• Chasing Dracula

    Navigating Rural Romania

    Let’s visit Romania together!  We can go either by train or car, you decide.  Either way there is so much waiting for us to explore.  Romania is one of those magical places with hidden gems everywhere.  The countryside and Old Town squares will transport you to a different time in history.  Equally, the modernization of the larger cities, such as Bucharest, will welcome you to a fabulous time in a beautiful Eastern European corner of the world. Let’s get started shall we! Here in Romania, you have two options to see the countryside as mentioned above: by train or by car.  The trains here are very slow moving, unlike the high…

  • Chasing Dracula

    A Visit to Poenari Castle

    At the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, lies one of medieval history’s oldest citadel’s that once housed a Wallachian Prince who would become one of Romania’s most notorious leaders, Vlad Tepes III.  Since I was a little girl, I’ve always had a fascination with Count Dracula, and have also enjoyed many of the Grimm Fairytales and folklore. OK, if I’m being completely honest, my love of counts started when I was three years old with “Count von Count” from Sesame Street.  Later, I moved on to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and eventually onto learning the real life history of Vlad Tepes III.  Kermit the Frog was nice and all, but Count von Count really was…

  • Chasing the Vikings

    Chasing the Vikings – Series Coming Soon

    Chasing the Vikings: An anthology of one NP Explorers travels through Norway   Coming soon to the Native Pulse’s exploration site and spirit museum, I will be bringing you a series called “Chasing the Vikings” as part of my travels through the Artic Circle as we search for Viking remnants including Viking Age Settlements and villages, burial mounds, excavated Viking ships, Stave Churches, and much more from the time of the Norsemen.  Look for some GREAT Scandinavian information soon to come!

  • Upcoming

    Climbing the Nigardsbreen Glacier in Northern Norway

    As part of the “Chasing the Vikings” series, I will be leaving Oslo to head north into what could be called “Chasing the Glaciers”.  Although it is not hard to spot the many glaciers in Norway, there are well over a thousand of them and “chasing them” is hardly the right term since they move at a glacial pace (see what I did there!).  However, these glaciers are melting away at an alarming rate.  So, chase you must if you want to see them.  The glacier that I will be on a mission to climb is called the Nigardsbreen.  This glacier, which is an arm of the much larger Jostedalsbreen Glacier, will be…

  • Chasing Dracula

    Capturing Medieval History: My Five Day Romanian Adventure

    The premier reason for my Romanian travel was to trace the 15th century medieval history of the Wallachia, Transylvania, and Banat regions of Romania.  This would especially include the legend of Count Dracula and the history of Vlad Tepes III as I would set out to separate historical facts from fiction to seek information on the man, the myth and the legend of Dracula, bwahahaha!  With that said, however, there is so much more to Romania than just Dracula. I may have made Vlad the main theme of my travel here, but a visit to Romania transcends you to another place in time.  There are many towns to explore with…