Sundays with Vlad - Paul Bibeau

From the moment his bully of an older sister jumped out of a dresser drawer, baring her convincing glow-in-the-dark vampire fangs, Paul Bibeau was sold on monsters. Though he claims to have been scarred for life by this traumatic childhood experience, he developed an uncanny obsession with the undead.

Years later, his fixation led him to revise his honeymoon plans with his unsuspecting wife to include a side-trip to Wallachia, Romania to visit the historical Castle Dracula - the castle of Vlad the Impaler. Clutching his guidebook like a Bible, Bibeau set off on a sometimes disturbing, often hilarious journey through the legend of Dracula and the country from whence he came.

From movies to novels to the cereal box, Dracula has become quite the cult figure over the centuries, though locals barely bat an eyelid at the surprising breadth of the subculture devoted to him. As if visiting the home of the legendary Dracula weren't enough, Bibeau digs through Bram Stoker's original manuscript, meets with the president of the Dracula Fan Club, and even marches in the Transylvania Day Parade as a giant garlic bulb, all in the hopes of getting at the stone cold heart of vampire mania.

Filled with equal parts humor, irony, and reverence,Sundays with Vladis an alternative travelogue that will appeal both to vampire fans as well as those fascinated by a segment of society they never see during the light of day.