Innocent folk
often mistake Castelul Bran near Brasov for Dracula’s real-life castle:
It
isn’t, Poenari is:
Oh, dear. Comparing the two, it isn't difficult to see why more visitors go to the former rather than the latter.
Mind
you, Brasov is definitely a must-see, one of the best preserved baroque cities in
Europe and home to Colette’s Bakery (fine wine bar upstairs) and the extraordinarily
surreal Festival ’39 restaurant. I spent a lot of time in Brasov, based in an apartment
next to Sex Shop off Republicii. When I wasn’t writing, Dimitris of Salonika plied
me with souvlaki and local prostitutes told me to ‘eat their cat’ – I suspect
something
got lost in translation – and I avoided the crowds at Bran Castle and the Vlad tankards. But I did have an encounter of the gothic kind in a high-end music bar.
The next day I return to the Art Bistro but the
painting has gone.
It
was four years ago and this is what I wrote at the time…
A
strange painting has turned up at the Art Bistro. It appeared as if by magic last night
above the bar. No one knows how it got there. In the painting is a little girl
in a black cowl sitting on the back of a two-headed red dragon. The dragon has
opened one eye and looking straight at me. The girl’s eyes are cast down at the
dragon. They appear to be in a cave but, on closer inspection, it is the
silhouette of Kronstadt forming a circle around them. Maybe the mouth of a
cave, maybe not. Is the dragon guarding the girl? The girl is the mistress of
the dragon? Guarding the city? Not a single person in the Art Bistro knows what
the painting signifies but everyone likes it.
There
is something archetypal about the painting. At first the tones and style of the
painting remind me of the work of Hieronymus Bosch: the dragon could come from
The Garden of Earthly Delights. But then I’m not so sure. It’s too
gentle, connecting. Then I look at the girl again. Now I get it: the creatures
and people in Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away. Western and Eastern
archetypal connections.
