The Hotel, the English, and the Antics!
Hey there Rambler's,
We left off with some highlight points from my trips through Greece, and Bulgaria. Now on to Romania.
First off, the hotel. Wow. While in Bran, I stayed at the Contele Vladimir hotel. Please, feel free to take a moment to view their website Here even if you do not intend to travel to Romania. It's amazing and offers a balcony view of Bran Castle. Surrounded by a small bit of countryside, you can hear the bells as the cows move around outside, and you can make friends with a giant dog named Bernie who, as it turns out, is absolutely petrified of thunder. But that's a story for another post!
I arrived well past desk closure due to failed train connections, nevertheless, the owners of the hotel were wonderful enough to have a car sent to collect me from the station. What happened following my check in is something I will forever be grateful for: I went down to breakfast at the right time and made new friends who hailed from England. I'm sure I would have had a nice time in Romania had this not occured, everyone there is so nice and surprisingly helpful, but I can honestly say that it was Josie and Daniel who made my visit there what it was. Not only did we enjoy wonderful conversation over delicious meals, but we enjoyed many outings together over the next few days that I am thrilled to have experienced with them by my side.
Why were they amazing to travel with? Anyone who has read this blog knows that I am an advocate for feeding your inner child, these two lovely Brits were definitely of similar minds because our inner children were not only fed, they were offered an all you can eat buffet. We laughed and made monster friends in Dracula's haunted castle (not so haunted as it is silly as it turns out), took dramatic photos "falling off" the top of Bran Castle, tried on silly costumes in gift shops, and even went to a children's dinosaur park where we took epic photos with dinosaur statues that were to scale. To think, if I had not been travelling alone I may have never taken the time to socialize with these fine individuals, let alone come home with such legendary photos.
The lesson in this? New friends are around every corner and there are plenty of people out there who will go on childish adventures with you free of judgement if only you keep an open eye, open mind, and open and childish heart. While I'm on the topic of lessons, and I know that if they are reading this Josie and Daniel will guess which one is coming next, if you are at a restaurant and are thinking a cucumber salad is worth trying.... Don't. It is Literally a bowl of sliced cucumbers and Nothing Else! Good gracious, did we ever have a laugh over that. Thank you for sharing your chicken, guys!
Finally, another amazing place that we were able to visit together was the largest bear rescue in Europe called the Libearty Bear Sanctuary in Zarnesti. It wasn't far from Bran, and offered a very informative tour. While in Bulgaria, I had visited a similar sanctuary hoping to gather research for my book only to find the tour rushed and offering limited information. However, Libearty Bear Sanctuary offered a much longer tour as well as a great deal of information pertaining to the bears we spotted from the edge of their large enclosures as well as their individual stories, information on bears in general, and on the rescues mission and work. Here, I was able to gratefuly gather a lot of research as well as meet a very kind family, also hailing from England, who travel together and write a blog which can be found Here
We left off with some highlight points from my trips through Greece, and Bulgaria. Now on to Romania.
First off, the hotel. Wow. While in Bran, I stayed at the Contele Vladimir hotel. Please, feel free to take a moment to view their website Here even if you do not intend to travel to Romania. It's amazing and offers a balcony view of Bran Castle. Surrounded by a small bit of countryside, you can hear the bells as the cows move around outside, and you can make friends with a giant dog named Bernie who, as it turns out, is absolutely petrified of thunder. But that's a story for another post!
I arrived well past desk closure due to failed train connections, nevertheless, the owners of the hotel were wonderful enough to have a car sent to collect me from the station. What happened following my check in is something I will forever be grateful for: I went down to breakfast at the right time and made new friends who hailed from England. I'm sure I would have had a nice time in Romania had this not occured, everyone there is so nice and surprisingly helpful, but I can honestly say that it was Josie and Daniel who made my visit there what it was. Not only did we enjoy wonderful conversation over delicious meals, but we enjoyed many outings together over the next few days that I am thrilled to have experienced with them by my side.
Why were they amazing to travel with? Anyone who has read this blog knows that I am an advocate for feeding your inner child, these two lovely Brits were definitely of similar minds because our inner children were not only fed, they were offered an all you can eat buffet. We laughed and made monster friends in Dracula's haunted castle (not so haunted as it is silly as it turns out), took dramatic photos "falling off" the top of Bran Castle, tried on silly costumes in gift shops, and even went to a children's dinosaur park where we took epic photos with dinosaur statues that were to scale. To think, if I had not been travelling alone I may have never taken the time to socialize with these fine individuals, let alone come home with such legendary photos.
The lesson in this? New friends are around every corner and there are plenty of people out there who will go on childish adventures with you free of judgement if only you keep an open eye, open mind, and open and childish heart. While I'm on the topic of lessons, and I know that if they are reading this Josie and Daniel will guess which one is coming next, if you are at a restaurant and are thinking a cucumber salad is worth trying.... Don't. It is Literally a bowl of sliced cucumbers and Nothing Else! Good gracious, did we ever have a laugh over that. Thank you for sharing your chicken, guys!
Finally, another amazing place that we were able to visit together was the largest bear rescue in Europe called the Libearty Bear Sanctuary in Zarnesti. It wasn't far from Bran, and offered a very informative tour. While in Bulgaria, I had visited a similar sanctuary hoping to gather research for my book only to find the tour rushed and offering limited information. However, Libearty Bear Sanctuary offered a much longer tour as well as a great deal of information pertaining to the bears we spotted from the edge of their large enclosures as well as their individual stories, information on bears in general, and on the rescues mission and work. Here, I was able to gratefuly gather a lot of research as well as meet a very kind family, also hailing from England, who travel together and write a blog which can be found Here
So there you have it Rambler's, while there are many stories yet to come as a result of this trip, these were the key notes from my most recent trip. If you have any questions, or request for posts, please feel free to comment below or email me at thebrastreetrambler@gmail.com
Remember, life is short, adventures are waiting, and you should always seize and opportunity to pay tribute to your inner child.
Cheers!
The Bra Street Rambler
Remember, life is short, adventures are waiting, and you should always seize and opportunity to pay tribute to your inner child.
Cheers!
The Bra Street Rambler
Great post and thanks for the mention, (assuming it was us) please note the link to our blog doesn't work. All the best Steve and Emily.
ReplyDeleteHey there Steve and Emily, of course it's you! Say hello to the kids for me! What URL should I include? I'll fix it post haste.
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