"You have your orders" are the last words I heard before I left port for Romania. Agent 2 and I met at the rendezvous point in the port of Braila. We decided to get there by boat since it would cost $529 to get to Romania from San Diego. Agent 2 is a special ops personnel sent from the C.I.A. I (agent 1) am an internal affairs officer sent by the United States embassy service. Our mission: to investigate a recent communication cut off from the United States embassy in Bucharest (Bucharest is the capital of Romania). In the past few weeks there has been a blackout of communication from the U.S. embassy in Bucharest and satellite pictures show no human movement in the embassy or near by area, which is odd because more than half of the Romanian population live in large cities such as Bucharest. Our cover up story was going to be to be two historians that were studying up on the medieval castles that are spread around Romania. After looking at the map, which I received in our mission file provided by another counterpart waiting for us in Braila, I noticed that the bordering countries of Romania are Ukraine, Bulgaria, Hungary, Moldova, Serbia and Montenegro.
Our counter part put shook our hands and put (hers out first which is a traditional greeting) us on a bus and we were on are way to Bucharest.
While riding the bus we passed by a huge building with a bright red roof with people outside paying their respects by bowing and kissing a picture of a saint and then making the sign of the cross and we were told by someone sitting nearby that it was a Romanian Orthodox Church. The person informed us that when people from the Eastern Orthodox Church did this, it meant it was the feast day of a particular saint. He also told us that 87% of the Romanian population is Eastern Orthodox, 6.8% Protestant, 5.6% Roman Catholic, .6% other. Not very interested in all this information, Agent 2 asked him how he knew all these random facts. He replied, "I’m a religious scholar." He then asked us what our business in Romania is. We told him we were here to study the medieval castles in Romania. He then added "I hear there has been a big hype about Dracula’s castle lately". I disregarded his last statement because I was paying attention to the side of the bus where I noticed an advertisement poster for a Romanian countryside tour that was listed in three different languages (Romanian, German, and Hungarian). It showed some historical landmarks that were to be covered on the tour: Famous Black Church of Brasov, the Hot Sulphur Springs of Hercules, the historical Clock Tower of Sigishora and of course Dracula's Castle which was followed by a brief history: Dracula‘s castle or Brans castle as it is properly called was built by the knights of the Teutonic order as a fortress in the year 1212,later in the 13th century it was taken over by the Saxons to protect the city of Brasov an important trade center. Vlad Tepes (Dracula) used the castle as headquarters for his incursions in Transylvania. "How interesting!" said agent 2? I also noticed a poster that announced the Romanian new years and what was strange is it said January 1st and 2nd. I pointed out the weird date to agent 2 and the annoying man next to us overheard and couldn’t help but in. “in Romania it is traditional to celebrate holidays for two days not just one. This includes independence day and labor day,“ the man said. “What do you do for the two days?“ said agent two. “Well there is a traditional festival called “pleural“ where boys dressed in colorful sheepskin outfits pull a small plow through villages, wishing everyone good health and fortune for the new year“ the man replied. Before I could stop him agent two asked about Christmas in Romania, I thought here we go again with Mr. Fact man.” Christmas is celebrated in the traditional way in Romania but you will not see any advertisement for it or decoration because the government doesn’t consider in a official holiday and atheistic propaganda opposes this holiday” the man blurted out like a book. Lucky for us we had reached are destination and I wished the man good health.
As we were stepping of the bus, the driver said, "Buna ziua" which is Romanian for good day. Once we got off at our stop (Bucharest, Romania) we noticed that no other people got off at our stop. We were dropped off two miles from the embassy building. Before the bus driver drove away, I asked him why he had dropped us so far away from the museum of medieval architecture (which was near the embassy building). He just laughed and drove away. We soon realized that the whole town was deserted, not a person in sight. We decided to walk to the embassy where we found the front gate wide open. This was unusual for a United States embassy, which was usually guarded by marines. As we walked into the building, we soon discovered it was ransacked and drenched in blood! Upon further investigation, agent 2 noticed that none of the important documents or secret files had been taken from the building. "How weird", I said. "That must have not been the reason for the break in", said agent 2. In the corner of the room, I spotted a phone with a phone book next to it. I looked up the government building of the republic of Romania and picked up the phone. "There’s no dial tone," said agent 2. "I already tried." He was right; the cord for the phone had been cut.
We decided to walk to the government building for further investigation since the telephone wasn’t working. We entered the unlocked doors of the government building. On the walls, I could see plaques lighted by the moonlight, which was shining through the windows. The first plaque stated: "May 9, 1878. Romania proclaims independence from Turkey under the treaty of Berlin." The second plaque said: "March 26, 1881: Romania is proclaimed a kingdom." The third plaque stated: "December 13, 1947: Romania proclaims itself a republic." I thought I saw a fourth plaque further down the hall, but I stopped short when I heard footsteps behind me. When I turned around, there was a bloody figure of a man limping along and he whispered, "It was Dracula." and then dropped dead on the floor, mysteriously. I took a good look at the elderly man with a odd long gray beard and then called agent 2 over, who was investigating in one of the other rooms, and told him what had happened. We immediately contacted the CIA and they told us to further investigate the perpetrator who had broken into the embassy. We hadn’t mentioned the man who mentioned Dracula and died mysteriously because the CIA wouldn’t believe us. Slightly spooked about what had happened previously, we decided to call it a day and check into the hotel, which was located at the base of the Transylvania Alps in the town of Pitesti.
In the hotel room, we noticed the same advertisement we had previously seen on the bus on the bookshelf. Agent 2 said, "Hey that goes to Dracula’s castle. We should attend the tour so that we can find out more information." That night we went down to the dining hall. We looked at the menu and the waitress came to take our order. “Noapte buna,” she said, which means “good evening” according to my Romanian-English pocket dictionary, which the CIA equipped me with. I quickly looked up the translation for “I don’t speak Romanian” and said to her, “nu vorbesc romanes, te”. Then agent 2, quickly glancing down at his book said, “vorbit, I englezes, te?” (Do you speak English?). She replied, “Da. I mean yes.” We decided to order the typical Romanian meal. While we waited for our food, agent 2 and I occupied ourselves by reading pamphlet on the side of the table called “Romania: A Tourist Guide for Dummies”. Since we were in the mood for food, we looked up Romanian staple foods in the pamphlet. It said: Mamaliga - a cornmeal mush, is the Romanian all purpose staple food. Hot, cold, fried, it is delicious in melted butter, sour cream or yogurts, garnished with salted herring and cottage cheese, or eaten with eggs for breakfast, and added to meat dishes. Other favorites include Moldavian Borsh, a hearty sour meat soup, and Mititei, made with highly seasoned minced meat and grilled. These make tasty snacks and can be ordered in cafes and restaurants. When our meal arrived, it consisted of a shot of palenka, followed by a bowl of cirob (soup) which was served with a dollop of smetlana (soured cream). We then had ardei umpluti (stuffed peppers). For dessert, we had apple turnovers, and washed it down with some good Romanian wine. We then went back to the hotel room and decided to watch some late night television. To our dismay, the only channel available was the Romanian history channel. We decided to watch it before we went to bed. They happened to be showing the history of the Romanian government. Before we dozed off, I watched a brief segment of the history of the Romanian government and happened to remember the following information about the government: The president (currently Ion Iliescu) is head of state but also has broader powers. Romania's Prime Minister (currently Adrian Nãstase) is head of government that rules over the 22,317,730 people of Romania. The country's bicameral Parliament has a 143-seat Senate and a 343-seat Chamber of Deputies. There are also local governments for each of Romania's 40 countri……..and then I dozed off.
The next morning, we called the tour service and they picked us up in the tour van and dropped us off at Dracula’s castle in Transylvania. We noticed a crowd of people there, and agent 2 stopped to ask someone what was going on. "It’s the International Folklore Festival!" he exclaimed. "This year they’re holding it at Dracula’s castle." I looked up at the castle and realize how amazing it was. "Wow! I wonder this was built." The man we were talking to said, "Count Dracula used a lot of the natural resources in Transylvania to construct his castle and for everyday life as well. Some of these natural resources are: timber which he used for a lot of the castles structure, natural gas which is used as a fuel, coal (used to make electricity), salt (used in various foods), and arable land (used for growing crops)."
Agent two and looked around the festival and saw hundreds of people gathered around. All of a sudden I remembered what the man on the bus about the hype at Dracula’s castle. Agent 2 and I continued investigating around the castle when we came upon a group of people crowded around a guy on a stage who was giving information about Dracula’s castle and why it should remain as one of Romania’s important landmarks and tourist attractions. I noticed that the guy kept his hands out of his pockets while speaking to the crowd of people. I then remembered reading a portion of the Romanian travel guide earlier: “It is impolite for men to keep their hands in their pockets when speaking to women, officials, older people, or a large audience.” This is an important Romanian gesture. Agent 2 pointed out to me, “Hey, isn’t that the guy from the government building?” “It can’t be. That guy died right in front of my eyes!” Then I noticed that the guy looked oddly familiar. “Maybe we should question him after he gets off the stage” I said. “Sounds like a good idea” replied agent 2. After about 15 minutes, the elderly man with the long, gray beard exited the stage. Agent 2 and I swiftly approached him and stopped him in his tracks. As soon as he looked at us, he realized who we were and seemed quite frightened. “Did you happen to be in Bucharest yesterday?” agent 2 interrogated him. “In the government building, perhaps?” I said. Sweat rolled down the face of the elderly man. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” The elderly man lied. “I was here promoting the castle here all day yesterday.” As I began to walk away, I noticed a bit of a red substance on his neck. “Hold it right there!” I said. “What’s that on your neck?” Realizing we knew about his scheme, he began to break down into tears. “I did it….alright, I confess!! I dressed up like Dracula….a-and spooked the people out of the town, and the people that wouldn’t go (like the marines at the embassy), I kidnapped by force. I poured ketchup everywhere to make it look like blood.” the man said. “Whenever tourists such as you came, I made to scare them off with the dead man routine, mentioning Dracula in the nick of time. Of course you American tourists love horror and adventure, so I knew you would go straight to Dracula’s castle.” “What motive did you have to commit such an act?” I questioned him, confused. “Where are the marines and the rest of the people?” Agent 2 cut in. Extremely frightened for the thought of repercussions, he hesitantly said, “They’re I-in t--the dungeon of the c-castle. Don’t worry though, I gave them food a-an-and warm c-clothing.” He quickly added. At this point the man was shaking tremendously. “What was your motive?!” I asked for the second time. “This country is falling apart.” he replied.” “The GNP is only $1,120 of your US dollars, and tourism is your biggest business and has been declining in recent years. In this communist state, so many people are extremely poor and it’s very hard to survive. I was just trying to be a good Romanian citizen and do the best for my fellow Romanians. Three major jobs in this country are auto assembly, mining, and food processing. When all three of these classes get paid the same, there is no way our country will prosper. Tourism is all we have to survive.” At this point the man was sobbing so much that it was hard to make out what he was saying. He was on his knees, pleading to agent 2 and me, “I didn’t mean to hurt anybody. I just thought if I could scare people out of the town and attract people to Dracula’s castle I could raise the number of tourists in this country.” I looked at agent 2, almost feeling sorry for the man. “Point us to the kidnapped victims!” agent 2 demanded. Staggering through the crowds, he showed us a doorway that on the other side had a spiral staircase that seemed to have taken an hour to come down. At the bottom he opened a locked door and there were over 20 people lying on the ground, obviously exhausted, pale, and underfed.”
We road the train (the most common link of transportation between cities in Romania), back to Braila with the man in our custody. The CIA informed us that he was to be taken back to the United States because he broke into an embassy and kidnapped two marines which is a international federal offense. I was also informed the Romanian government had agreed to release the man into our custody.
On the way to the airport in Braila, I noticed for the first time the simplicity of Romanian life, with many people riding bikes or donkey-drawn carts. Deep in the bottom of my heart, I thought someday I should return to this beautiful place, not only to visit but to live out the rest of my life in this wonderful land of simplicity and beauty.
In the end, we felt good inside because we had accomplished our mission and restored the embassy in Bucharest. Eventually, after realizing it was all a hoax, many people returned to the city, and are living a normal life to this day. Although the man’s goal wasn’t thought out very well, he did accomplish a boost in the tourism industry for Romania. Many people want to visit Dracula’s castle making it one of the top destinations for tourists overall in Romania. In our opinion, Romania is a wonderful place to visit with its beautiful beaches, medieval castles and towns, and elegant rolling hills. We recommend anybody planning to take a vacation in Europe to stop by Romania to enjoy a little peace of heaven.
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