4.5 hours

That's how long we spent on the M5 highway going from Budapest to Romania.
We drove from Budapest in direction of Romania and 153 km later the car had hick ups and the following message appeared on the screen of the car: engine failure.
We stopped and restarted the car; still the same shaking and message. So we call the car rental company who asked us to drive back to Budapest!
No chance we would take that risk so we asked for a replacement car. Obviously that was not the preferred option of the rental car company which sent us from one number to another one until finally agreeing to send a car. It was 3:55pm.
And we started to wait, next to the car, on the highway, under the sun. We put the triangle (luckily provided in the car) but there were no vests in. No barrier on the highway so we stood in the grass. After 30min or so a yellow van showed up. "that was fast" we thought. Except it was not the assistance but the highway patrol who stopped to check what we were doing there. We explained somehow our case to the man who spoke limited English and he left us. But before doing so he put some orange cones and a big arrow sign 150m from the car. This way we were fully secured (or so). What a service I have to say.
And we waited.
After 1h or so Wolfram decided to walk to the service area we had just stopped at maybe 1km away to get some water. So he left and I waited by the car. Now assuming he walks 1km in 15-30min, after 1 hour I started to worry a bit until received an sms telling me the gas station was further away that we thought and that he was on his way back, proudly with bottles of water (more than appreciated) and 2 sandwiches. My hero :)
And we waited.
In the meantime I go bitten by a horse fly to which I am very allergic to and I could feel the bite and the inflammation around growing.
Sun was starting to come down and we had dinner watching the sunset on the side of the highway. So romantic :)
And we waited, watching every single car or truck passing by, hoping one of them would be our assistance.
And we waited even more.
Around 9am, under a sky full of stars, we realized how little we know about stars...
Did you know that people drive faster at night that during the day? which makes it even more dangerous to stand on the side of the road.
Finally, a bit after 10pm and several calls asking where the assistance was, the replacement car arrived.
10:30pm we finally resumed with our journey. Another 2 hours to drive until Arad. Boy it's been a long day...