Then it started to rain � and in typical Gypsy fashion, I was ushered inside to dry by the fire, fed a soup (they eat a lot of watery soups). As night came to fall I was offered a shared bed to sleep.
The next day I was back on the road tearing up through the neighboring valley towards the �real� castle Dracula. Though castle Bran is where all the tourist flock to get in touch with the infamous Vlad The Impaler, he likely never set foot over its threshold, but it�s at Poienari Castle, in Arges, that The Impaler personally renovated (with the use of his Gypsy slaves) and in just the nick of time because within a few years he was besiege there by the furious Turks.
Dracula escaped through a secret tunnel (not yet uncovered in the excavations) and in just the nick of time though in his haste he left behind his wife, the poor woman, so terrified of falling into the hands of the demonic Turks, she threw herself off the parapets into the river bellow. To this day the water running by the base of the citadel is still referred to as �The Ladies River�.
I had heard about the world-renowned Gypsy band Taraf de Haidouks still residing in their village Clejani outside Bucharest and how fame and fortune could not change them. I went to see for myself�
But before rushing in and making the plunge I stopped off to speak with musicologist Sperantsa Radulescu, author of the book, Hop and Trot Around Europe, an often comical look at the village Gypsies� first European tour.
�The musicians of Clejani are the most Gypsy professional musicians I have ever heard. I mean they are more �Gypsy� than the others. Most of the Gypsy musicians are very integrated into the Romanian society, I mean very assimilate, some even refuse to be called Roma � they prefer to be called Gypsies. They say we are not Roma as those stealing on television, but those of Clejani are not so different � they are the most Gypsy musicians � you understand? � their behavior, everything.�
What first struck me, and right away, was the near ruins the place was in. The homes were dilapidated little dwellings with plaster chipping off the front right on down to its bone lath underbelly, heavily patched and re-patched roofs, little windows and scuffed up wooden doors. There was no plumbing; in the back were crookedly standing outhouses, some without doors. Overhead electrical wires were intersecting themselves (they were stealing power). By the look of things it wasn�t unlike many other impoverished Gypsy communities where unemployment reached nearly 100% and the life was cruel, but here the band was world renowned, regularly putting out award winning albums and regularly touring across Europe, to the Americas and Japan�
�I know that they have earned a lot of money, but they spend it on the spot. After they finish their earning of the tour they start making depts. Then they have to tour again to pay them,� Ms. Radulescu had earlier explained. �It�s not that they are really poor, but I don�t know how they manage to not have any money at all.�
Well, they weren�t only poor but they were dirty as well, I mean they were thieves. I was warmly taken in and while being fed and entertained in one room (especially by the young women), others in the back room were conspiring against me.