Tami and Robin Varma braved the frights and spent Halloween night at the infamous Bran Castle in Transylvania, Romania, where Vlad the Impaler, the brutal prince who likely inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel is believed to have stayed.This was the first time in 70 years that anyone has spent the night in the 14th century castle.

OTTAWA – Tami and Robin Varma braved the frights and spent Halloween night at the infamous Bran Castle in Transylvania, Romania, where Vlad the Impaler, the brutal prince who likely inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel is believed to have stayed.

This was the first time in 70 years that anyone has spent the night in the 14th century castle.

The pair, who are originally from Nova Scotia but now live in Ottawa, beat out tens of thousands of people from around the world for the chance to spend Halloween night in the castle as part of an Airbnb contest.

Tami Varma and her brother Robin, the grandchildren of Devendra Varma, a scholar of English gothic tales and an expert in vampire lore, pose in coffins at Bran Castle, in Bran, Romania, Monday, Oct. 31, 2016. A Canadian brother and sister spent the Halloween night curled up in red velvet 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 after they bested 88,000 people who entered a competition hosted by Airbnb to get the chance to dine and sleep at the castle in Romania.

“This has been kind of a bit of a whirlwind for us,” Tami Varma told CBC News prior to their trip.

“We don’t really know what we’re in for. We’re just kind of going with the flow at this point and hoping we make it out alive.” Their journey begins with a horse-drawn carriage ride through the Transylvanian countryside to the misty mountain-top manor.

“Dacre Stoker, Bram Stoker’s great grandnephew, will answer your knock on the castle’s imposing wooden doors. He will be your host for the night, and resident expert on Transylvanian lore,” according to Airbnb’s website.

There are some ground rules: no garlic, no silver and crosses are strictly forbidden in the castle. All curtains must be closed before sunrise and there’s a reminder to guests that “the count is not a fan of mirror selfies”.

Tami and Robin got the chance to explore all the creepy nooks and crannies in the labyrinthian lamp-lit corridors of the 14th-century castle before settling in for the night in “luxurious velvet-trimmed coffins in the seclusion of the count’s crypt.”

 “I don’t know if we’re going to end up sleeping but we’re going to try,” said Tami Varma prior to the sleepover.

Robin Varma, a PhD student in political science, said it was not the wind that kept him awake at Bran Castle but rather it was the incessant chattering of his sister.

“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 Tuesday.

They arrived at dusk Monday in a stagecoach, and were welcomed by Dacre Stoker the great-nephew 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.

It wasn’t just the talking, or the wind howling, though. Another mysterious sound spooked the pair.

“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.”

The pair is quite familiar with the legend as their grandfather, Devendra Varma, was a professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax and one of the world’s foremost authorities on gothic literature.

She said her grandfather visited Bran Castle and used to tell his grandchildren about the spooky things he experienced there–including the creepy presence of ghosts he felt and haunting footsteps.