Of course vampires tales are nothing but myths, but the story of Dracula who is famous around the world came from somewhere and sometime. The character Dracula was created by Bran Stoker, a British writer who described the vampire living in Transylvania and was seeking to move to England. Although there was never any direct reference by Bran Stoker, it's pretty obvious he was describing Vlad, or Vlad the impaler from Transylvania who ruled in the mid 15th century in what is now Romania.
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	As far as vampire tourism in Romania goes, the country basically advertises Bran Castle as Dracula's. Bran castle is an interesting place to visit, but no experts on this subject believe there to be any truth to Dracula living in this castle. At best they believe he might have stayed here briefly while traveling in between cities. The tourism here is high, you can see a vampire holding a welcome sign while on the right tourists visit the souvenir shops. They even sell 'Dracula Beer' here!
	These surrounding four photos are the last of Bran Castle. I showed them since it gives people a good opportunity to see the clothing and better understand the time period during the medieval days when Dracula was alive. The castle is worth visiting just because of its beautiful architecture and all the interesting history and artifacts that they keep in side. Below are people at Bran castle wearing some traditional clothing from that time period.
The real Dracula's castle is located in Transylvania and isn't an easy destination to reach. Normally only those dedicated to finding the place or local Romanians make a visit here. Above are two photos from Transylvania as I began to get close to his castle..
Reaching Fortress Poenari, or castle Poenari requires you to climb 1481 steps. This takes about 30 minutes or so, but for someone completely out of shape it could be a difficult journey. The steps lead up some dense forest that cover step mountains which is why the castle was originally built here. My understanding is that there weren't many soldiers stationed here at the castle, but large numbers wouldn't be needed since it would be extremely difficult to lead an army up these mountains to launch an attack on Poenari Fortress.
Fortunately you'll have some entertainment and history along the way as you climb there stairs and come across these signs. For most of the world, Vlad the Impaler was known for his ruthless killings of anyone who questioned or opposed him. This included obvious enemies like invading Turkish armies, but also his own political opponents, thieves within his country and just those he considered "worthless to humanity". Vlad the Impaler will always be remembered as one of the most terrible rulers due to his methods of torture. Almost all of his victims would be placed on top of sharp sticks or spears and their body weight would cause them to slowly slide down having an extremely painful and slow death. It's even said he would make couples face each other so they could see each others suffering, and sometimes would impale dozens of people at once and eat dinner in front of them while they died. What's also interesting is that while his methods showed how low humanity could go, they were also effective in scaring out enemy armies and his fear tactics kept his own people in check. To Romanian's, many consider him a hero for stopping invading armies from taking over who would have otherwise converted the areas to new religions and changed local culture. Notice that on the left hand sign there isn't anything negative written about Vlad the Impaler, but for anyone else who knows the history it's no wonder why it was him that was chosen to inspire a character such as Dracula.
For those who are superstitious, they might think this dog with the red eye is a sign of some unspeakable evil. The dog was actually nice though and was one of many in the areas around the castle. On the right is a method of torture and execution by hanging back in the dark ages. Probably the best and most humane way to go considering the tens of thousands who were impaled by Vlad. Despite numbers of up to 40,000 people being impaled in total and stories of enemy armies approaching fields of thousands of dead bodies left to rot after their death, there was no mention of these killing methods here at Poenari Fortress.
Poenari Castle is relatively small, if you hike out here do not expect to find some enormous fortress that takes days to explore. The steep terrain and views made it possible to a relatively small number of soldiers here to put up a good fight. I imagine Vlad also had thousands of troops surrounding the lower valleys anyway so it's unlikely any incoming army would easily reach a vantage point of the castle.
I also forgot to mention that Poenari Castle wasn't originally built by Vlad the Impaler or Dracula, but was first constructed back in the 13th century. When Vlad the Impaler gained power he realized the importance of the castle and had it rebuilt. After his death, it remained in use for another 200 years until it was finally abandoned. A landslide in 1888 supposedly did a lot of damage, and today most of the castle still stands but in almost complete ruins.
	Above are two photos of some of the views from Dracula's castle. With the steep mountains surrounding the castle and views over the rivers below you can see why this castle offered such a strategic location. Below are some final photos of the inside of Dracula's castle. I'm not sure how you would have normally entered the room on the lower left, so it may have been a storage area that once used wooden steps or something. When I viewed it from a floor above it looked like a large cellar, maybe storage for food and weapons. On the lower right is the remains of what might have been one of the watch towers.

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