Today is labour day! A bank holiday for Romanians, which gave us a good excuse to join in with the festivities.

Breakfast was a welcome treat as it was made by our host, Ibolya. It was an egg omelette complimented by mint tea.

Laszlo then picked us up to take us to the big picnic, which was happening just outside of Odorheiu, near our hay-making site. It turned out to be a festival with hundreds of people, all sitting on the grassy hillside in the sweltering sun. There were lots of tents which hosted various Hungarian foods - Kate and I took advantage of this and bought the twisty sugar bread (so delicious!).

The entertainment acts soon took to the stage and put on quite a show. There were traditional Romanian dancers, gymnastics/urban dancing and cheerleaders with swinging poles. They even had a dance off between two acts! While this was going on, a small toddler was trying to thieve our belongings, including Kate's purse and Simon's camera! Seems like thievery starts at an extremely young age these days. We kept a very close, beady eye on her for the rest of the day.

Laszlo's family were with us for a couple of hours - we had the pleasure of meeting his wife and seeing his two young kids again (who weren't thieves). They left after a couple of hours as it was so hot. A couple of Hungarian people came to join us as they recognised us from the playground community day. It was nice to chat to them and have a laugh over the acts together. Laszlo kindly bought us ice cream for us all and we then left, in the early afternoon. It was way too hot to stick around. We went into town to buy sandwiches for lunch then made our way back to Meresti. On the way we stopped at a new spring for mineral water. It was delicious - fresh, still and cold. A great opportunity to have a water fight too! We all got rather soaked which was incredibly refreshing in the heat. Shortly after, Laszlo made a sudden stop in the car as he had spotted a grass snake on the road. Unfortunately it had been runover and carried by a crow to the grass to be pecked at. Had a good look at it (the entrails were pouring out), then left.

The journey home was ridiculously bumpy. It felt like we were on a fairground ride! A cool shower was had by all when we got back. Dinner came in the form of chicken and chips, plus soup to start. Kate and I took the opportunity to do our laundry. It had been a while...

The evening was spent at the bar, with a load of drunken, singing men. Simon told us about how a Hungarian man had started chatting with him before Kate and I arrived. This chat developed into the man holding Simon's hand for the entire time while kissing it! It seems like Kate and I couldn't have arrived soon enough.

We both headed back to the house. On the way we got incredibly lost as we had missed a turning. Barking dogs frightened us but luckily we had my torch to shine the way. We got back home safely in the end.