Dublin: Bram Stoker Museum

We were told on entering the Bram Stoker Museum that the tour would be made scary enough to suit the audience. There were only 3 of us. The other person on the tour was some random American woman who looked like she could turn into a bat at any moment. She also hissed and laughed madly to herself so I for one did not need more convincing that she was indeed a bat. So given that we had 2 adults and 1 potential bat, we expected the tour to be as frightening as possible.

It started with an introduction to the life and work of Bram Stoker, author of Dracular. Bram, short for Abraham, lived in Dublin. His life was fascinating and it was heartening to know he was a celebrated writer during his time as well as after. His friend's list reads like a whose who of famous writers and politicians. His list of foes is interesting too. One of which is none other than Oscar Wilde. We were fascinated to learn that the two of them vied for the same woman. Oscar had been betrothed to Florence Balcome, a celebrated Victorian beauty. He gave her a cross inscribed with his name on it. When she announced her engagement to Bram, Oscar insisted she give the cross back to him. We wondered whether this was the inspiration for the use of a cross to keep vampires away...

Anyway, while we were still at stage one of the tour - reading up on Bram's life - the bat flew passed us and exited the way we entered. It was strange and meant there was no one else, just the two of us in this creepy museum.

We entered stage two.

The room was dark with small coloured lights floating around. We had to walk over a bridge that swayed, urging us to fall off. It was a mind trick, the bridge wasnt moving at all.

When we got to the otherside...we looked completely different.

The transformation from human to something entirely different made Jez very sleepy and he decided to take a nap as seen on the left.


We didnt know it at the time, but aparently lying in a coffin with a Wallabies rugby jumper would later spell out disaster for the Aussie team...