We got our lunch from Rolli, who gave us 2 free ice creams in return for visit Malaysia stickers, a VCD and a booklet on Malaysia. He had seen adverts on Malaysia but complained that the airfare at €1200 is too expensive as compared to places nearer e.g. Greece. We told him that the cost would be offset by the cheaper costs of hotels and food.

After lunch in the park, we drove into Bucuresti and were glad that we decided to stay. Although the Arch De Triumph was under refurbishment, the road leading to it is attractive. We stopped by the Museum, University and Ministry of Internal Security. The Houses of Parliament is set on a hill and look imposing with the road leading to it lined with fountains over a very long stretch. Unfortunately lost of lives and assets bring back bad memories to a lot of people and there are mixed feelings amongst Romanians about the House of the People. As a matter of fact it is the second largest building next to the Pentagon in the USA but the latter includes the courtyard.

The park near the Municipal Building had beds of beautiful flowers which I couldn’t resist stopping for. One could spend some time to explore and would enjoy the city. On the way back to the campsite, we renewed our vignette to avoid running foul of the law as we would not be able to cross into Hungary in one day (Cost is 11 Leu as compared to €4 at the border – 30.9% difference). We again stopped to get a few things at Carrefour and were embarrassed to be told that we were trying to withdraw cash from an exchange machine, Doh!!! (We had not seen any of those since we left London).