Reading Around the World: Romania

Reading Around the World is a feature that combines my love of travelling with my love of reading. Each month I plan to spotlight either a city I have visited, or a city I plan to visit in the near future, and recommend some of my favourite books set there. After all even if you can’t visit these cities yourself the next best thing has to be reading about them and living the experience through the eyes of the characters.

Romania isn’t a place I would say I was desperate to visit, but I did have a brilliant time on my tour. My friend and I travelled from Bucharest to Brasov to Bâlea Lake, from Peles Castle to Bran Castle, we took in what Romania had to offer and there was a lot. Bucharest felt like a very typical capital city, but Brasov was like something out of a fairytale with its quaint houses, towering mountains and winding roads. Bâlea Lake was breathtaking, and Peles Castle was one of the most gorgeous buildings I’d ever seen.

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The Conqueror’s Saga by Kiersten White is a retelling of Vlad the Impaler’s story but told with a female Vlad. While the first book largely takes place in the Ottoman Empire as Lada and Radu become the sultans war hostages Romania, or Wallachia, is still a large part of the story and a huge part of Lada’s life as well. Wallachia is her home and no matter how far away she is it calls to her.

And of course, of course, I couldn’t talk about Romania without mentioning Dracula by Bram Stoker. I haven’t read this book myself (I’m not a massive fan of the classics genre which I think most people know about my by now) but if I’m ever tempted to pick up a classic book it would be this one.

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Have you ever been to Romania before; what was your favourite part of the city to see and explore? Also what are some of the amazing books you’ve read set in Romania, that you’d recommend? Let me know in the comments.