A look at Dracula is Dead
This weekend, in The Baltimore Sun, Sam Sessa takes a look at "Dracula is Dead," a new book about Romania by the husband-wife team of James C. Rosapepe and Sheilah Kast. Rosapepe was U.S. ambassador to the country from 1998 to 2001, and Kast is the host of WYPR's “Maryland Morning” show. They take "a conversational tour through the often-overlooked Eastern European country," the article says. Here's an excerpt from Sessa's report: Romania is populated with technological entrepreneurs, hard-working young people and plenty of art, music and culture, Rosapepe and Kast said. Tourists might not put Bucharest at the top of their list, but a visit to the Romanian capital and the rest of the country is worth undertaking.
“Americans who visited Romania got entranced with the place,” Rosapepe said. “They speak English, they’re pro-American, they’re nice people. It’s a very interesting culture and history.”
Perhaps Romania’s most persistent myth revolves around Vlad Dracul, the basis for Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.” Also known as Vlad the Impaler, the Transylvanian prince is revered by Romanians several centuries after his death, Kast and Rosapepe write. Though Vlad’s preferred punishment was impaling his victims, the legend of him being a blood-sucking demon helps boost Transylvania’s tourism trade.
“I do think since Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula,’ the vampire legend has made Romania seem really exotic,” Kast said. “People think it’s a real adventure to go there. It is an adventure — but not a scary one.”
Photo of Romanian Athenaeum in downtown Bucharest
While she always preferred The Hardy Boys to Nancy Drew, 
