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October 31, 1998
Bran Castle, Romania
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You may go anywhere you wish in the castle, except where the doors are locked, where of course you will not wish to go. There is reason that all things are as they are, and did you see with my eyes and know with my knowledge, you would perhaps better understand... We are in Transylvania; and Transylvania is not England. Our ways are not your ways, and there shall be to you many strange things. |
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...the region through which you came last night ... was the ground fought over for centuries by the Wallachian, the Saxon, and the Turk. Why, there is hardly a foot of soil in all this region that has not been enriched by the blood of men, patriots or invaders. In old days there were stirring times, when the Austrian and the Hungarian came up in hordes, and the patriots went out to meet them - men and women, the aged and the children too - and waited their coming on the rocks above the passes, that they might sweep destruction on them with their artificial avalanches. |
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After breakfast I did a little exploring in the castle. I went south on the stairs and found a room looking towards the south. The view was magnificent... The castle is on the very edge of a terrible precipice. A stone falling from the window would fall a thousand feet without touching anything! |
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But I am not at heart to describe beauty, for when I had seen the view I explored further; doors, doors, doors everywhere, and all locked and bolted. In no place save from the windows in the castle walls is there an available exit. |
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The castle is a veritable prison, and I am a prisoner! |
Text excerpts from Bram Stoker's "Dracula."
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