Lots of non-activities - Day Eight
Many things happened today but in small quantities.
When we were picked up it was a rainy day and so the thought of been able to take photos seemed unlikely - The bears might have been trying to stay in the woods for warmth (despite their thick fur). As we neared the sanctuary the rain turned into sleet and eventually, as we were walking through the sanctuary, snow! The bears were out and about and grouped together which made for easy shooting.
One particular bear of interest likes to climb trees and sleep there. Always a fun sight to see, and especially as this was my first sighting, it was promptly followed up with a focus shift from the bears on the ground.
When we arrived at the main building there had been no delivery and so we didn't really have anything to do. As a result we put our lunch in the fridge, our other things in the lockers and sat in the kitchen. There is a nice big window to just sit by and watch the bears. This obviously led to grabbing our cameras to get some shots.
During this time, I took the opportunity to listen to my Learn Romanian sound tracks on my iPod but one earphone appeared to have broken, disaster!
Following a fairly long period of time watching bears from the kitchen, we had the opportunity to watch a DVD on the sanctuary - how/why it was set up and some stories of the bears themselves. This lasted roughly five minutes to help us near the time of lunch.
After lunch, we walked around the sanctuary a little to just say hi to the bears, I didn't have my camera on me at the time but did have my phone, so took a few shots with that from positions that would not have been possible with my DSLR. So it's a positive! The shot below was taken by sticking my arms through the fence to get a head on shot with the bear sitting in his/her own little dug hole. Glad I did not drop my phone.
We then headed back indoors as it started to rain/snow again. After a little wait longer, my earphone fixed itself and then the delivery came. However, it was primarily meat in giant black bags meaning we weren't needed. They were shovelling the masses into the crates straight from the van. There were a few boxes to sort through still though, yogurts, fruit and veg. Unfortunately, the workers seemed bored themselves, it hadn't been a very active day, so they did a lot of it as well meaning we only really worked for about 20 minutes.
Waiting a bit more, we made our way through the sanctuary towards the pick up point. Along the way the bears appeared more interested in us and so we took this opportunity to make a bit of contact with them. Feeding them carrots by throwing them over the fence (some food tends to drop on the wrong side of the fence when being fed) they showed their gratitude.
Getting back to the apartment Kristen and I headed promptly back out to the shop to get some essentials. When picking up a few things, including a five litre bottle of water, and arriving at the counter, we realised, we didn't have a bag with us. These are the kind of moments where forgetfulness and genius combine.
Doing my washing, making my sandwich, showering and quickly internet surfing passed the time briefly till Razvan came knocking on our door to accompany/take us/show us the rally going on in the centre of Brasov. It was admittedly a bit disappointing because the rally cars just drove around, not racing one another and occasionally drifting around a stack of tyres. Also, the ability to take photos was hindered by a fence and a few people in front, though I obviously did not let this stop me and held my camera high up in the air pointing it down. This was probably a trigger happy moment.
I also managed to get a panning shot, difficult to do when you can't really see the subject. We didn't stay there long so headed off to get a drink.
Estelle ordered a Margarita though apparently said it in a way incomprehensible to the waiter:
When we were picked up it was a rainy day and so the thought of been able to take photos seemed unlikely - The bears might have been trying to stay in the woods for warmth (despite their thick fur). As we neared the sanctuary the rain turned into sleet and eventually, as we were walking through the sanctuary, snow! The bears were out and about and grouped together which made for easy shooting.
One particular bear of interest likes to climb trees and sleep there. Always a fun sight to see, and especially as this was my first sighting, it was promptly followed up with a focus shift from the bears on the ground.
When we arrived at the main building there had been no delivery and so we didn't really have anything to do. As a result we put our lunch in the fridge, our other things in the lockers and sat in the kitchen. There is a nice big window to just sit by and watch the bears. This obviously led to grabbing our cameras to get some shots.
During this time, I took the opportunity to listen to my Learn Romanian sound tracks on my iPod but one earphone appeared to have broken, disaster!
Following a fairly long period of time watching bears from the kitchen, we had the opportunity to watch a DVD on the sanctuary - how/why it was set up and some stories of the bears themselves. This lasted roughly five minutes to help us near the time of lunch.
After lunch, we walked around the sanctuary a little to just say hi to the bears, I didn't have my camera on me at the time but did have my phone, so took a few shots with that from positions that would not have been possible with my DSLR. So it's a positive! The shot below was taken by sticking my arms through the fence to get a head on shot with the bear sitting in his/her own little dug hole. Glad I did not drop my phone.
We then headed back indoors as it started to rain/snow again. After a little wait longer, my earphone fixed itself and then the delivery came. However, it was primarily meat in giant black bags meaning we weren't needed. They were shovelling the masses into the crates straight from the van. There were a few boxes to sort through still though, yogurts, fruit and veg. Unfortunately, the workers seemed bored themselves, it hadn't been a very active day, so they did a lot of it as well meaning we only really worked for about 20 minutes.
Waiting a bit more, we made our way through the sanctuary towards the pick up point. Along the way the bears appeared more interested in us and so we took this opportunity to make a bit of contact with them. Feeding them carrots by throwing them over the fence (some food tends to drop on the wrong side of the fence when being fed) they showed their gratitude.
 |
| With a little smile |
 |
| Giving a face on shot |
 |
| Panting in our faces |
 |
| Moving in for a kiss |
Getting back to the apartment Kristen and I headed promptly back out to the shop to get some essentials. When picking up a few things, including a five litre bottle of water, and arriving at the counter, we realised, we didn't have a bag with us. These are the kind of moments where forgetfulness and genius combine.
Doing my washing, making my sandwich, showering and quickly internet surfing passed the time briefly till Razvan came knocking on our door to accompany/take us/show us the rally going on in the centre of Brasov. It was admittedly a bit disappointing because the rally cars just drove around, not racing one another and occasionally drifting around a stack of tyres. Also, the ability to take photos was hindered by a fence and a few people in front, though I obviously did not let this stop me and held my camera high up in the air pointing it down. This was probably a trigger happy moment.
I also managed to get a panning shot, difficult to do when you can't really see the subject. We didn't stay there long so headed off to get a drink.
Estelle ordered a Margarita though apparently said it in a way incomprehensible to the waiter:
- She said Margarita
- He looked at her confused
- Razvan said it to him
- He looked at him confused
- Razvan then pointed to it in the menu
- He looked it, looked at Estelle and said "margarit-dar"
It was comedic.
Because of Kristen and Scrubs, we ended up ordering an Appletini, though there was a refusal to call it that.
We had a similar situation. Apple is pronounced "ape-ple" in Romania otherwise it's not understood.
Razvan got himself a hot chocolate which interestingly pretty much always comes with cinnamon in, you have to request it without if you don't want it.
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