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When the coach set off, the crowd of onlookers in front of the hotel all held out their crosses and pointed two fingers at me A few moments later I asked someone in the coach what it meant He did not wish to answer at first, but when he understood that I was a Turk, a stranger, he explained that it was to guard against the “evil eye” For a poor outsider as about to e ood at all But the people around me all looked so kind, sincere, and compassionate that I could not help but feel the bittersweet sorrow in in to melt away

Our driver cracked his long whip The coach began to hurtle down the road The landscape onderful As I watched it, I forgot all about the hotel and everything that transpired there

It was these valleys, forest paths, narrow passes, and rugged rocks that the moustachioed, hawk-eyed, steel-arreen and red flags, battling the unknown, the barbarians, the highland nations, crushing the knights whose ar glass, reaching all the way up to the foggy, icy Baltic sea, thinking, “Not long to go before the Red Apple!”[6]

The road we took was steep But the coach was traveling very fast and the driver was doing his best to go even faster And soes of Istanbul, my dear home, with its blue skies, fa springtime sun would suddenly flash before ?”

I understood why the driver was hurrying He wanted to be through the fao Pass as quickly as possible Froood condition in the summer But at this time the rubble caused by the winter snow and floods had not yet been cleared It is almost a historical tradition here that the roads are not kept clean and open to travel When the Turkish sas still sharp and Turkish rule still in place, the hospodars, princes of Erdel Transylvania, would avoid clearing and repairing the roads For if they were repaired, the Turks would suspect the Transylvanians of calling for Polish and Gerainst them, and they would break the truce and start a war

In front of us, the dark forest ran through the high hills of the Carpathian ht created beautiful dark and light shapes where it fell over the undulating forest

As the coach cliled like a snake beneath the hills, one of the passengers touched h snowy mountain on the horizon He said in German, “Look, this is Isten-sezek, the seat of God,” and immediately crossed himself

Through the evening we encountered unusual-looking Czechs and Slovaks along our way There were many crosses erected on either side of the road As we passed theh they were trying to protect the evil

Toward the evening the weather grew colder As the sun set, a black fog and an icy darkness began to fall

We started to clih dark forests At times we encountered places so steep that the horses had trouble pulling the coach, despite the cracking of the whip

When darkness fell there was visible worry aers They spoke repeatedly to the driver, and they were apparently urging hio faster He lashed the horses mercilessly with his whip Some time later the road ahead of us appeared to i mountains on either side drew nearer the coach We were now entering the Burgo Pass

The passengers’ worry and fidgeting had increased They gave e looks and craned their heads out of the coach to look about

We travelled along this narrow path for a while and finally cae

Now I too stuck out my head, in search of the coach that I had been notified would be sent by Count Dracula I was hoping that any hts in the pitch black darkness surrounding us But there was not yet any such thing in sight

The driver looked at his watch, then spoke a feords to the passengers in his broken German He did it in such a low voice that I could barely hear it I think he said that there was an hour left until the appointed time! Then he turned to me: