Tuesday, 27th June, 2006 - Petru Maior, Sector 1, Bucharest

First up is our humble abode.

Its a nice big airy flat which gets cleaned diligently by our maid "Elena" every week (6 hours for £6). She's a lovely lady in her late forties who on hearing Mira coughing one week, arrived with a bottle of cough medicine the following tuesday.


The bathroom is typically romanian, with one of those huge corner baths and some diy floral painting on the ceiling which you stare at in bemused wonder as you soak in the bubbles.

It has its idiosyncrasiess as does every romanian built house - light switches are positioned upside down, and in ridiculous places ie 3 inches from the ground. The electricity has gone off for half a day, twice, and now that its reaching 50 degrees (august is by far the hottest month in the year) the powers that be believe you can do without hot water for a day at every week!!

We've got to know most families and couples in the building as they congregate outside and sit on the steps smoking fags and playing backgammon. There are loads of stray cats that run around in the garden and a crazy dog that belongs to the gypsy administrator of the building who barks his head off whenever someone approaches.