If President Traian Basescu would live in San Francisco, he would be a happy man: he got the right to park his car free of charge as a recipient of the Honorary Citizen status, which has been bestowed upon him on the occasion of his recent visit there.
Thatâs a lot of savings to oneâs bank account, since one hour of parking costs 20 dollars in San Francisco.
"We want that too!" cried the Romanians who met Basescu at the Romanian House in San Francisco, referring at the privilege to have free parking.
Basescu felt at ease at all times during his visit on the U.S. West Coast. At Stanford University he addressed one of his favorite topics: the security and economics of the Black Sea region.
The Romanian students applied for the vacant seats at the Romanian presidency and Basescu visited the Hoover Institute, which holds Romanian documents in its archives, including the exchange of letters between King Carol II and Zizi Lambrino, his first wife.
Basescu exclaimed: "He, he, he. Look at that: the Co-tro-ceni Pa-lace. Looove leeetters of Carol the II-nd to Zizi Lambrino..."
After that Basescu gave another of his famous roaring laughs when seeing electoral campaign posters of leaders of Romania who took office after the demise of communism, including one of his own posters, of the last presidential election.
Basescu must have felt elated, though, when seeing the reception Romanians gave him at the Romanian House in San Francisco: they hugged him and kissed him, to the distress of Secret Service members, unaccustomed to Basescuâs way of approaching the crowds.
They really had a desperate look on their faces when Basescu grabbed an elderly man from the 300-strong crowd and started to kiss him on his cheeks: he was a former sailor serving under Basescuâs command, when Basescu was a captain of Mineral Ordaz ship.
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