Went shopping today and Ellie accidently on purpose bought some nice comfy clothes for travelling!! We never really managed to have any breakfast so decided to go for a buffet lunch. It was soooooooooooo tasty n v. cheap too!! The cake was especially good - a Hungarian specialty with chocolate, custard, walnuts and sultanas. We ate lots of that!! We also had free drinks, and James managed to drink lots of beer and champagne in the short time that we were there!!! After stuffing ourselves silly we had to run back to the hostel to pick up our bags and, again, make a dash for the train. Made it just in time! The train journey was eight hours long, including two passport checks, which took FOREVER!!! The train also split and had extra carriages added on quite a few times too! On the way to Romania, the areas we passed through looked poorer and poorer. Just across the border, there were farmers working still at about eight in the evening. We saw no cars for miles, only horse and carts. Nearer Oradea, there were only shanty towns next to huge, foul smelling factories, then run-down high-rise flats. As soon as we got there, people were begging. It was really shocking to actually see, after hearing so much about the problems in Romania, very upsetting. We found the hotel easy enough, it was really clean and expensive- looking, especially in comparison to everything we had just seen. We had a nice dinner in the restaurant. James bravely ate his way through a Romanian dessert with lots of chocolate and ice-cream. We had a bath (bliss) and watched some tv. They seem to like "Cheers" over here. It had Romanian subtitles so we practiced a our Romanian a bit, then went to bed. Ellie and James xxx