BRASOV, ROMANIA {DRACULA'S CASTLE}

I can't tell you how much I love it when clients request if I'll come join them in another country for a photo session. Traveling the world is one of my biggest passions in life and when I can get paid to do it or can trade my work for a first hand tour guide from someone who lives in the country, it is pretty priceless. A good friend of mine from Romania did just that. She invited me to visit her country with her when she went home and take family photos for her in exchange for a top notch cultural experience. Unfortunately her visits home are years apart and this would be the first time her family would be meeting her 2 year old son.

Bran Castle

 When she asked me what I would like to do when I was there I didn't have to do much thinking. I said, "I want to experience Romania how you see it... except for one little thing, I also want to go visit Dracula's Castle!" I mean come on! Go all the way to Transylvania, Romania and not visit the grounds were Vlad the Impaler staked thousands of people! Lets go! Unfortunately what I didn't know is that the castle is very difficult to photograph from were tourists could go so this was the best photo I could capture of Dracula's Castle. But it is still really fun to say that I've been there.

The town closest to Bran is Brasov which is the home of the Black Church, "Biserica Neagră." This church used to actually be called St. Mary and was first constructed sometime around the 1400's and is Gothic style like Notre Dame.  But then during the 1600's during the Turkish war a big fire broke out in the city and the church was burned. Much of the inside has been restored but you can still see remnants from the outside of the fire and has been since called the Black Church.

Brasov has beautifully colorful architecture as you can see in this photo of their town square. We were only in the town for a few hours so I didn't capture too many images but it was full of so many cute little shops and fountains. Brasov also serves Dracula ice cream. Now, I can't eat dairy but this I just had to try. It is vanilla ice cream that has been dyed black and then they mix in cherry red POP ROCKS! Yeah! So your tongue turns black and the rocks pop all over your mouth. It was pretty fun. If you ever visit, you must look for it at the street vendor ice cream shops. 

Here is a photo of Buni (Grandma) and Daevon playing in the fountain in the middle of the town square. It was a lot of fun watching them interact. Daevon was just getting to know his Buni and she only speaks Romanian so it was really funny watching him cock his head to the side as his listened and soaked in everything she would say to him. It's interesting how language can really be all irrelevant. Even I had a few hours of time with her at moments without anyone to translate yet it still seemed like we were able to have some sort of a decent conversation. 

As we were driving back to Focsani, where my friend was from, we drove through part of the Caraiman mountains and this here is one of my favorite shots from the entire trip. If you look at the top of the mountain on the right you will see a cross peaking out through the fogged raining clouds but with a bit of sun sneaking through from behind. This cross was built in the early 1900's by order of Queen Mary to show honor to those who served in WWI. When I look at this photo it really warms my heart with a feeling of heaven up in the clouds. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. PS- I took this photo through the car window while driving around twisty turn roads. Sometimes you just never know what you might get!