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Exterior view of Bran Castle's northern facade, portrayed by Gothic novel writer Bram Stoker as the home of count Dracula, in Brasov county, Romania, October 31, 2016. A Canadian brother and sister are passing Halloween night curled up in red velvet-lined coffins in the Transylvanian castle that inspired the Dracula legend, the first time in 70 years anyone has spent the night in the gothic fortress. The siblings from Ottawa bested 88,000 people who entered a competition hosted by Airbnb to get the chance to dine and sleep at the castle in Romania. Events manager Tami Varma and her brother Robin, a PhD student, are the grandchildren of Devendra P. Varma, a scholar of English gothic tales and an expert in vampire lore who visited the castle in 1971. They were asked in the competition: “What would you say to Dracula if you met him?” and Tami Varma answered that their late grandfather “was the world's leading expert in Gothic Literature, and was considered to be an expert in Dracula. ... We would do just about anything to stay as a guest with the original vampire who inspired him”. (Photo by Octav Ganea/Reuters/Inquam Photos)
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