American Travel Blogs (I/V): “Finding more than Dracula in Romania”
Travel Blogger: Matt, from nomadicmatt.com
In his article “Finding more than Dracula in Romania”, dated August 2011, Matt, from nomadicmatt.com, tells the story of his three-week traveling experience in Romania. “As I wandered around Sighisoara searching for coffins, bats, vampires, and human blood, I realized Romania wasn’t going to give me what I wanted”, he starts off. As such, Matt is the victim of the vampire craze that has swept the world, something most of the travel bloggers analyzed in this series have admitted. Indeed, Dracula and vampires seem to be the first Romanian myth that tourists and travelers, sadly, debunk on their first visit to the country. Sadder still, according to Matt, is the fact that Romanians seem to desperately want to detach themselves from this stereotype:
“The Romanians just haven’t decided to get in on the vampire trend that’s spreading throughout the world.”
He makes an interesting point, given that economically speaking, the country might benefit from taking advantage of the fact that Romania is seen as Dracula’s motherland. But Matt seems to be somewhat of an unconventional traveler, since he enjoys what he calls the ‘cheesy’ aspect of traveling, which is reveling in whatever stereotypes a country or place has to offer: ‘I would have loved a “I survived Dracula’s castle and all I got was this t-shirt” t-shirt!’.
His impression of Romania is largely favorable:
„I’d have to settle for the fact Romania had turned out to be an amazing place that far exceeded all my expectations.”
Another stereotype about Romania is that it’s a run-down place, bland, desolate, reminiscent of cultural decay and reeking of communism:
“I viewed Romania to be a bit like Bulgaria: a former communist, agrarian country with crumbling and bland Soviet-era buildings. There would be some nice medieval towns in the countryside, but overall, I didn’t have high expectations for Romania.”
But he admits what so many other foreigners say about Bucharest, that the country has an up-beat vide to it, “a frenzied, ‘we’re on our way up’ energy.”. He talks about the energy of the people, about the beautiful architecture, which is something all travel bloggers and vloggers usually focus on, as well as food.
„I started in Bucharest, which was a far more westernized city than I thought it would be. „
Indeed, the lively city, is something most tourists and travel bloggers notice and value about Bucharest. Perhaps the nightlife of the city is most famous among tourists.
„There’s a certain sophistication and energy to Bucharest that I enjoyed.” He further talks about how Bucharest used to be called the Paris of the East and says that „The Romanians have this weird admiration for the French that I never expected. They seemed to try to copy a lot from France.”
However, Matt seems to have embraced a whole different way of tourism: „travel doesn’t always have to be serious”, adding to Stowe's classification of types of travels, as Matt partakes not only in the genuine life of the space he's visiting, but also in the spectacle of tourism and travel.
„The main center of tourism in Transylvania (and what seemed to be all of Romania) was the city of Brasov" ‚ says Matt, which might be another indirect comment of the inexperienced tourism industry of Romania, especially since „for the most part, Romania doesn’t seem to take part in the great European summer tourist season.”. In this respect, Romania seems to be a singular entity in Europe, in a not necessarily negative way.
Matt weaves in historical facts, resembling Bellow, in ‘The Dean’s December’, where he acts as a translator of sorts, tough not at the insight level of Andrei Codrescu and Petru Popescu. But here one can notice the fair description and genuine interest in a place, when Matt takes the time to get to know his surroundings, and the things he sees. Even if he doesn’t transform into an apologetic translator trying to excuse the many lacks in Romania, since this is not the aim of his travels, he nonetheless adds legitimacy to his travels, by making his places real – since he grounds them in history, and doesn’t just leave them at he level of ‚exotic’ places one might travel to someday: „The castle in Bran is this beautiful medieval residence that was used over the years as a fort, then an administrative center, then a palace for the queen before the communists took over.”
