire-spitting. At least that's what I saw from behind a wall of other people's shoulders.

 

THE TEAHOUSE IS WHERE IT'S AT

Even though dancing under the stars surrounded by the walls of a centuries-old fortress was extremely cool, I ended up enjoying myself a lot more down at the teahouse!

The music was a lot more fun (remember I hate hip-hop) and that's where I found the kookiest, quirkiest people who danced crazy with me, including Stefano, our G Adventures host. He has a hilarious photo of us on his phone I need to get a copy of.

I danced so hard that I was dripping with sweat. The next day, my legs ached. I blame the Romanian folk music they played at the end of the night! It was too funny.

OH and special thanks to Chris from the G Adventures team for being such an awesome dance partner - I hope we cross paths again; perhaps on another dancefloor.

In between dancing, we went up to the castle to watch the costume competition/showcase. Stefano tried to enter me but really, me participating would've been rude to the other contestants who had put in so much effort! Anyhow it was a lively atmosphere and worth the climb back up.

They was an official photographer on-site taking photos of people - apparently you could keep a printed copy of your photo if it found its way back to you. Mine did not find its way to me.

A REVELATION ABOUT MY COSTUME

When I was using the bathroom, I exited the stall and there were two women washing their hands at the sink.

They looked at my tulle headpiece.. then one of them exclaimed..

"Are you a GIFT???"

Why.. yes. Yes I am!!

Isn't she a genius? I wish I'd thought of this earlier in the evening so I could act like I had it all planned.

IS IT WORTH CELEBRATING HALLOWEEN IN TRANSYLVANIA?

In short: Yes.

In not-so-short:

In terms of the venue, I can't think of a better place to celebrate Halloween. I mean it's Dracula's Castle (even if there's no real connection between the castle and Dracula, haha). 

How much more Halloweeny can you get than that? I definitely felt like I won at Halloween - next time I just need a better costume, perhaps with the help of a Halloween Costume Consultant. Is there such a person?

And don't forget - the only way you can join a Halloween party AT BRAN CASTLE on Halloween night itself is via G Adventures. 

The 7-day trip would include visits to other towns and places of interest in Romania, such as Sibiu and Sighisoara, and you'll get to experience more of the local culture.

The 3-day trip, which I was on, largely focuses on the Halloween party but there is some spare time to explore Bucharest, Brasov and/or Bran as well.

This post was created in collaboration with G Adventures, who sponsored my participation in this unique experience!

The post Celebrating Halloween in Transylvania’s Bran Castle appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

I’ve been to Bucharest three times.

The first two occasions were to visit my friend Cristina, who’s one of the best people I’ve ever met on my travels. We crossed paths during surf camp in Algarve and enjoyed a dramatic sunset together. I was attracted to the way she laughed – loudly and carelessly and with so much joy!

Since then we’ve reunited twice in her home city, Bucharest; both times when it was cold and snowing. Winter in Romania sounds dreadful but because Cristina was such a wonderful host, I loved it anyway. Plus she served me a colorful breakfast in bed and took me snowboarding.

In May this year I was blessed with the opportunity to visit again as part of the Experience Bucharest programme. I saw Bucharest in a new light (or rather, more light..), reconnected with old friends, and made some new ones. Bucharest is more fun in the sun!

Here’s what I did and what I loved:

THE VARIETY OF BUILDING SHAPES

Some buildings looked grand and decorated whilst others looked worn and unloved yet appealing. There were many beautiful historical structures that stood proud in the city.  Others looked so ugly but in an intriguing way – it was funny to imagine how they were permitted to exist in the first place.

There was just so much variety. Kinda like visiting a charity shop, where you have to sift through junk to find the good stuff but then sometimes stumble upon a rubbish item that “actually, this looks good in a weird way..”

COTROCENI ARCHITECTURAL TREASURE HUNT

A small group of us participated in what they called an architectural treasure hunt. We were split into three teams before being given a list of items to look for and questions which answers could be found by taking an observant walk around the quiet neighbourhood of Cotroceni. This required a lot of patience.

I’d never heard of Cotroceni prior to this and I wondered why Cristina withheld this little gem from me. So as to be polite, I wondered in my head.

Cotroceni is apparently where wealthy people have large houses and their streets are lined with leafy green trees. Cristina and I had a great time wandering around while Mihai, her boyfriend, did almost all of the treasure hunting – which involved spotting a boat-shaped house and that didn’t really look like a boat.

^Cristina with Mihai

Overall, I really enjoyed this activity, although I wish I remembered more names of the various architectural styles that were present. One of them was definitely a ‘Haunted House’ style.

More info about the tour – which is mostly self-guided – here!

BEAUTIFUL DECAY TOUR

^Top left: I am apparently staring at penis graffiti

This was a walking tour that took you to Bucharest’s historical and industrial landmarks, focusing on the abandoned and ‘decayed’.

The highlight for me (and everyone else, I think!) was a very large, multi-level building that used to be a palace. There seemed to be a lot of pre-loved palaces around the city.

This particular used-to-be palace looked like a dump from the outside. I mean it looked like any big old building. Entry was through a small door off the sidewalk that was guarded by an old man, leading into a dark corridor that was occupied by some suspicious smells.

The tour was described as ‘for the adventurous’ so I walked along making sure not to look at all fazed.
Luckily, the corridor was short.

It was BEAUTIFUL inside. Rich in textures and sounds and shades of grey and brown. There was also a lack of any more suspicious smells.

The floor was crunchy and wonderful. It was like walking on giant pieces of cereal except that it was shards of broken glass and other construction debris that would not taste good with milk.

The stairway going up (to the four or so levels we visited) had no handrails and I think there was even a hole in the ground at some point. This really made me feel like I was brave and adventurous.

I loved this tour a lot.

For more info: Beautiful Decay Tour

CISMIGIU GARDENS

One thing that surprised me about Bucharest this time around was how GREEN it was!

I always imagined that it was a pretty dull city in terms of the colour spectrum, considering its Communist past. Communism seems like a monochromatic situation, right? I also saw a lot of snow and concrete during my previous two visits under the blanket of winter, so I guess my perception was skewed.

Anyway. Cismigiu Park.. it’s a beautifully leafy park not so much unlike Regents Park in London, except it has a vending machine for fresh orange juice so it’s slightly better.

Here are some other green spaces I loved..

GRADINA EDEN

Bucharest seems to have a big Secret Garden theme going on at the moment, and Gradina Eden (Eden Garden) seems to be one of the best known.

And possibly biggest.

It’s slightly wild and untamed yet full of wooden chairs and tables set out in a very organised way. There is probably enough space to seat 1000 people but that’s just my estimate and I am not very good at estimating. But there were A LOT of tables and chairs. Amongst a jungle of greenery.

It has a super relaxed atmosphere. I wondered why there weren’t any beds or bed-shaped things installed because it seemed to be the perfect place to take a nap.

Gradina Eden can be accessed by walking towards the behind of the centrally located and neoclassical Stirbei Palace, which looks like a another member of the city’s Abandoned Palaces Club. Apparently cool parties are held in the basement sometimes.

The people in Bucharest must be constantly faced with the dilemma of ‘which old palace should I have a party in tonight?’.

MODELiER

Sometimes old buildings are turned into cool burger joints. MODELiER is such an example.

I had such a fun time hanging out with Cristina and other friends who I had met with her on my previous trip (at a high-school reunion in a dodgy underground bar that served pork crackling that somehow still tasted good despite being exposed to the clouds of cigarette smoke floating around inside).

Anyway.

The burgers at MODELiER were good (they had hot sauce) and the cocktails even better.

Past the house there is outdoor seating and a terrace, a swing, and.. an in-house DJ! The music was the kind that made you feel cool and want to stay longer so you can continue to feel cool. I wanted to eat and dance at the same time. This is possible with good multi-tasking skills and a bib.

DIANEI 4

So this old building was turned into a brunch spot, Dianei 4, that also serves speciality coffee and craft beer.

The space is in keeping with the Secret Garden theme and the interior of the house had been turned into a bar. The walls were full of character and texture, which I loved.

It’s too bad that the food was mostly dismal. My egg yolks were overcooked. I think all the eggs on the table were overcooked.

Daryl and Mindy of 2FoodTrippers tried to have eggs in several places around Bucharest and the conclusion was that they should look for runny eggs elsewhere.

My avocado slices were crunchy and could have been an interesting addition to the crunchiness of an abandoned palace floor.

I did love the space though and perhaps I’d prefer enjoying a drink or two there without food.

NIGHTTIME PLAYTIME

^From top: Street dance party in the old town / Parcul Herăstrău / Fake DJ / DESCHIS Gastrobar

The amazing team at Experience Bucharest put on a party every night – which is no easy feat considering the number of people involved in the programme – but some nights I escaped so I could spend more time with Cristina etc and be taken to more local spots with good house music.. or music I’d enjoy more.

I am that person who hates anything pop, R&B, hip hop, and rap. Hip hop has got to be the worst. Anything that’s in any Top 40 chart or that has a high production accompanying music video = No. Meaning I cannot go to most popular clubs.

Baraka Bar & Lounge @ Herăstrău Park

Herăstrău Park is a giant park in the north of Bucharest where… bones of the woolly mammoth have been found in the area before! It has a long history dating back to Paleolithic times.

The park now is open 24 hours. This means you are free to take a leisurely stroll at 3am if you wish.

A few bars/clubs have opened up inside the park, including Baraka, which lets you dance until 4am on a Saturday night. I didn’t stay that late but I had fun!

DESCHIS Gastrobar

This was MY FAVOURITE new discovery in Bucharest.

I don’t have any photos of the rooftop of the industrial-looking building, where we danced, under a giant moon and fairy lights. I loved the music!

Too bad the party ended early due to some noise complaints. We moved inside the building where I pretended to be a DJ (pics above) and did not order any drinks from the bar that was not open.

We hoped the party on the roof would restart, but it didn’t. I wasn’t too bummed because I’d been feeling pretty worn out and was looking forward to getting back to my VERY LARGE hotel room..

HOTEL CISMIGIU

I LOVED THIS HOTEL, including the font they used for their name.

The location is perfect – right next to Cismigiu Park and only a few minutes on foot to the Old Town. This hotel was a huge part of why my time in Bucharest was so enjoyable.

When I checked in late at night, the receptionist told me with a funny look that if I had any problems with the room to let him know and he could switch me to another one.

I went up the lift thinking that maybe I’d been given a crappy room with a view of a stairwell or something.

I opened the door without any high expectations and was greeted with a huge suite. I had my own living room and kitchen, a spacious bathroom, and two front-facing balconies.

That sneaky little receptionist! But it was a good trick.

At the end of every long day I would fantasise about returning to my room to do nothing.

Hotel Cismigiu

Bulevardul Regina Elisabeta 38
București 050017
Romania
Book here!

OTHER FUN THINGS

^Top from left to right: Lavi, Me, Cristina, Alexandra / Bottom: With Kash of Budget Traveller

I don’t have many photos of all the people I met and danced with but I take that as a good sign that we were too preoccupied with other things. Like living in real life and talking to each other.

I conclude this post with the two best things about Bucharest:

Colourful umbrellas

and

Papanași, a traditional Romanian dessert which is pretty much big donut things topped with soft cheese and sour jam.

I LOVE BUCHAREST

Now that I’ve seen how alive Bucharest can be in fairer weather, it is one of my favourite city-break destinations in Europe.

So many new spaces – new bars, cafes, shops, restaurants – have opened up in just two to three years. The people, especially the younger generation, are beginning to feel more passionate and proud of their city, and it shows. I feel it! I feel new energy that’s more confident and vibrant and that makes me want to stay and play.

I especially felt this new buzz in the team at Experience Bucharest  (largely made up of volunteers, too), who showed off the city like it was a shiny new toy even though it was something that they’d known all (or most of) their lives.

Cristina herself tells me that she is now more excited about living in Bucharest, whereas when I’d met her there the first time, she was mostly resigned to it.

I love Bucharest!

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*This post has been supported by Experience Bucharest

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