麻豆社

With his Bradshaw's 1913 Continental Railway Guide in hand, Michael Portillo ventures east through Romania. He encounters a bloodsucking vampire in Transylvania and brown bears in the Carpathian forest before visiting a fairy tale castle with modern conveniences in Sinaia, striking oil in Ploesti.

Travelling through what was, at the turn of the 20th century, one of Europe's youngest nations, Michael sinks his teeth into a Victorian gothic best seller and uncovers an unlikely fellow fan of his Bradshaw's.

The beauty of the Carpathian mountains with their snow-clad granite peaks, gorges and lakes appears to him unchanged from their description in his 100-year-old guidebook and he is privileged to catch sight of some of the wild brown bears and wolves who continue to live in the region's last stretches of unbroken forest.

Like the railway traveller of a hundred years ago, Michael discovers a land full of surprises. In Ploesti, he helps out in the world's first oil refinery and at Sinaia, he discovers a fairy tale castle with the most modern conveniences.