This is the unique journey of Jonathan Harker through Transylvania, as described in the novel Dracula. I personally accompanied Dacre Stoker in his adventure of recreating the route and trying to find the spot where the castle is described to be.
The adventure will take us from Cluj-Napoca into the Calimani Mountains and back. During our 3 day trip we’ll get on the top of the mountains where the Castle Dracula should have been. A little bit of hiking is necessary but most of the road will be by car.
Day 1 – Jonathan Harker route through Transylvania
Visit at Banffy Castle.
“I had visited the British Museum, and made research among the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania; it had struck me that some foreknowledge of the country could hardly fail to have some importance in dealing with a nobleman of that country”
(Dracula – Johnathan Harker’s Journal)
Visit at County Museum Bistritz.
“But I found that Bistritz, the post town named by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known place. […] I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the center of some sort of imaginative whirlpool”
(Dracula – Johnathan Harker’s Journal)
Stop at Borgo Pass.
“At the Borgo Pass my carriage will await you and will bring you to me”
(Dracula – Johnathan Harker’s Journal)
Day 2 – Where is the Castle?
Hiking in Calimai Mountains.
“I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the country, just on the borders of three states, Transylvania, Moldavia and Bukovina, in midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe. I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula”
(Dracula – Johnathan Harker’s Journal)
Day 3 – The return!
Wine tasting on our way back.
“The wine was called Golden Mediasch, which produces a queer sting on the tongue, which is, however, not disagreeable. I had a couple of glasses of this, and nothing else.”
(Dracula – Johnathan Harker’s Journal)
Menu:
I had for dinner or rather supper, a chicken done up some way with red pepper, which was very good but thirsty. […] he said it was called “paprika hendl”
or a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was “mamaliga”
and egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call “impletata”
(Dracula – Johnathan Harker’s Journal)
Tours in Transylvania 