Romania: Bats invade Transylvanian classroom

[September 03, 2011]  BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) -- There was no sign of Dracula, but students in Transylvania did get a visit from dozens of bats that flapped through their classroom.

The students at Csiky Gergely high school in the western Romanian city of Arad were about to take an exam Friday morning when they found bats flying around the room. Others appeared to be sleeping with their wings spread out on the floor.

School official Mirela Aldescu told Romanian daily Adevarul that the creatures had probably flown in overnight through open windows. She says that rather than disturb them they took the exam in another classroom.

Transylvania was home to Vlad the Impaler, the 15th-century ruler who inspired Bram Stoker's "Dracula," which has spawned dozens of movies and superstition about garlic, holy water -- and vampire bats.

[Associated Press]

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