I ended up getting up early. It was about 6 AM and I managed to chat briefly with my girlfriend before she went to bed.

Breakfast at the hotel was the usual cold cuts, toast, and eggs. Unfortunately because my plate was so small I ended up spilling my jelly toast on the counter. I tried to wipe it up as best I could but later on I saw that the attendant had wiped it up there early.

My tour of the palace of parliament was not until 10 AM so I had a few hours to kill. I decided to check out some of the his store churches because they open early and were free.

At one church there was a whole other building separate from the church for people were lighting candles and offering prayers. It seems so unusual from the faith that I am familiar with. Many of these churches were orthodox churches with no seating. I did some research and found that chairs inside churches during services were not implemented until a time when preachers were speaking for hours at a time rather than just a simple message from the pulpit and a brief singing and prayers.

Whenever I go into these churches I try to refrain from taking photos especially when people are praying. I like to refrain from being an ugly tourist. During one search visit I saw a man being comforted by a priest.he was whispering things to the priest and I believe it might’ve been a confessional.

You got to be about 9 o’clock so I decided to head toward the palace of Parliament. Because of my fiasco yesterday with being fined on the buses, I was apprehensive about using public transport again. So I walked to the palace of Parliament.

The palace of parliament is the second largest office building in the world behind the Pentagon. Quite a few city blocks were destroyed to make room for the building. Work started in the early 80s and ran nonstop until it was completed in the early 90s. The building itself isso big that it’s not occupied and costs a fortune to heat and cool.

I entered to the right side of the building. My reservation was under Jeffrey and thankfully they found my reservation. I paid the extra money to be able to use my good camera to take photos of the building.

One thing I noticed about our guide was that his shoes were tennis shoes…with blue laces. Certainly this was not something that would be found at an official public tour in the United States. Rather you would probably see the tour operator wearing nondescript black tennis shoes.

Our tour guide called for assembly for the 10 AM tour. He had an accent which initially was difficult to understand. But after a while you get used to it. The hallways and rooms are huge. All material within the complex was made by Materials found in Romania.

Nicolae Ceaușescu was the Romanian dictator Who had a crazy idea of building such a large building after a visit to North Korea. Our tour guide told stories about how he had stairways built and torn down and rebuilt five times because it was not up to his specifications. He never did see the building completed as in 1989 the revolution took place and he and his wife were executed. Our tour guide pointed out that he does not like anyone to be killed but he was happy that it was the end of a dictator. Our tour guide said that when he gives tours to Romanian groups he has to watch what he says because some Romanians still find Ceaușescu a good leader.

Room after room we were shown the greatness of the palace. We were able to go out on the balcony to see the large main road leading to the palace where we took some photos. I asked her to her God if he was alive during the revolution. He said that he was three years old but his parents and grandparents told him stories of the revolution. In fact his parents were briefly separated during the time of the revolution but both are united back home and were glad to find each other safe.

At the end of the tour I asked our tour guide if he knew the bus number to take to the Arc de Triomphe. He recommended taking the subway as it was much faster than the bus. I was able to figure out my way to use the subway and get to the appropriate place to walk to the arc de triumph. It was a few city blocks away from the subway station. There were cars all around it and so I had to watch myself as to when I should cross the street. I managed to get some good pictures of it and tried opening the doors to go on top but they were both locked.

I decided now would be a good time to get lunch. I chose my hotel because it was near Pizza Hut and a local pizza chain that is Jerry’s pizza. I had Pizza Hut last night therefore I decided to try Jerry’s Pizza. Unfortunately Jerry’s pizza was Takeaway only as they were no tables and chairs inside. When I ordered they had to find someone who spoke reasonable English in order to take my order. I ordered a small carnivore pizza which I later found out was ham, bacon and pepperoni.

When I got my pizza briefly considered to be eating it on a park bench near the restaurant but I decided it might be best for me to walk the pizza back to my hotel room so I could relax and recharge my phone.

As a sidenote can anybody explain why cell phones are never able to keep their church throughout an entire day? I started using my cell phone which was fully charged at breakfast and by the end of breakfast it was down to about half the battery. I really need to get a new cell phone when I get home but I figure the battery situation probably has improved. I get the feeling that it’s the Facebook app that drains the battery with location request.

My pizza was it quite as warm whatever I got to the hotel room but it was edible. I recharge my phone and got it up to about halfway charged.

After a while I decided that I would like to go out and see a few more churches. I had also seen a list of sites in Bucharest which were beautiful enough to share on Instagram. I decided to go to one of the sites which was a small open courtyard of rainbow colored umbrellas. Around the area was an outdoor eating area. I’m sure those people eating their lunch were probably thinking I was crazy for taking so many pictures.

As a sidenote I think my camera lense has been damaged because it appears to be loose and it doesn’t focus as well and take pictures. I’ll probably have to get it serviced whenever I get back home.

After the rainbow umbrella so I decided to check out a church nearby. As I walk to the church and noticed that her usual building which the first to ground floors were an old style brick and then the upper floors were a modern glass building. This was truly a example of old and new coming together with in Bucharest. It was not surprising that the building housed an architectural firm.

I manage to find another church nearby which was very small. Around the church was graffiti but the church itself was not graffitied. Either the church is very adamant about cleaning of graffiti or the graffiti artist choose not to spray paint on the historic church.

Next I decided to wander around the old city looking for souvenirs. If I happen to come around a historic church I would go in. I still needed to get some souvenirs for friends and family. I had also packed one less shirt to wear on my way back thinking that I could just buy a shirt while in Romania. The only problem is The shirts that I found were kind of ugly.

After searching around for quite some time I finally found a souvenir stand that had everything that I wanted. This includes a quality Romanian flag and not just a paper thin flag of low-quality.

I ate supper at a subway not because I was craving Subway but rather I was craving the unlimited drink refills. I had a ham and cheese, cheese chips, and a fountain drink. I also managed to fill out a Romanian survey to get a free cookie. As I ate my sandwich I begin to feel very tired and cold. I decided I best call it a day go back to the hotel for a nap.

I certainly don’t want to be feeling nauseous tomorrow on my way back..

I’m still trying to figure out the best way to the airport whether it be by bus or train or taxi. I am unsure if my bus pass covers the train to the airport and I don’t want to be caught again buy the ticket checkers and have to a 50 Romanian lei fine.

Here’s to hoping I can get some good sleep so that I’ll be rested to be able to travel tomorrow