Where is Transilvania? Who is Dracula? Who is Vlad Tepes?
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Vlad the Impaler (1431-1476)\n\nAs you may well know, author Bram Stoker (1847-1912) based the title character of his 1897 novel Dracula on an actual human being, or should we say inhuman being.  \n\nEven if you haven't yet read Stoker's novel, and seen the stage play which came after, you have probably seen some of the many films based on his character. Some of the most important cinematic adaptations are F.W. Murnau's 1922 masterpiece "Nosferatu", which was loosely based on Dracula but subjected to a "makeover" for copyright reasons, Todd Browning's "Dracula", which starred Bela Lugosi, a Romanian actor who had previously incarnated the titular character on the stage, and would forever be remembered, and unfortunately typecast as Dracula; the British Hammer Films releases of the 70s, which starred Christopher Lee as a sexier, and far more violent vampire.  While there were others in between, one of the most interesting, although flawed adaptation, of Dracula was Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 release, "Bram Stoker's Dracula".  Coppola's version is noteworthy for it's inclusion of the "Order of the Dracul", which cleverly interwove the fictional vampire with the historical figure.
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I'm German-Irish, & I'm 17 years old. And Romania is hot. Do you live in Dracula's Castle. Would you take me there?
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Vlad Tepes or Bela Lugosi a.k.a Dracula\nIsn't it funny how people from the Balkans always ask about their country as if nobody has heard of it? I thought of exactly the same thing to do when I first discovered Yahoo Answers. "What is Bulgaria?" ..it's rather sad man\nDo you see anyone asking "What is France?" or "What is Germany?"\nWe are doomed to a constant search for approval and reassurance that people know who we are...
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traian băsescu (born november 4, 1951) is a romanian politician. he is the current president of romania, inaugurated on december 20, 2004. he won the office in the 2004 presidential election.\n\nprior to becoming president, he was the mayor of bucharest from june 2000 until december 2004.
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According to legend, Bucharest was founded by a shepherd called Bucur , who built a settlement amid the Vlasia forest. It was recorded as a nameless "citadel on the Dâmbovita" in 1368, and named as Bucharest in an edict from the time of Vlad the Impaler. \n\nhttp://www.hotelnet.ro/bucharest-travel-guide/bucharest-history.htm\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Bucharest
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Romania offers a rich tapestry of tourist attractions and vacation experiences unique in Central-Eastern Europe: medieval towns in Transylvania, the world-famous Painted Monasteries in Bucovina, traditional villages in Maramures, the magnificent architecture of Bucharest, the romantic Danube Delta, fairy-tale castles, the Black Sea resorts, the majestic Carpathian Mountains, spas and much more.\n"Considered by many the most beautiful country in Eastern-Europe, Romania still claims regions that seem bastions of a medieval past long since lost elsewhere."\n(Fodor's Eastern and Central Europe)\nRomania's history has not been as idyllically peaceful as its geography. Over the centuries, various migrating people invaded Romania. Romania's historical provinces Wallachia and Moldova offered furious resistance to the invading Ottoman Turks. Transylvania was successively under Hapsburg, Ottoman or Wallachian rule, while remaining an autonomous province. \n\nRomania's post WWII history as a communist-block nation is more widely known, primarily due to the excesses of the former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. In December 1989 a national uprising led to his overthrow. The 1991 Constitution established Romania as a republic with a multiparty system, market economy and individual rights of free speech, religion and private ownership
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România /ro.mɨ'ni.a/) is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Ukraine and Moldova in the northeast; Hungary and Serbia and Montenegro in the west and Bulgaria to the south along the Danube River. Romania has a stretch of sea coast on the Black Sea and the eastern and southern Carpathian mountains run through its centre. Romania has been a member of NATO since 2004, and is also an acceding country to the European Union. The EU Accession Treaty was signed in early 2005, and Romania is due to join the Union on January 1, 2007.
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The Slavs (from around the year 300) believed that vampires were afraid of silver (but couldn't be killed with it) and that one could kill them by cutting their head off and placing it between their legs, or by stabbing them with a wooden stake in the heart. During the Middle Ages, the myth transformed a bit. People used holy water, wooden stake, and cross to kill a vampire (we can see the influence of the Christianity here). If people suspected that a dead person has turned into a vampire, they would dig them out and stick a stake into the heart. This wasn't meant to kill the vampire but to bind it to the grave. Serbs believed that every single drop of blood had to be destroyed or else the vampire would still be "alive" (they were more or less living corpses, but you get my point) so they used to burn the vampire after that. Then butterflies would fly out of the vampire and people had to kill each one of them. \nGarlic can only scare the vampire because of its strong and unpleasant smell. In order to stop the vampire's visits at night, people would hang garlic near every hole in the house (for example keyhole, chimney, windows..., because people believed that the vampire could enter the house even through the smallest hole). One could also throw some seeds before the vampire, since they had to stop and count them all. \nI'm not really sure how they used to capture them. I know vampires could be captured by stealing that cloth they had over them in the grave, but I have seen this only in vampire stories. But in reality, people were just killing them and they were probably too scared to just capture them (that'd be pointless, wouldn't it). Although in Asia there were some kinds of vampires which people used to capture and then keep them in wooden cages and feed them eggs :P I haven't heard of any captured werewolves either. If you want to investigate a bit, try reading some legends and old beliefs from the Balkans; I promise you'll find it very interesting!
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In my country (Austria) there live some Romanian people. I know one who was in my school. His name is Doru and he comes from a village near Timisoara.\nI have never been to Romania but I heard it would be nice and a lot of things to see.
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Romania is located in Southeastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and Ukraine
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Vlad Tepes Dracula, the historical figure who inspired Bram Stoker for his novel, is definitely less known. The centennial of the gothic masterpiece provides us with a good pretext to dive back into the life of this machiavellian fifteenth century leader - an initiative that will enable us to better appreciate the work of Stoker.\n\nVlad became quite known for his brutal punishment techniques; he often ordered people to be skinned, boiled, decapitated, blinded, strangled, hanged, burned, roasted, hacked, nailed, buried alive, stabbed, etc. He also liked to cut off noses, ears, sexual organs and limbs. But his favorite method was impalement on stakes, hence the surname "Tepes" which means "The Impaler" in the Romanian language. Even the Turks referred to him as "Kaziglu Bey," meaning "The Impaler Prince." It is this technique he used in 1457, 1459 and 1460 against Transylvanian merchants who had ignored his trade laws. The raids he led against the German Saxons of Transylvania were also acts of proto-nationalism in order to protect and favour the Wallachian commerce activities.
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As previously noted, Vlad III’s initial reign was quite short (two months), and it was not until 1456, under the support of Hunyadi and the Kingdom of Hungary that he returned to the throne. He established Tirgoviste as his capitol city, and began to build his castle some distance away in the mountains near the Arges River. Most of the atrocities associated with Vlad III took place during this time.\n\n\nIt looks like Wallachia's capitol was Bukharest and I was unable to find detals on Moldavia
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania#Romanian_heads_of_state_.28from_the_Unification_of_1859.29
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There have always been two different ways to approach the Dracula legend: through the literature, which is most famous due to Bram Stoker’s classic, or through history and the life and times of Vlad Tepes who lived in Wallachia (a principality that later formed part of Romania) and died fighting the Ottoman Turks in 1476. Yes Virginia, there really was a Dracula. But the legend, particularly the literary legend, long ago eclipsed the history. Few people know that Dracula was a warrior, that he led successful fights against Ottoman invasions, that he was religious, or that he served as both a hero and ferocious enemy of his own people. (Kostova makes the comparison to Josef Stalin, which is entirely appropriate.) The legend has always been more appealing and as the vampire cult has grown over the years and pervaded pretty much all aspects of popular culture (Buffy, anyone?), Dracula the man has faded into the deep deep recesses of medieval history. No one stays awake in those classes. Kostova credits her father in the book’s dedication as telling her the stories that grew into this book, and clearly she has always had a different vision of Dracula, a more serious and scholarly vision then the average theatergoer. She knows he was dangerous because he was real, because a man once committed the acts that are credited to a monster. This is something that often eludes people. We want to believe that Hitler was a beast, that Rwandans must be inherently evil, that the 9/11 hijackers had to have been demons and never ordinary, average men. What is bad must always have been monstrous and not like us; never like us. Dracula was a vampire for God’s sake, the undead. Dracula as soldier or even a child hostage? How could that be?\n\nWell, that’s where the book comes in handy. The Historian is a mystery, a thriller, a romance. It is first and foremost a story of a father and daughter who each becomes embroiled in the Dracula legend. It is also though the story of a missing man, a forgotten love, and another daughter who wants the truth. It is the story of men of God who protect a devil and Turks and Romanians and Bulgarians and a lot of monasteries. There are libraries and archives and ancient clues, even an ancient society of warriors. There are many many dragons. In short, The Historian is all things that make a book compulsively readable and everything that a truly gifted author can produce. \n\nThe first main storyline follows Helen and Paul in the early 1950s as they try to find Dracula’s grave and the secrets it might hold to the disappearance of Paul’s college adviser and mentor, a man who had also pursued the Dracula legend in the 1930s. The current storyline is that of Paul’s daughter in 1972, who ends up on her own adventure after her father abruptly departs on a business trip that she is convinced is actually a resumption of his Dracula research. Over both time periods the specter of their quarry hangs heavily, and ominously. Dracula is everywhere it seems, throughout the historical documents they read; in the places they visit, in the faces of those who try to stop them. Ultimately he proves to be crueler then they could have imagined and his effect on all of their lives is incalculable.\n\nThe Historian was a fantastic read and the only thing that I believe would have made it better was my timing. It is a great book for October I think, for that month which Ray Bradbury has characterized so well as the truly most frightening time of the year. Dracula stories should be absorbed when the wind is whipping around the house and the night is bitter dark and there is a bite to the air, a coldness that penetrates and buries deep. It is scary weather, horror weather, perfect hunt-the-vampire weather. But, well, he came to me in May and I can only imagine what a winter reading of this book would be like. I know that I loved it from start to finish, loved the characters, the setting, and the wonderful and painstaking history
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You know, romania is not so famous outside of Europe. I thought it was a city or something until just a few months back.\nSorry if that sounds harsh. But thats the reality. \n\nBut now i know a lot more about the country. Its a nice place and with friendly people too. :)
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Dracula isn't a ghost. He's a vampire. I'm not sure what you're looking for.
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The all time best Romanian player has to be Gheorghe Hagi who was an outstanding creative midfielder and known as the 'Maradonna of the Carpathians'.\n\nThe best current Romanian player in my opinion is Cristian Chivu who is a defender for AS Roma. Though Adrian Mutu has performed well lately after his debacle with Chelsea.