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CHAPTER I JONATHAN HARKER’S JOURNAL ( Kept in shorthand . ) 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 far from 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 I stopped 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 district he 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 Ordnance Survey 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 the West , 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 of imaginative whirlpool ; if so my stay may be very interesting . ( Mem . , I must ask the Count all about them . )
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