Taliban, the History of Afghanistan and its People, Silent Heroes Book Extract

Taliban, the history of Afghanistan and its people, read a book extract from my novel Silent Heroes, FREE to download from Amazon on the 19th and 20th of August, today and tomorrow.

10/08/202129/04/2022

Rucăr Bran Corridor, Romantic, Beautiful, Charming, Historical Uphill #Im4Ro

Strolling uphill from Rucăr to Bran is like walking through a dream-like space among villages lost in time, and under the watchful eye of millennial Bucegi – Leaota mountains on one side, and the spectacular Piatra Craiului, Prince’s Stone (like a sleeping dragon covered with a blanket of clouds) and Iezer on the other.

Rucăr is located in Arges County, the historical province of Wallachia, while Rucăr-Bran Pass and Bran Castle are located in neighboring Brasov County, in the historical province of Transylvania.

Yet the beauty of the natural passthat winds uphill from Rucăr, through a mountain corridor, to finally reach Bran Castle lies not only in the nature surrounding it, or in the history trapped underfoot, but also in the memories it carries.

15/07/202129/04/2022

Dreamy Blues, Authentic 1885 Tulcea House by the Black Sea #Im4Ro

Window shutters painted in dreamy blues adorn an authentic house from 1885 Tulcea, a Romanian county spreading between Danube and the Black Sea.

Window shutters painted in dreamy blues adorn an authentic house from 1885 Tulcea, that dips its shores in both the Danube and the Black Sea. You can visit it now, on my blog, or at the Village Museum in Bucharest, Romania.

We have a Romanian saying, Omul sfinţeşte locul, in English it carries the same meaning as “a good farmer makes a good farm.”

09/07/202129/04/2022

A House with Blue-Framed Windows from Transylvania #Im4Ro

A House with Blue-Framed Windows from Transylvania belonging to the free country people, the jeleri of 19th century. A page of history.

A charming tiny farm house with blue-framed windows from the village Dumitra, Alba County, Transylvania, Romania, for Jude’s Life in Colour Photo Challenge 2021 🙂

01/07/202117/10/2021

A New Literary Comparison, Bram Stoker’s Dracula – Vlad the Impaler

New Literary Comparison Bram Stoker Dracula Vlad Impaler

A reader’s literary comparison between Bram Stoker’s Gothic character Dracula and Wallachian Voivode Vlad the Impaler, aka Vlad Dracula.

I was reading through the notes Bram Stoker made prior to writing his gothic Dracula novel – the originals should be in Rosenbach Museum & Library of Philadelphia. Like many of you, I know that the opinions are divided between scholars and fans who believe that Stoker used Vlad the Impaler as his inspiration for Dracula, and those who do not.

If my scientific background taught me anything, is to research and draw my own conclusions. So here we go, looking at Bram Stoker’s notes and at how he portrayed his literary character Count Dracula and comparing them to what historical documents and sources tell us about Vlad the Impaler the man, aka Vlad Dracula, Vlad III, Voivode of Wallachia.