Bucharesti Arefu (area) Brasov (area) Maramures
This is the birth place of Vlad Tepes, aka: Dracula, Vlad Dracul, Vlad the Impaler. Another German-style town, with a train station too far outside of the city. It poured rain all day and soaked everything in my pack. Romanians, in general, are not fond of rain and storms; thus the people vanished and most of the pictures are of empty streets. There are many cobbled little museums such as the Torture Museum and Museum of Natural History. I am not a big fan of museums, but since it was raining and the attendants at each place assumed I was a student (student rate = 1/3 admission price) I ran through a few. There is a very interesting way of making money at these institutions. They have an old man sit in each room and watch the attendees. Whenever someone tries to take a photo, they yell “Taxa!” and haggle money from you—for each item photographed! Then I noticed the small signs stating the lavish tax for photographs, and even more to videotape. I just played Stupid Tourist again and took a few video clips until they caught me…
