Greetings all, Spiritual, Intellectual, Open Minded individuals! While hiking around a crater lake, Lake Katherine, in Transylvania, Romania I startled a bear to my right along the lake. Extremely fast he ran up the slope, got behind a tree. (can you see him?) With my camera around my neck I slowly turned, and the instant I took the pic remembered I had 1/2 a ham and cheese sandwich in my jacket.I calmly decided to slowly depart and continue my journey around the lake. At about 120 meters the path opened up to small beach area, with a local couple on the beach. They spoke some English, and when I told them about the bear behind me, they decided to join me in the walk around to the public beach area. In about 20 minutes we reached the other side, looked across the lake and there were 3 bears on the beach we just left and in the water. My new friends, turned to me and asked "Polinka?" It's a distilled fruit liquor, sorta the national drink of Romania. I could not refuse, because I wanted to be friendly, and my escape plan for the first bear was to dive into the lake.