On our last day in Romania, we stayed very near to the Optemi Airport in an apartment hosted by homestay.ro, booked via Booking.com for just 128 lei (£24). Whilst obviously not in the centre of Bucharest, it was just perfect for the jobs that we had to do and the short sleep before an early morning flight. We had a main room with a double bed and a single bed where I'd hoped Tiger would sleep but it turned out that it was open plan so she ended up in the spacious bathroom (yet again!). They didn't have a travelcot, but I actually ended up leaving ours with them as it had only cost £37 anyway and I didn't want to fly with it!
Our time in Bucharest was mainly spent trying to clean the car which the car company had threatened would be 50 euro if I didn't return it spick and span inside and out! Thankfully, the absolutely wonderful hotel lady, Diana, sent me to the nearby car wash place here. She was going to come with me, but in the end I went on my own, dropped the car off at 3pm, took Tiger back for a nap using the buggy and picked it up at 7pm. And guess what - it only cost 25 lei (£4.60) so I was very proud of myself.
I also drove around a few times to try and find the car return address for Klaaswagen. It really wasn't that easy to find and I found myself going around the airport in circles a few times but found it eventually. I just knew that I really wouldn't want to be getting lost the next day at 4am!
We had an early night at were up at 3.30am, left at 4am, dropped the car off at 4.30am, and I was preparing myself for the "fight" over car damages and paying, then reclaiming from my UK insurance company. But in the end, I think the fact that the car looked immaculate thanks to the cleaning, the man couldn't find my booking on his iPad, and the fact it was 4.30am and I had a baby with me, all lead to him just saying "Don't worry, I'll just unblock your card". So... in the end all I paid was 87 euro for 18 days of car hire. What a bargain!
We flew home via the relatively deserted Amsterdam airport and Dublin, where it was lovely to check into the Emerald Isle en route. Finally, home, another adventure in the bag. Thank you Romania!