Thursday, September 20, 2012
As usual, not matter where I am un the world, or in what time zone, I wake up at dawn to see the sun rise - here beautifully above Brasov
After a while we go down to have breakfast - wonderful country bread - and at 9.15 Bogdan arrives with his van. First stop is the Zarnesti Bear Sanctuary, which I discovered on the internet, http://bearsanctuary.com/libearty-bear-sanctuary.
which has managed to free 65 bears from small cages behind restaurants, in circuses, or even private homes. The foundation has a huge area with powerful electrified fences and plenty of forested land for the bears to explore. We visit at feeding time, so the bears are near the fences waiting for food. These bears have never learnt to forage for food in the wild and don't even hibernate - they have eaten people food all their lives, even ice-cream. We have a guide, Mariana, who walks us around the enclosed areas and points out all the names of the bears inside. Most of them have been there for 5-6 years, but one bear is in quarantine in a small cage behind us. I notice her because she's playing with her food, throwing it up in the air, and when I go over 'to have a chat' she's suddenly standing on her water bucket towering over me. This is when Mariana calls be back to the group... She tells us how all the bears have heart-breaking stories and says how intelligent they are. The fences have to be not only electrified quite high on the bear side but also dug 1 1/2 meters into the ground. All trees near the fences have funny contraptions on them, so a bear can't climb up and jump out.
One young bear lies close to the fence gnawing noisily on his front paws. This is Sammy, who was found in a forest by a family when he was a tiny baby. He was spoilt and petted by a whole village, slept in the bed, and so on, until he (and his claws) got so big he destroyed the house and the garden. When the family came to the decision to leave him at the foundation and he was brought there, he cried - loudly - for days. When the family visited he cried again. Now he has decided to suck on his feet for comfort and he follows people around as best he can from the other side of his fence.
We walk the perimeter of a half-finished enclosure, which will have a look-out in the middle, and we're hot and tired when we see the rather moving movie about the bears and their benefactors at the centre.
Next stop is Bran's Castle in Bran, traditionally assigned to Vlad, the Impaler, aka Dracula. The castle was inhabited by a Royal family at the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, until the Communist take-over. It is more like a quaint residence,
until we go see the exhibition of torture instruments, which is just vile. I have to leave, but not before I know exactly what impalement means, or water-boarding for that matter, also used in those dark ages.
Then Bogdan takes us to a fun place for lunch, outside of the city, with a great view to the castle. We have the first rice we've eaten since we left Brazil and a Romanian Ursus beer to go along. This may be why we feel unwilling, both to climb the stairs to another fortress or to go for a walk in the woods of Poiana Brasov. We observe it all from the car and doze fitfully until we reach Brasov, where the wind has picked up and we join the many tourists in walking through the pretty city looking for Dinu Lipatti cd's, nail varnish remover, mouthwash, German pastry and fruit for the room. We're going nowhere and having no dinner tonight. We're just too, too tired.
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