A different weekend idea
Cristina has long wanted to see Bran Castle with her own eyes, not just from photos found on the Internet. Radu, her husband, thought that nothing would be more suitable as a surprise for her birthday than a whole day away from Bucharest, in the mountains, at the castle, without phones ringing from the office and without shopping lists. They both work long hours Monday through Friday, and the idea of spending an entire Saturday in the car, back and forth, tired before they even got anywhere, didn't sound like a holiday at all.
That's how the idea of leaving your car in the garage and calling a personal driver for the whole day came about. Radu found on the internet a service of fixed flights from Bucharest to Brașov and the Bran area, he called a few days before, set the departure time and the return route, and the rest was, as he says, "easier than ordering a pizza". No worries about parking at the castle, no fatigue accumulated behind the wheel on the mountain road and, above all, no prospect of driving in the evening, tired, on a road crowded with tourists returning from fresh air.
Departure from Bucharest
The driver arrived exactly at the appointed time, in front of the apartment building in the Titan district, a few minutes before, so as not to rush the two or make them wait. The car was clean, with the air conditioning on beforehand, with cold water handy in the back seat. Cristina immediately noticed the difference compared to a regular road trip: she no longer had to check the fuel level, she no longer had to look for a parking space on the way back, and she no longer felt that little stress before a long journey, when you are both a passenger, a navigator, and, often, also the person who keeps an eye on the road from the right seat.
They set off a little after eight in the morning, just enough to avoid the congestion on the ring road and the first queues of cars leaving the city on the weekend for the mountain. Radu admitted that, on other occasions when he was driving, the first hour on the road took all the energy he gathered during the week, just to concentrate on the traffic. This time he leaned back, put his hand on Cristina's knee and said only this: "From now on, we both look out the window."
The road to the mountain
The route to Bran passes through Valea Prahova, and as the blocks of Bucharest were left behind, the landscape gradually changed: plains, then hills, then the first ridges of the mountains visible from Sinaia. Cristina took photos on her phone, not caring that the images came out a little blurry from the moving car, and Radu told, for probably the fifth time, the same childhood memory related to a camp in Bușteni.
The driver knew the road well, effortlessly avoided the roadworks section of the usual route and proposed a short stop at a cafe near Predeal, where the two drank coffee and bought some warm pretzels. It wasn't a timed or hurried stop, but rather the kind of break you take when you're not the one who has to calculate how long he's allowed to sit still to make it on time. Cristina said at one point that she found it strangely pleasant not to look at the clock at all.
Beyond Predeal, the road descends towards Râșnov and then towards Bran, and the mountains get closer and closer to the road. On the last stretch, the tourists' cars sometimes form a long line, especially in the morning, but the driver found a suitable rhythm, without hurry and without nerves, exactly the kind of driving that Radu says he would have wanted for himself, if he had the necessary patience after an hour and a half of driving.
Bran Castle, finally
They arrived in Bran a little before noon. The castle appears from afar, perched on its rock, just as everyone knows it from tourist pictures, but different when you actually see it, with the morning mist gently lifting from the forest behind. The driver dropped them off near the entrance, told them what time he would expect them and where he would park, and then wished them a pleasant visit, without rushing them at all with the time of return.
Cristina admitted that, although she knew the story related to Vlad the Impaler and the legend of Dracula, she still felt a genuine thrill climbing the stone stairs of the castle, through the small rooms, with low ceilings and old furniture, with windows from which you can see the whole valley below. Radu stopped more at the inner courtyard, at the secret well and at the hidden staircase between the floors, fascinated by the idea that such a small place, at first glance, hides so many corners.
They spent nearly two hours inside, not rushing from room to room, stopping where they liked, sometimes returning to a room that had first caught their attention. Without his own car to remember at any moment, without the thought that he had to leave in twenty minutes to get a parking space closer, the time he spent at the castle flowed differently, more leisurely.
A few good hours in Bran
On the way out of the castle, the small souvenir market at the foot of the cliff kept them busy for almost an hour. Cristina bought blueberry jam and a fridge magnet, and Radu couldn't resist a woolen hat, even though it was still summer. They had lunch at a nearby traditional restaurant, at a table outside, overlooking the castle, without looking at the clock or calculating how far they had to go home.
After the meal, they took another short walk through the village, past traditional households and small guesthouses with flowers in their windows. Cristina said that if they were driving themselves, they probably would have rushed this last hour, already thinking about the long drive back and what time they had to get home to rest for the week ahead. So, however, they sat on a bench by the side of the road, looked at the mountain and talked about nothing in particular, which, says Radu, happens less and less between them, caught as they are in their daily schedule.
The way back, in the evening
The driver was waiting for them exactly where they had arranged, with the car cooled down and a smile that didn't look tired at all, even though he had spent the day waiting around the area. On the way back, the evening light colored the mountains differently, and Cristina fell asleep somewhere near Predeal, with her head on Radu's shoulder, without any concern about the fact that someone should stay awake and attentive at the wheel.
Radu later recounted that it was probably the first time in years that he had driven for more than two hours without feeling the need to check his mirrors every few seconds or get angry at those overtaking irregularly. He could instead look out the window, answer a text from his mother, and simply think about the good day they had just ended.
They arrived back in Bucharest late in the evening, with the city lit up in lights, but without that fatigue typical of a long journey led by them. The driver dropped them off right in front of the building, helped them with the souvenir bag and left only after making sure they made it safely to the entrance.
What remains after such a day
A few weeks apart, Cristina and Radu are still talking about that day in Bran, but not necessarily about the castle, although they liked it a lot, but about how different the road itself was. For them, the difference was not only in the fact that they arrived at their destination relaxed, but in the fact that they had, for a good few hours, the opportunity to be just two people going somewhere together, without one of them being the driver, the guide, and responsible for everything related to the road.
Radu says now that he no longer thinks about a day trip to the mountains without taking into account a personal driver, especially when the round-trip distance exceeds three or four hours of driving. The difference in cost compared to driving one's own car, he says, is felt far less than the difference in energy left at the end of the day, energy that would otherwise be left all on the road.