Photos now available!

I've uploaded several photos over in the Photo Gallery (See the link on the left side of the page.) This gives you what was seen through the first few days of this vacation.

Yesterday, we had more troubles than we've had yet. We went to the People's Palace and found out we couldn't go in because they required Id. I'd usually carried my passport (and had a copy with me) but that wasn't enough, so we didn't get to see it. I did take photos of the outside, but not getting in turned out to be a blessing, as my camera died 3 photos into the day. We then went around to do some other things, and we were walking along, and you get used to people and things being nuts, but the police here in Bucharest apparently don't fine for running lights. I had a taxi screech to a stop a few feet away from me as I was crossing a street with a green cross light for pedestrians, not to mention they are supposed to yield to pedestrians anyhow. It's lucky for him my fist couldn't reach his hood or he'd have had something to remember the American he almost hit. Heather kept pulling me toward the other side of the street yelling something at him in Romanian. I don't know what she said, but I hope she told him off.

Then, it came time to exchange some more money. We went to a Western Union. The only thing you want to make sure over here is that you find a place that doesn't charge commission. Well, we walked in with a few people sitting in a waiting area in the chairs, and a worker standing at the counter waiting for apparently nothing. We stepped up and he told us to go wait in line. We both looked around and said we just needed to exchange money, and it shouldn't take long. However, he told us he would not help us, so we left. Wow, customer service!!! So we went to a bank, and it got worse. It took 15 minutes (compared to 3 when I exchanged money in Brasov)!!! Not to mention, the lady didn't know what she was doing, and even accused me of having a fake passport. Once Heather told her that we were actually Americans (which should have been a clue by the words United States of America on the front of the passport) she finished with what seemed like a begrudging attitude. It's not our fault she was incompentent. It was a fiasco at least, but I'll never set foot in that bank ever again! They apparently have no concept of what it would require to forge a passport anyhow. Well, time to head back out again today. Might get to go see the place where Romania's revolution against communism began, and hit a mall to see what that's like.