Dracula bram stoker

Dracula

By

Bram Stoker

Dracula
Chapter 1

Jonathan Harker’s Journal
3 May. Bistritz.—Left Munich at 8:35 P.M., on 1st May,
arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived
at 6:46, but train was an hour late. Buda-Pesth seems a wonderful
place, from the glimpse which I got of it from the
train and the little I could walk through the streets. I feared
to go very farfrom the station, as we had arrived late and
would start as near the correct time as possible.
The impression I had was that we were leaving the West
and entering the East; the most western of splendid bridges
over the Danube, which is here of noble width and depth,
took us among the traditions of Turkish rule.
We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall to
Klausenburgh. Here Istopped for the night at the Hotel
Royale. I had for dinner, or rather supper, a chicken done up
some way with red pepper, which was very good but thirsty.
(Mem. get recipe for Mina.) I asked the waiter, and he said it
was called ‘paprika hendl,’ and that, as it was a national dish,
I should be able to get it anywhere along the Carpathians.
I found my smattering of German very useful here,indeed,
I don’t know how I should be able to get on without
it.
Having had some time at my disposal when in London,
I had visited the British Museum, and made search among
the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania;
it had struck me that some foreknowledge of the country
could hardly fail to have some importance in dealing with a
nobleman of that country.
I find that the districthe named is in the extreme east of
the country, just on the borders of three states, Transylvania,
Moldavia, and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian
mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of
Europe.
I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact
locality of the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of
this country as yet to compare with our own OrdanceSurvey
Maps; but I found that Bistritz, the post town named
by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known place. I shall enter
here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory
when I talk over my travels with Mina.
In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct
nationalities: Saxons in the South, and mixed with them the
Wallachs, who are the descendants of the Dacians; Magyars
in theWest, and Szekelys in the East and North. I am going
among the latter, who claim to be descended from Attila
and the Huns. This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered
the country in the eleventh century they found the
Huns settled in it.
I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered
into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the
centre of some sort ofimaginative whirlpool; if so my stay
may be very interesting. (Mem., I must ask the Count all
about them.)
I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable
enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams. There was a dog
howling all night under my window, which may have had
something to do with it; or it may have been the paprika,
for I had to drink up all the water in my carafe, and was
stillthirsty. Towards morning I slept and was wakened by
the continuous knocking at my door, so I guess I must have
been sleeping soundly then.
I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge
of maize flour which they said was ‘mamaliga’, and eggplant
stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which
they call ‘impletata”. (Mem., get recipe for this also.)
I had to hurry breakfast, for thetrain started a little
before eight, or rather it ought to have done so, for after
rushing to the station at 7:30 I had to sit in the carriage for
more than an hour before we began to move.
It seems to me that the further east you go the more unpunctual
are the trains. What ought they to be in China?
All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country
which was full of beauty of every...