<p>All night long, a cold wind howled around the gothic castle that inspired the Dracula legend, as a Canadian brother and sister became the first people to pass the night there in 70 years.<br /><br /></p>.<p>But it wasn't the wind that kept Robin Varma, a PhD student in political science, awake at Bran Castle in Transylvania. Rather it was the incessant chattering of his sister.<br /><br />"He put the lid on his coffin so he could sleep. ... He was sick of hearing me talk," Tami Varma, an events manager from Ottawa, told The Associated Press today.<br /><br />The pair outdid 88,000 people who entered a competition hosted by Airbnb to get the chance to dine and sleep at the castle in Romania, by describing how their grandfather Devendra P. Varma, a scholar of English gothic tales and an expert in vampire lore had visited the medieval fortress in 1971.<br /><br />They arrived at dusk yesterday in a stagecoach, and were welcomed by Dacre Stoker the great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker who wrote the 1897 horror novel. They later dined on chicken paprikash and red wine, serenaded by a string quartet, before curling up for the night in red-velvet-lined coffins but sleep eluded them.<br /><br />It wasn't just the talking, or the wind howling, though. Another mysterious sound spooked the pair.<br /><br />"We have a strong feeling there were invisible guests walking along the castle corridors last night, " Tami Varma said, hinting that Count Dracula may have paid a fleeting visit. "But we did live to see sunrise."</p>
<p>All night long, a cold wind howled around the gothic castle that inspired the Dracula legend, as a Canadian brother and sister became the first people to pass the night there in 70 years.<br /><br /></p>.<p>But it wasn't the wind that kept Robin Varma, a PhD student in political science, awake at Bran Castle in Transylvania. Rather it was the incessant chattering of his sister.<br /><br />"He put the lid on his coffin so he could sleep. ... He was sick of hearing me talk," Tami Varma, an events manager from Ottawa, told The Associated Press today.<br /><br />The pair outdid 88,000 people who entered a competition hosted by Airbnb to get the chance to dine and sleep at the castle in Romania, by describing how their grandfather Devendra P. Varma, a scholar of English gothic tales and an expert in vampire lore had visited the medieval fortress in 1971.<br /><br />They arrived at dusk yesterday in a stagecoach, and were welcomed by Dacre Stoker the great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker who wrote the 1897 horror novel. They later dined on chicken paprikash and red wine, serenaded by a string quartet, before curling up for the night in red-velvet-lined coffins but sleep eluded them.<br /><br />It wasn't just the talking, or the wind howling, though. Another mysterious sound spooked the pair.<br /><br />"We have a strong feeling there were invisible guests walking along the castle corridors last night, " Tami Varma said, hinting that Count Dracula may have paid a fleeting visit. "But we did live to see sunrise."</p>