Ever since I read Twilight, my husband's been, erm, harassing me to read a "real" vampire story. So, I'm currently reading Dracula, by Bram Stoker. One of our family's goals for the year is to learn something new every month. This month we chose "places around the world". We all decided to pick somewhere individually and then at the end of the month, share what we've learned with each other.
I picked Transylvania, since I'm sort of in the middle of it at the moment. I have to admit - and this may be due to my hair color, that or shear ignorance - I didn't know it was a real place. I totally thought it was fictitious! Nope. It's real. ;)
Although, my library is lacking on information about it... I'm thinking of looking up Romania, to see if that helps. Anyway, I did find this book, which is a children's book, but that didn't stop me.
I learned that Dracula means "son of the dragon", since Dracul means "dragon". Dracula was based on a real person, Vlad the Impaler... and his dad was known as Dracul, so Vlad became, well, Dracula. He was a cruel prince who used to impale his enemies. He'd invite the poor over for dinner, then lock them in and burn the place to the ground. Nice, right? And the castle he lived in, now also known as Castle Dracula, was Castle Bran and really exists. This is what Bram based his character and castle on, I read.
Nice, huh? Apparently, one can visit this castle and roam freely about. How awesome would that be?
Anyway, I also learned that, according to legend, vampires can take many forms, not just bats.
It was a quick read, of course (like 10 minutes? maybe less?), but it was interesting.
Dracula's quite interesting, but I don't have much reading time these days so I'm slowly working my way through it...
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