Want to find real Vampires? Trips to Castle Dracula - real Transylvannia

[Tycho]

OK, I've been weighing it out: would it be cool to become a vampire and live "un-dead" forever and get to kill people and probably get away with it?

What's it like? If the Bible's legend and not proven, but based on history and such, can't other legends like vampires and werewolves be based somewhat on some facts?

If there's no chance, why wouldn't you be afraid to spend the night in Castle Dracula and roam around it at night looking for hidden passageways into the dark underground catacombs?

Well, I researched it on the internet and found out some stuff so I figure I should start a thread and share.


http://www.vampirecamping.com/ - this site was ok. It was the first one I looked at to get me started...

http://www.draculascastle.com/ - this one looks interesting. It's Vlad's temporary war residence.

http://www.draculascastle.com/index3.html - this is the actual Castle Dracula, in ruins today. It was called Poenari Castle and was rebuilt by Dracula in 1497. His name was Vlad Tepes.

Tepes means Impaler. I'm not sure if they had formal last names. His father was Vlad Dracul - meaning Dragon. The Hungarian King created the Order of the Dragon for his greatest Knights. Vlad Tepes started signing as Dracula.

His actual burial place was known. He was beheaded and his corpse was exhumed and found to be richly dressed. His head was sent to the Muslem Turkish king as a war trophy.

http://www.draculascastle.com/index3.html - this link provides a very interesting historical track of everything from ancient Rome to the Jewish-Palestinian problem. I started reading it, but being it was 2am, I bookmarked it for later.

http://members.aol.com/atamas/transylvania.htm - this one I found late - but it looks fascinating!

There's some really gross facts I stumbled upon - how Vlad impaled bodies between their legs and up through their torso...ouch! I think that in terms of human torture - everything that's been thought of has been tried. It's the nature of our species.

I think prayer for quick death was a popular way to bring people back to God and find religion rather quickly in those kinds of moments...

[Tycho]

This group of pictures actually has photos of Dracula's tomb:

http://www.nfo.edu/family/tomb.htm

[Slicker]

I'll be the first one to say that I didn't even get to the picture of the tomb. I was distracted by other pictures.

[Tycho]

I know exactly what you're talking about. :D

She was kind of hot, wasn't she?

Ah...Europe - much like California fashions.

[Slicker]

If that's the case then I'll have to re-enlist and go to the base in San Diego. I guess the girls are only seasonal in Virginia Beach and right now must not be the season.

[Tycho]

This has nothing to do with Vampires, but two of the hottest girls in my complex that I'm friends with are from the South and Virginia.

To bring it back to the subject, the movie Van Helsing even proved that women are hot everywhere since long-dead Transylvanian vampire chics look pretty fine too.

[Slicker]

My friend was just telling me about his trip to Romania and he said that it is quite possibly the most beautiful place he's ever been. It's been untouched for so long due to being in the Soviet bloc and he said he actually had a tough time finding an American resteraunt which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

He's on his way to Italy for 2 years right now as I write so I'll let you know how it stands up to Romania.

[Tycho]

What's amazing to me is that in Europe, especially Eastern Europe, there are these old villages that pretty much are as they were several hundred years ago: outhouses, no running water, sometimes no electricity. The people live without pressure to modernize, too.

I wonder if they vote in their national elections, if the government or any industry ever bothers updating their area, if it is resisted, or just ignored?

Also, if Europe has been inhabited for so much longer than the US, why isn't the growth of population so much stronger, and putting pressure on towns and villages to develop to accomodate new generations?

They allow softcore porno to be broadcast on general TV over there, yet their birthrate is down, people marry later, and sex is less prevalent or less of a priority in their society. (people don't try to be players, socialites, etc. - the equivalent of Brad Pitt or Paris Hilton - they just don't care for that).

I may be generalizing and don't have a clue as to what I'm talking about, though.

It just does seem logical that they'd be more over-populated than we are, considering the space left in these older, and smaller, little countries.

[Lord Malakite]

There's some really gross facts I stumbled upon - how Vlad impaled bodies between their legs and up through their torso...ouch! I think that in terms of human torture - everything that's been thought of has been tried. It's the nature of our species.
You forgot to mention the fact that he enjoyed eating dinner out in the fields among the corpses where he could enjoy the view. When one of his guests commented on how disgusting it was, he had them strung up with the rest of them.

He was also known for nailing the hoods of some monks to their heads with iron spikes.

[James Boba Fettfield]

You forgot to mention the fact that he enjoyed eating dinner out in the fields among the corpses where he could enjoy the view. When one of his guests commented on how disgusting it was, he had them strung up with the rest of them.

Didn't the guy say something about the smell? So Vlad puts him on a higher pole so he wouldn't have to suffer the odor of the other dead.

[Lord Malakite]

Yes he did JBF, yes he did. ;)

[Tycho]

Saddam Hussein and his sons were like modern-day Vlads - though maybe a little less public about it I guess.

It would have been honorable to fight against such a man.

I wonder why he had soldiers who stuck by him and followed him? - and followed those orders?

I think Vlad was more hands-on with these kinds of policies than Adolf Hitler.

I wonder if Hitler read of and admired Dracula?

Anyway, if you could become a vampire, would you want to?

I was thinking about that a while ago: the pros and cons (seriously) about being a vampire.

Such as if you owned a house and things and such, you'd have to conjure up fake identities every once in a while, as you couldn't hold onto your property as a 400-year-old and not draw attention to yourself.

There would be some practical challenges to living.

I bet a vampire would have to get good at altering computer records and infiltrating places like credit bureas, etc. The modernizing of the world would make it more difficult to be a vampire.