luni, 4 mai 2015

The Story Of A Daydream

09:21:00  , , , ,  


I will start my story.
My name is Nicole and I am from a very far away country in Europe, the country of Count Dracula, Romania in modern time.

In ancient times, his castle was at the border between Wallachia and Transylvania, the land of green forests 
and blue lakes -Trans-Sylvania, “beyond the forest”.
Since I was a child, I was fascinated about the historical tales with queens and kings, templars and crusades. It was like I was born in that time, and I let my feelings fly in the future. It is like a smell of that medieval time in which you will hear all the time the melodies of Green Sleeves.
I was fascinated to watch movies from that time, to see the habits, the way in which people dressed, eat, sleep, travel, what they did for a living and also the way in which they spent their free time.
I always loved to see nice palaces and houses, the old taverns, fancy dresses and fantastic food, not only the etiquette of high society but also all other people. 
 We all have in our heart and soul a refugee and in both good and bad time, we think it is like a dream that keeps you alive. It is like a flame that gives you the power to act and to all the fantastic things that you only saw in your dreams.
And then the question appears, it’s only a dream or can it just come true?  It is a ghost, a Fata Morgana (Morgana  Girl) and you repeat and say: " No, it’s my dream and I will change the dream into reality." And I did it indeed.
I was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1963, during the communism time and I grew up with all the problems of that time. I remember all good and bad moments of the regime, without hot water, electricity, television, only the main channel in which all the time appeared the dictator, Ceausescu. I remember how long we had to wait to buy things because all was rationalized by the state.
You had money but nothing to buy. Yes, it happened. Maybe you believe or not.
 It is a big part of my life, school, high school, marriage, job, first and real friends, and last but not at least, my daughter Alex, all of this throughout communism time.
And then, BOOM! It was December, 1989 and we thought our lives would change so much. This was the date when the dictator was killed, and for the first time Romania wasn’t under Russian influence.
People were happy and democracy appeared in Romania like a white horse. Now, in this time, a lot of people asked if it was good or not to take this big step. So many lives changed in a moment for good or bad.
Yes, we started to have many political parties, not only the communist one. We had free elections, a lot of products as well as newspapers, TV channels, color TV, Internet, DVD, expensive cars, etc.
And of course the rich ones became richer and the poor ones, poorer. Now there are many things to buy but there is no money.  So now you have all, but the problem was the money.
It is difficult to be old, and with health problems in Romania. It is also difficult to have a child with problems but what we earned was freedom.
Freedom to speak, to help people. The media helped some people to solve their problems.
So, the world changed, maybe not that much, but at least we made some progress and there is still a lot of work to do. 
Romania has a lot of intelligent and hard working people (many international  IT prices, Mathematics and more) who started to be tired of the democratic govern who speaks pretty much but do not too much.
 Perhaps they try but they do not succeed all the time. People get angry, of course because if they  work  hard, they want results, they want a better life for them and their families. This is the reason why many Romanians leave their country and emigrate to Spain, Italy, Norway, to make their dream come true,  to  drive their ideas into facts. 
I graduated from high school and had a degree in History and Geography. All the time I liked to know all about these matters.
After this, I started to work at the Ministry of Tourism. I liked my job very much, all day speaking English with customers and companies and trying to solve all problems. All the time customers were my priority. 
After this I was promoted, I was hired at the first bank of Romania in that time. 
I was so proud of me, and again I worked with the customers  front office more than 21 years. I knew their families, their children, we became like relatives. It was a fantastic time and I was so full of emotions. Thus, I had only three jobs during 31 years. Only three jobs during 31 years because I was too attached to them, to the colleagues, to the boss, to the customers.  It is fantastic when you see that you are appreciated for your effort, you give a part from your heart to all of them. This means that you really care.
Because of my job I got a beautiful connection with people, it is amazing.
One day, when I was solving an issue from a branch of our bank, I called abroad where the international support center was, and I really found a fantastic person, a real friend, a hard working person who helped me in very short time to solve the problems of our customers.
And in this way I started a new chapter of my life. In that moment, I met my best friend from Costa Rica, Siang Prat Gomez. If somebody had predicted to me that one day I would leave far away from Romania, I would have said immediately, "No way, you are joking, I cannot believe it." It is true, that call changed all my life, and my vision of life. It is like when you are a child and someone asks you, "What you want to do when you will grow up?" This happened with me.
I invited Siang to come to Romania to see the country of Dracula, with castles, with medieval cities (Brasov, Sighisoara, Cluj, Medias) with Wild Carpathians, with Danube Delta, with Black Sea, Unesco Monasteries from Bucovina (Moldovita, Sucevita, Humor, Voronet, Putna, Agapia).
With its wonderful capital Bucharest.
There are a lot of nice places to see but also it is still a lot to invest for the country to get the  high level of other European capitals. Examples are Prague and Oslo,  where they give a lot of importance to the tourism and make  nice and good investments on tourism.
So, Siang liked it so much that she visited Romania 5 times, and all the time we visit other places, but also all the time she was so delighted about Dracula’s castle that we visited it all the time. Siang is like a sponge, she knows more history and geography of Romania than Romanians themselves.  She likes to read a lot, and likes to see all, although she may be tired, she pushes herself all the time and finds the power to continue.
All the time when we visited other places in Romania, we stayed in touristic boarding houses for Siang to receive the nice welcome from the hosts because these are Romanian people, warm and kind to receive people.
I did not want her to receive the cold welcome from a hotel.  She likes the Romanian style, the Romanian dishes, the people, and this was the reason that she visits Romania so often.  In 2010 I visited Costa Rica, and WOW, was another world for me, nature, flowers, animals, national parks, volcano, too. It was a fantastic experience to see its churches, the oceans, the mountains, the exotic animals and flowers. Costa Rican people are very warm and helpful. I understood then why it is said that Costa Rica is the happiest country of the world.
In that moment, Siang had a fantastic idea: to open a medieval hostel in Costa Rica.  After she saw all in Romania about Dracula’s Castle, she said, "Why not to open this castle here in San Jose?" And the idea started to be in our minds to see in what way we can do all to be possible and our dream to come true: The First Medieval Hostel In Costa Rica.
I came back to Romania and I started to build this dream step by step in order to be prepared when the moment would come. Also Siang started to do the same  in Costa Rica.
In that moment, I realized that we have a fantastic dream and we must do everything to succeed.
So, I went back to Romania and I started my preparation.
 I took all from zero. Of course, that everybody thinks they know to do all very well, even what is regarding cooking.
No way, nothing like this. Indeed, something is cooking at home and another is cooking at a restaurant. So, I started. I took many courses of chef, a lot of theory and also practice. But if I promised myself that I would do it, I did after my work days, each day in a restaurant or at the schools. It was hard work but I learned a lot and I had many well prepared and known professors.
 This is me, this is Nicoleta. 
I am a food blogger, www.reteteleluisupernico.blogspot.com (top 60 in Romania) and since I started my preparation I had a lot of events in my life.also a lot of receipe appeared in gastronomic magazine in Romania like:


 I was elected between last 50 participants in Masterchef Romania, first edition, out of 3000 people. I was  on  gastronomic tv-show ”Euforia Cuisine” with Executive Chef Cezar Munteanu. Also at B1TV on “Salt in the Food” preparing a fantastic Red Onion Chutney.

I had a food demonstration at “Bucharest Food Festival” in 2010, with my soul recipe “Tochitura lu’ tanti Florica”. I prepared very famous recipes: Beef Wellington, Tornedou Rossini and Caesar Salad. This recipe is mine and it is a legacy from my grandfather who had a restaurant in 1940's in Romania and this recipe was all the time prepared there. With this recipe I won a lot of prizes and also I appeared in food magazines and books of gastronomy. Demonstation at Bucharest Food Festival 2010, 


 and also i gave some interviews:


 If you will be one day our guest you will want to taste this dish, be sure you will not regret it.
Also in the menu you will find a lot of fantastic dishes with Romanian and medieval influence.
Not to mention the fact that you will be able to eat the food with your hands, just like in the medieval times.
Siang will prepare delicious cocktail from exotic fruits.
You will enjoy one of the most exotic and delicious coffees in the world: Costa Rican coffee.
So we both, the owners of the hostel, are preparing to wait for you in our hostel. You will receive a warm and exceptional treatment. All the time you will have a friend to help you.  This is the reason why our hostel is a small one, only for 10 people, to give all full attention that all and each of our guests deserve. We are here for you.

 So, let´s start our journey in this medieval adventure.

Siang & Nicole
Transilvania hostel & catering Events
506-710.280.92   506-881.587.16  506-470.053.69
contacttransilvaniahostel@gmail.com