Following Dracula's Head
A scary story from my book "Far and Wild," and how I was robbed in Romania.
Dear Friend:
Earlier this year, I wrote you a letter about how my love
and I collaborate (agree, disagree, fight, pout, make-up, produce) while writing these newsletters, or while writing our book “Far and Wild.”As you may recall from that letter, I wrote the book’s original manuscript in Italian. Brant used an online tool to translate my draft into English, added the juicy parts, and put the final polish on the final book you can buy today on Amazon.
Added the juicy parts? What does that involve?
It Starts with a Passeggiata
In many towns in Italy, you will see many nicely dressed people walking through the squares and pedestrianized areas. You might wonder where these people are all going, but the answer is nowhere in particular. They are just taking part in their evening passeggiata.
The word passeggiata comes from the verb passeggiare, which literally means to walk slowly without a precise destination. That’s a pretty good description for this activity!
Brant and I enjoy taking these walks, and it was during them that many of my juicy stories came out. One of those was about Dracula’s head.
The Juicy Story
“Fabi. I have a question about your manuscript,” Brant asked me one evening as we walked along.
“Yes, amore.”
I always call Brant amore, which means “love” in Italian. I also call stray dogs and cats amore, so sometimes he gets confused. But not this time.
“You mention that you and your friend Simo took a train from Istanbul to Budapest. That’s quite a long trip. Why did you do it?”
“Oh, well, we were following Dracula’s head.”
Brant stopped in his tracks.
“Wait. What?!?”
“Oh yeah. I had read a book about Vlad the Impaler (aka Dracula) and how, after he was killed, monks cut off his head and took it on tour around the countries he had terrorized just to show the people that he was truly dead. I thought it would be fun to follow the path of his decapitated head.”
“Hmmm. Yes. Fun,” Brant said, looking at me strangely. “But you didn’t mention anything about that in your draft.”
“No, because we got robbed by gypsies in Romania, and I just wanted to forget the whole matter.”
Brant stopped again. “Wait. You were robbed by gypsies?!?”
Another juicy story.
Anyway, all is revealed in the book, but here’s an excerpt from Chapter 60: Dracula’s Head.
Dracula’s Head
Even though Simona is ten years younger than I am, we were perfect travel companions. She appreciated my taste for adventure and my sense of humor about the bloody vampire head. Traveling on the cheap is not for everybody; in fact, it is probably not for most people, but Simona was game. We gladly exchanged comfort for adventure and thrift. All went well until one night in Romania when our train dropped us off in Bucharest.
Train travel is generally safe, but train stations? Not so much, especially if it’s night and you are two women unsure how to get to your hostel. The Bucharest station was crowded with gypsies doing everything they could to separate hapless tourists from their money. We were panicking when, out of the din, we heard a voice speaking perfect Italian.
“Girls! Girls! I can help you!”
I looked up and saw a congenial-looking man waving at us.
“This way, girls,” he said, beckoning us to follow him. “You can’t trust anyone here. I’ll take you to a taxi.”
Nowadays, I am not so quick to trust a strange man or a taxi driver, especially in Romania, a country known for its gypsy hooligans. But in those days, I was more trusting. Plus, it was late, and we were tired.
The man knocked on the taxi window, where the driver was reading a newspaper. The driver rolled down the window, and the two had a brief exchange in Romanian.
“Are you available?” I suspected the driver was asked.
“Yes,” the driver said, looking irritated that he had been disturbed. He opened the trunk. We put our bags in and climbed into the back seat. Then, to our surprise, the Italian-speaking man got into the front seat next to the driver.
“Don’t worry, girls,” the Italian speaker said. “I just want to be sure you get to your destination.” But I wasn’t sure, and had good reason not to be. Something wasn’t right.
I gave the driver our hostel name and street address. He glanced at the directions, nodded his head, and started driving. My unease grew as the lights of Bucharest faded behind us, and the roads became narrow and dark. We eventually stopped at a remote service area.
The Italian speaker turned around and looked at me.
“Get out,” he said. “Your friend stays in the car.”
“What’s going on?” I demanded, but the driver came to my door and yanked me out of the car. He muscled me to an ATM and, pulling a baseball cap low over his head, indicated that I was to withdraw the maximum amount of 600 Euros, about $700.
I looked over at Simona, whose pale face I could see in the back of the taxi. If I ran or resisted, Simona would still be their captive. There was no way out. I had to withdraw the money, and I did.
The driver muscled me back to the taxi and shoved me in the back seat.
“Keep the money in your pocket until I tell you,” the Italian speaker said. Then, he nodded to the driver, who drove us deeper and darker into the Romanian countryside. We entered a gravel road. I could hear the rocks grinding under the car tires. Finally, we stopped at a small, dimly lit train station.
“Give me the money,” the man said. I did as he told me. “Now, get out. Both of you.”
So what happened?
The good news is Simo and I are still alive. Neither of us was harmed. But we sure were scared! Traveling as single women is not for the timid.
You can read the rest of the story in the book. The e-book is only five bucks, so what are you waiting for? Read it today!
Southeast Asia
Before I go, I want to get you caught up on our travels. Brant and I just returned from a month-long trip through Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Below are just a few pictures from that trip, including one disgusting video of an eating adventure. Yuk! Robbers and vampires are not the only scary things one encounters on the road.
Still Want More?
Brant posted more photos from our trip in his latest newsletter, which you can see from here. He’s also publishing a pretty cool podcast called “How to Tour America Through Her Music,” which blends stories about American music, musicians, history, and geography. I prefer Italian music, but I must admit his podcast captured my attention.
I’ll close with a final picture. We were asked if we could pick just one photograph from the nearly 2,000 we took in Asia, what would it be. That was a hard choice!
We picked one of me making one of my famous joy leaps, because it captures the heart and soul of travel, of being healthy, free, not too weighed down, and of the charming beauty of Southwest Thailand. I hope you like it.
With Love,
