As Tami Varma settled into her velvet-lined coffin, she could hear the sound of wind whistling outside the 14th Transylvanian castle -- the same legendary fortress that inspired Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.”

It was Halloween and, understandably, she was a bit freaked out. Her brother, Robin, was trying to sleep in the adjacent coffin.

“I was whining, I was so scared,” Tami told CTV News Channel on Tuesday. “My brother looked at me and he literally put the lid on his coffin, he said, because he was sick of hearing my voice. So I guess that’s what happens when you send siblings to Transylvania together.”

The Ottawa pair were the first people in 70 years to spend a night inside the legendary castle after winning a competition through Airbnb.

They were chosen from 88,000 other applicants, in part, because they are the grandchildren of Devendra P. Varma, a Dalhousie University scholar of gothic tales and a vampire lore expert, who visited the castle in 1971.

Their grandfather passed away 22 years ago, and so the Varma siblings treated their visit as a way to honour his memory.

“My brother and I literally grew up in a house where we had vampire statues everywhere, and things about werewolves and Dracula in particular, so it was just kind of a part of our childhood,” Tami said.

The Bran Castle is the supposed residence of Vlad the Impaler, the murderous prince who inspired Stoker’s 1897 gothic horror.

The siblings’ visit began much like the tale’s protagonist, Jonathan Harker, in a horse-drawn carriage. They were greeted at the castle by Dacre Stoker, the great-nephew of Bram Stoker, and later dined by candlelight on chicken paprikash, a dish described in the book.

They had to follow several house rules, including strict moratoriums on garlic, silver and anything in the shape of a cross.

After touring the castle, the Varmas went to sleep inside their individual coffins. Despite some mysterious sounds, they survived the night.

“We’re alive! We made it,” Tami said.

Tami described the experience as “a wild production” that she and her brother won’t soon forget.

“There’s so much history in that building. And so much legend, of course. You could feel it in the walls,” she said. “We’ll be telling this story for the rest of our lives.”

With a report from CTV Atlantic