Drive to Poenari Fortress

I'd always wanted to see the "real" Dracula's castle, which is located at Poeinari in Transylvania. Poenari Fortress (as it's known, which makes more sense than calling it a castle) is located a ways off the beaten path, not too far from the high ridgeline that divides Transylvania and Wallachia. I'd thought about trying to combine buses with hitching a ride to get out there, as hitching a ride is very common here, but decided with the limited time I had I would rather rent a car, which would enable me to stop and see other things, as well as experience driving in Romania.

Starting from Sibiu, it took me a good three hours to get out to Poenari. The road I chose leads up the Carpathians, across the divide, and then down. I passed an alpine lake, Lac Barea, as well as the man-made Lake Vidra, driving across the dam that made it (built in the early 1960s).

Poenari Fortress is located on a promontory overlooking the pass below. It's about 200 meters up from the road, in vertical terms. In terms of walking it was about 25 minutes to cover the 1480 steps. I had an image of sheer steps leading up to a difficult to reach castle...it was not like that at all. It was a fairly simple and safe walk up a hill to arrive at an open air relic of a fortress. (Though constructing a stone and brick structure at that location and above the flat ground surely was backbreaking work.) Arriving at the top, I was alone up there but for a scraggly dog (omnipresent in Romania) for a few minutes before a large group showed up, which gave me time to reflect on the age of the structure (originally under construction in the 1300s), as well as notice the fact that it is surrounded on all sides, save the south, by higher ground. The "castle" itself does not have a lot about it that makes it interesting, other than its association with Vlad Tepes, who ordered it built by a group of individuals for the dual purposes of punishing those people for their support of a different leader (saying they would build the fortress until their clothes disintegrated), as well as to provide a fortress that could protect the pass and hopefully help fight off invasions by the Turks. Apparently, the fortress's north wall was destroyed by the Turks, shooting artillery from a higher hill nearby, and was abandoned in subsequent years.

To some up the effectiveness of Poenari, as a punishment for those disloyal boyars, I'm sure it was excellent. However, as a successful and sustainable military base, not so much.

On the way back, I did an hour-long hike around Lake Barea, up to a high point with a nice view down into the adjacent valley. I had wanted to do the hike up over the ridgeline to see Lake Capra...but that hike looked like a little more than I was prepared to do as the trail went up fairly steeply, and for a long way too. As for Lake Barea...pond would be a better word. The scenery and hiking around the lake makes going to see it worthwhile though.

As for the driving, it turned out to be pretty tame. In a country where motor vehicles still oftentimes share the road with horse-drawn carts, and the roads often look like they've been cluster bombed, I expected a little more chaos, but everyone obeys the rules for the most part and acts pretty civil toward other drivers. The drive up and back was spectacular for sure. I had planned on doing a loop and returning by way of a highway, but enjoying the drive so much the first time, I decided to return the way that I came. While the road was alternately new and severely pockmarked, I enjoyed the twists and turns and avoiding all those potholes with my little Renault they rented me, as I drove by the lakes, through various tunnels, and high up into the mountains on the many switchbacks. The drive around Lake Vidra reminded me a bit of driving around Lake Tahoe, as I did a year ago at this time, though there's no comparison between Vidra and Tahoe.

Upon return, I got lost for a little while in Sibiu before I finally located a place to park the car nearby and then walk to the rental place, but I managed to get it returned that night and was off to Brasov early the next morning.