Bucharest -- Count Dracula Club

After an unbelievably long bus ride (okay, only about 5 hours) we arrived at the Hotel Angelo by the airport in Otopeni. The hotel was beautiful and we were happy to arrive.

view out window of airport tower

lobby

On the bus ride in Judy was reading the Rough Guide to Romania and discovered a restaurant called Club Count Dracula. Judy is a huge fan of Bram Stoker's Dracula. We all decided it would be cheesy but fun to visit the club for lunch upon arrival in Bucharest.

Judy and Leigh mapping out our plan with the receptionist and getting her to call a cab.

Finally our cabs dropped us off at the restaurant at 2:45 pm. The Rough Guide said it opened at 12:30, wrong! The sign outside said 4pm... so we had to take a walk around town. Luckily this is when we found the public garden where we rested and had diet cokes! It was quite warm in town! :-)

"Blood and guts" dripping from the outside of the building

We ate in the hunting room which really reminded me of the cave room where we ate in Transylvania!!

One of the appetizers we shared

Another appetizer we shared

My lunch -- Devils' Chicken with hot sauce... the waiter was so funny. He was like, that is really hot. It had a slightly spicy after taste but was no where near what we would call "hot" in the States.

After lunch our waiter took us on a tour of the restaurant. The entire restaurant is based on Stoker's Dracula and the menu quoted the diary of Jeremy Whoever that is one of the main characters (not sure I have ever read the real book! LOL)

Children of the night (wolves)

Wild boar

Ram, reindeer, and mountain goat

Standing at the front door looking down the stairwell

The Transylvania room (I think)

The masks are supposed to scare off evil spirits

You are supposed to put a witch in each corner of the room to ward off evil spirits

Apparently Stoker gave a description of Transylvania as being inside out.. thus the shingles on the inside of the room rather than outside on the roof

The medieval room

Another shot looking down the staircase

Our waiter was a sweetie and spoke wonderful English. He had a hard time staying in character for us LOL Calling our food human flesh and wine blood... we laughed every time and flustered him. In the picture above he is showing us the hidden door in the library which leads to the Alchemy Bar.

Becky was sent over to Dracula's coffin.. we all ohhed and ahhed when it was opened and turned out to be empty.

Vampire wine


After lunch we walked around the city.. walked by the People's Palace and sent Winnie and Judy back to the hotel before Becky, Leigh, and I continued to the mall.

We stopped in McDonald's to cool off and get a drink and I really wanted to take a picture of the multumesc sign (multumesc means thank you) so Leigh and Becky posed for me so I didn't look like a complete idiot.

After we walked around the mall trying to find our way to Carrefour (I won't even try to explain how the mall was laid out... just believe that we twisted and turned and finally had to cross through a parking garage to get to the store!) we were disappointed to discover this Carrefour wasn't like the one I had visited in Iasi in January. They sisn't have nearly the things I thought they would. :-( I was able to find a few books the preschool teacher asked for.. and newborn diapers for the littlest babies..and a few spoons... not the windfall I had hoped for but better than nothing!