I can?t tell if the Monte Carlo story is true. They say Nicu lost the horses at the roulette, but I wouldn?t know. What I know is that Valentin was an absolutely decent and normal person. When we met we never talked about politics in any way. I?ll tell you a story: I once went to Tirgu Mures with some business. My brother went with Valentin by car and I went by train, it wasn?t too expensive, two hundred one return ticket ? not much but not too little either, and I had to pay for it with my own money. Better to give it on food and drinks than on train tickets. I didn?t know which rooms we had, so I stayed in the hall. When they arrived, Valentin took out his driver?s license and said we had booked some rooms. The receptionist said they had none available, the name of Valentin Ceausescu didn?t tell her much, as he wasn?t a public figure. So Valentin told her to phone the party center of the county and ask. They told her he was Ceausescu?s son? and she freaked out. But things were solved. He got a single, and we a two-room suite on the top floor, of the kind they used to have in hotels, mostly for the Securitate, I think?

When they saw me with them, they did not believe I was running for the job contest, and the hotel manager thought I was Valentin?s bodyguard. My beard made me look a bit special, like Valentin?s escort or something. Some guy asked me if I wanted a German beer, and I said, of course I did. And he started to tell me about the incident with the girl, that she didn?t know, and now was scared to death that something might happen to her, she couldn?t sleep at night. And I said, don?t fuss, nothing happened, she couldn?t know, it?s all right. Don?t you worry. And the man said, well, you know, we worry it might get nasty for her. It didn?t, but I think she didn?t calm down for yet another 6 months.

We ate in a special room, Louis XV style, with that white and purple furniture, which they only used on very special occasions. And the waiters stayed on as long as we wanted, when we had some beer or wine after dinner. Service was different here, the gherkins were on ice, there was pastry on the table, fresh croissants? It should have been like this everywhere, if they wanted you to come back? Before we left, the manager came and said, you know, it was a pleasure to have you here, expenses will be covered by the hotel. Valentin had asked them to prepare the bill, and the man said it was on the house. But they did come with the bill after all. Just that every expense was reduced to a symbolic sum, about 1000 lei for 8 or 10 persons, and two meals a day, for three days. It was nice, and I have to say Valentin was all right. He could have raised hell when they didn?t recognize him, when they said there was no room for him. Big shots today would. Valentin didn?t say a thing, and there is no comparing between Ceausescu?s sons and today?s politicians. Ceausescu?s children were like inheritors in this country, a hell of a position.