We left Budapest at seven in the morning because I had that feeling we'd face problems on the way, and my prediction was accurate again. After we crossed the border to Romania, we had to go through a long winding road for about three hours next to the river that borders Romania and Serbia. We did not want to go back to Serbia because the border wait would be long. Bad mistake, the supposedly "scenic" road next to the river was full of potholes and stray dogs. It was amazing our car did not sustain tire damage, but one hubcap got loose. At times, we'd get warning signs informing us of the construction ahead, but there were usually no signs and I had to slam my brakes a few times. Sometimes it was a little too late and we would get thrown around in the car. The Suzuki Swift was perfect - small and nimble with great gas mileage. I originally wanted to rent a Mercedes-Benz until a friend reminded me how bad it was down there when we went ten years ago.

While driving through Romania, we visited Timisoara. It was an ancient city that became neglected by the Russians. Lots of huge abandoned factories with broken glasses. I guess Communism didn't work for them. We stayed in Timisoara for a couple hours, checking out a few ancient spots as well as the modern Iulius Mall. It's not "Lulius," it is "iulius." Afterwards, we left for the Bulgarian border which was another disaster. We didn't know it was a ferry service that closed at 12:00 a.m. and opened at 6:00 a.m. When we got there, it was a little past 12:00 and we saw the last ferry moving away. The Romanian customs told us "six" leading me to believe "six minutes" when he actually meant 6:00! We slept in the car over the night like dirty bums, and so did many foreigners unaccustomed to border crossings that close at nights.

We finally got in Bulgaria at around 6:30 a.m. and went straight for Sofia. I haven't been here for 10 years and it has changed a lot, some for the worse, some for the better. Easier to get stuff here, but roads and buildings are hardly maintained. I have taken plenty of videos and am anxious to upload them for my viewers to see!

There have been no major problems so far, but we got pulled over twice. Once for having lights off in Bosnia (it's required by law to drive around with your lights in daytime) and again in Romania by the Border Patrol which was a random thing. Here in Sofia, the car got clamped for not having the correct permit and the fine was only 9.90 Bulgarian Levs ($6.00) to unclamp it. Pretty cheap, it was £160 ($320 that time) for me to unclamp my rental car in London about seven years ago only because it was five lousy minutes past eight!

Bulgarian language is like the Russian language - same writing, but different words. Like our English and Spanish. Благодаря (Blagodarya) means Thank You in Bulgarian while Спасибо (Spaseebo) means Thank You in Russian. It took me a while to get used to that. It was easy for me to read the words, like "Паркинг" means Parking. If you read it, it would sound like Parking too! Before coming here, I strongly suggest studying the Cyrillic alphabet. Makes it so much easier!

And we're leaving for Timisoara tomorrow. I don't know if the rental agency is going to like seeing the car come back with 2,000 extra miles.

We're having so much fun going through all these cities throughout Eastern Europe. Budapest is now my favorite city in Eastern Europe with Prague as the close second. We didn't stop in Prague this time because it's too far off and I know I'd get carried away with buying bottles of absinth. The last time I went there, I got over 10 bottles and it wasn't cheap.

The American Embassy would not let me walk in and have new pages added in so it looks like I am going to have to send my passport in when I get home. The embassy told me I could make an appointment, but the next available date was when I'm back home. I don't like sending in my passport because they lost my passport the last time. When they jacked up the passport fees from $45 to $95, service got much worse since then. It appears our government has gotten it wrong again. Usually, Raising Fees = Better Service, not Raising Fees = Worse Service. Very dumb.

I dropped off my friend at the Buda Castle which Budapest is famous for. It was way too hot and humid for me to walk outside so I drove back to the hotel. It is now 32°C outside according to the thermostat in my car (about 85°F) and my fingers tell me the air is humid. My hay fever's acting up again and I keep sneezing.

On the way back to the hotel, I took a little detour to the Museum of Soviet Terror where Hungary rebelled against the U.S.S.R. in the 1950's and suffered for it. I took a picture of the toilet (I know it's a little dark, but it was dark inside) in the reconstructed prison to show how people were treated during the harsh crackdown. It was grim and I think I would have died in there from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. There were various torture devices and video footages of people describing what it was like during the crackdown. Some were actually Communists who had no shame demonstrating how they punished the people who rebelled.

My Chinese GPS has been truly wonderful and I am still amazed. I used my own USB adapter for the car which caused problems with the GPS. We were in Bosnia when that happened and we'd be truly lost without it. I figured it could have been the car adapter so I used the one that came with the Chinese GPS, and it started working again. Whew! Without the GPS, I don't think we would have bothered with Zagreb, Budapest, Timisoara, Sofia, and even Belgrade. It would have taken me at least two days from nowhere in western Bosnia back to Belgrade without that device!

I don't like mineral water and I saw "Destilirana Voda" (Distilled Water in Croatian) while stopped at a gas station, but it is intended for cars and fish tanks. If I can put that water in fish tanks, why can't I drink it? The people in Bosnia kept saying, "No, no, for car only, you must drink mineral water." Dasani and Aqua Fina in the U.S. are the same thing - but the people in Bosnia-Hercegovina and Croatia would not hear of it. It was also cheaper than mineral water so I bought a bunch of bottles.

My friend's sleeping right now. For some reason, I can't sleep so I am up. Today, my friend will visit the Matthias Castle and the other castle that starts with a V. Budapest offers a lot of sights, but it's hard to drive around here. Parking's pretty bad in the central part, but not around here where our hotel is.

We stopped off the highway to Budapest after crossing the border to Hungary so we could buy a vignette which is another way of saying highway tax. As far as I know, Slovenia, Austria, and Switzerland require highway vignettes. The place also had a great restaurant and we are pretty stuffed right now.

Zagreb, Croatia really doesn't have that much compared to other cities in Europe. Everybody sounded like my former thick-accented Croatian co-worker who was difficult to understand, at least for me, he was hard to understand. We got bored after staying in Zagreb for a couple hours and went straight for Budapest. The weather is a little weird. It was completely sunny when we parked the car and we entered the restaurant. After eating our food, it started pouring outside like crazy. Nobody saw that one coming. I'm glad I am not driving right now, I don't think I could drive in this kind of weather. Very unpredictable and some water has seeped in the restaurant.

Tonight and tomorrow, we're staying in Hotel Charles, a place highly recommended. We got the deluxe room so we'd have space. My friend can go out and explore the city while I watch the television. I like to immerse myself in foreign culture by watching television, not visiting museums and stuff.