Backpacking with Dracula: On the Trail of Vlad “the Impaler” Dracula and the Vampire He Inspired

by Leif Pettersen

The undisputed A-lister among Transylvania’s cabaret of supernatural blood-drainers and face-eaters, Count Dracula is both a publicist’s dream and nightmare. Like Donald Trump, despite unremitting horrifying behavior, the public can’t get enough of him even after more than a century of being name-dropped in literature, TV and film.

Little known to most people is that our vampire friend is the namesake of someone with similar PR challenges, Vlad “Tepes” Dracula, the extravagantly mustachioed 15th century Prince of Wallachia. Depending on which medieval gossip magazine you read, Tepes was characterized as a brutal tyrant, a hero, a traumatized child who became a psychopath, a passionate leader whose reign brought order to a kingdom in chaos, scourge of the overwhelming forces of the Ottoman Empire and/or a textbook sadist who prolifically impaled tens of thousands of enemies.

Backpacking with Dracula is my quest to explore fact, legend and fiction (and the copious, delectable gray areas), sifting through the divergent, sometimes fantastic stories about the mercurial prince and modern confusion with the vampire.

As I peel away these layers, I’ll share my accumulated knowledge of modern day Romania, where I lived and traveled for a cumulative two years while researching multiple editions of Lonely Planet guidebooks.

My quest explores Wallachia and Transylvania, the respective homelands of the prince and the count, located in modern day Romania. This tour will focus on visiting surviving sites associated with Vlad including Transylvania’s Bran Castle, where Vlad briefly stayed (or was possibly imprisoned - it’s complicated); the ruins of his stronghold, Poenari Citadel, in Wallachia; Vlad’s boyhood home (now a restaurant) in Sighisoara; and the ruins of Wallachia’s Princely Court in Târgoviste.

Finally, I’ll delve into the various theories of Vlad’s final resting place - minus his head, which, in lieu of a Snapchat photo, we know was bagged and shipped directly to a relieved Sultan Mehmed II in Constantinople as confirmation of his death.

Vlad was like the Jack Bauer of Wallachia: patriotic almost to a fault, steadfast in defending the region from external enemies and internal provocateurs, misunderstood by co-workers and quick to punch anyone in the face that got in his way. In the surprisingly brief seven non-consecutive years of his rule (1448; 1456–1462; 1476), he staked ass and took names, using pure terror to virtually wipe out crime and corruption in his principality and, on multiple occasions, repulsed and scared the bejesus out of Ottoman invaders.

Four centuries removed from the facts, such as they were, Bram Stoker’s fictional, bloodsucking Count Dracula recast Tepes as an undead corpse reliant on the blood of the living to sustain his immortality. Though he never set foot in Romania, had Stoker made the journey he would have enjoyed a wealth of additional vampire material, being that vampires formed an integral part of the region’s extensive folklore.

Vlad Tepes died in 1476, and Bram Stoker in 1912, yet Count Dracula lives on in an extraordinary subculture of literature, TV and film. The original Dracula novel has never been out of print.

Buzz for Backpacking with Dracula:

"Leif Pettersen has sucked the life *into* the Dracula phenomenon. He mines his topic expertly, leaving no coffin unturned, weaving the hard-to-put-down narrative between his own travels in Romania and centuries past."

– David Farley, author of An Irreverent Curiosity

"Most people try to stay far away from bloodthirsty tyrants, but luckily for us, Leif Pettersen has plunged straight ahead

Genres: Travel, History, Nonfiction

269 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 27, 2016

Reviews

[Esme · Rating 3 out of 5]

I debated whether to rate this a 3 or 4 star, I enjoyed the humor in it (if you don't like cursing this book won't be for you).

It's written by a person who's actually been to the Dracula castle multiple times, and clearly has a good deal of background knowledge of not only Dracula, but the history of Transylvania and Romania (where Transylvania is now located).

I knew vaguely that Dracula the vampire was based off a psychopath who lived a long time ago, but didn't know much more than that, and I thought a funny book might lighten the mood of the horrors he inflicted on people - and it did to a point..

This guy was a total wack job, killing people for no more reason than he found them irritating, and he did it in some of the most creative and brutal ways I've ever heard about, and I know about Caligula and his nutbaggery.

He obviously loved impaling people, his nick name is Vlad the Impaler, but he did it on such a scale it's hard to believe that the claims aren't exaggerated. At one point it's said that he had over 20,000 people impaled all around his castle as a deterrent to invaders to stay away from his castle, and it worked. I mean, why wouldn't it, that's insanity. He loved to eat while he watched people get impaled, and impaling wasn't his only execution method - he skinned people alive, cut off body parts, boiled people alive etc. He just loved watching people die in agony, and even for the brutal times which he lived, he took it a step above the rest and stood out as a Tyrant among tyrants.

There was a lot of history of romania in this book going up to modern times, and that was interesting to learn about as well. And since he has personal experience in the towns he writes about, you get an in depth view of towns, castles and ruins the book is referring to which is really nice, you even get some travel tips if you ever plan on going there.

So, why 3 stars?

The book is pretty disjointed, within the same page you could jump from the 1400's to modern times, back to the 1600's and back again. It would have read much better if he talked about each of those periods in different chapters, or at least different sections within the same chapters, it made it really difficult to follow sometimes. I had to re-read a few times to figure out what was going on.

I still may bump this up to 4 stars, I'm not sure, overall I think it's like a 3.5 - 3.7, lots of good info and humor, but it feels like it was put into a blender.

http://weatherwaxreport.blog

[Suanne Laqueur · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those who enjoy this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they will enjoy. I personally do enjoy this sort of thing, and I thoroughly enjoyed this.

[Seamus Geraghty · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best-written books I've read in quite a while. Hysterical and incredibly informative. I'm going to have to book a ticket back to Romania after reading this.

[Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is fun if you like Bill Bryson's earlier travel stuff. Pettersen is talented as a writer, and if you're looking for a tongue-in-cheek romp through Dracula's castles, this is fun. Personally, and perhaps sadly, I feel - as with such books as "Eat, Pray, Love"(which this is NOT) - that I might have outgrown this style. I'm not sure whether to grieve over that...

[Zee Monodee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! It made me think a lot of being a behind-the-stage look at the myth of Dracula (and I couldn't help but think of the animated movie Hotel Transylvania here, sorry, LOL).
This was very well researched, but what I absolutely loved about it was the easy prose and quick reading this book proved to be. It's part guidebook, part historical narrative, part satire with lots of personal commentary from the author (which is frankly hilarious at times!). All history and geography and myth buffs should make this a must-read!

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars
Backpacking With Dracula is a funny and unexpectedly thoughtful blend of travelogue, history lesson, and cultural myth-busting. Leif Pettersen writes with a bit of snarky humor that I'm sure some readers should be prepared for as he tends to poke at sacred cows, but beneath the jokes is a genuinely well-researched exploration of Romania, Vlad Țepeș, and the massive gap between Western vampire fantasies and Romanian reality.

What I appreciated most was how the book uses travel as transformation. Through misadventures, interviews, and historical digressions, Pettersen exposes the cultural misconceptions outsiders bring to Romania while also revealing a deeper, more complex picture of Vlad the Impaler. The Vlad we meet here is neither pure monster nor pure hero, but a brutally effective leader shaped by the politics and violence of his time.

[Natalie Pavlis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Extremely easy to read but HIGHLY biased account of some historical information. He should stick to his skill as a travel writer as he obviously does not know how to present history (calling King Matthias Corvinus, a King associated with learning and the Humanities, an “asshat” does nothing for being taken as a serious writer. The book is a decent account of some places in Transylvania and Wallachia but there are far better history books written about Vlad Tepes that it’s best to just skim over the author’s attempts to tell it.

[Lola Akinmade Åkerström · Rating 5 out of 5]

t's been awhile since I've laughed out loud like a madwoman on the subway where the loudest sound one should make is breathing! The author needs to write every history book from now on with his signature wit. He has successfully managed to make an otherwise difficult-to-swallow dry history not only entertaining, but also memorable. I can actually remember ancient Romanian history now. What a gift! Even the footnotes at the bottom of each page are priceless. I highly recommend this hilarious book which is part history, part travel guide, part comic relief. Loved it!

[Conrad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know how a tourist guidebook ended up on my reading list. I had no intention of visiting Romania, but now I am kind of interested. Pettersen finds a way to make the topic interesting and fun as he describes Vlad the Impaler's life, gives the tour guide info on where he's been and what to see when you're there, and ties it all together with Dracula and vampire history. Plus, I'm so much more interested in reading a Vlad Tepes book on battle strategy than Art of War, after reading some of his techniques against the Ottomans.

[Kathleen Huben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Combines the history of Vlad the Impaler, the historical figure on which Dracula is based,with a sort of guidebook to various locations in Romania and Transylvania. It's a period of history (and location) that I knew virtually nothing about.
It was kind of interesting but I found the author's attempt to make it kind of light-hearted and humorous a little too forced.

[Jennifer Royan · Rating 1 out of 5]

60 pages in and I’ve already come across two errors or missed opportunities to expand on the history of Vlad and Romania. Worthless to my research!

[Larry Schoeneman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, well written and fun

A really fun journey through Romania and the life of the real Dracula. Particularly detailed discussion of touring romania and its history

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny, but won’t be visiting Romania

I loved the author’s writing style, but the book convinced me not to go to Romania for a Dracula themed trip.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought that Minneapolis juggler and travel writer (Lonely Planets) Leif Pettersen’s style was too jaunty and too sarcastic in Backpacking with Dracula. Pettersen details the military successes of Vlad III/Vlad Dracula, “the Impaler,” who was voivode (ruling prince) of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death in January of 1477. Vlad III in resisted (and scared) Ottoman, Transylvanian Saxon, and Hungarian invaders. Vlad III remains a national hero in Romania (which encompasses Wallachia) and Pettersen writes about surviving sites, most notably Poeianari Castle.

Bram Stoker, who never traveled to Romania, borrowed (from German polemics) a horrorshow view of a vampire he named Dracula in his 1897 novel that I don’t think has ever been out of print in English—or in print in Romania.

Pettersen also writes jauntily of the rebellion that led to the shooting of the Ceausescus 1989 for genocide and destroying the Romanian economy. The communist dictator was also from Wallachia (between the Danube and the Carpathian mountains).

Between reporting history that is gratingly insensitive to the suffering inflicted by Wallachian rulers and others in the 15th and 20th centuries, Pettersen includes travel-guide accounts of various places.

There is no evidence that he backpacked during any of his Lonely Planet assignments of researching Romania. His travel seems to have been entirely by rental car, and the first work of the title seems to me false advertising, though the subtitle “On the Trail of Vlad the Impaler and the Vampire He Inspired” is quite accurate.

The book is probably somewhat useful to travelers to Romania (though I’m pretty sure that it is less so than the Lonely Planet guidebooks to which he contributed) and is entertaining for those with a Monty Pythonish sense of humor extending to breeziness about torture and starvation. Not that Pettersen condones the conduct of Vlad Dracula, writing that “even in an era when human life was unbelievably cheap, onein which witnessing death was a regular occurrence for most people, these gory, slow-motion spectacles must have been appalling.”

The print is very large (18 point, I think) which makes it easy to read even with dim light and stretches the book to 265 pages.

[Vitalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read for people looking for some background info on Dracula or Romania (or both). It's a blend of a historical documentary, a travel guide and satirical reflection of all things Dracula. Read this and you'll giggle each time you see a Dracula-inspired movie.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

good sense of humour, mix of travel guide crossed with history from a guy who's been to the region.

[Nathan]

Some juggler from the Cities tweeted about me so I checked his book out of the library.