So Frank and I started off our second excursion with Budapest. It was an 8-hour train ride from Klagenfurt, long but not unbearable. We get into town, stop at an ATM to get forints (the Hungarian currency) and buy a three-day travel card. Groups of ticket checkers are at virtually every validation point in the metro, so there are no free rides here (not that I would try, I am still traumatized from the last close call). We walked to our room that we had booked online which was right next to the breathtaking Parliament building. Our room was basically an apartment, with a kitchen and bathroom all connected. It was super clean and everything looked fairly new, so we were congratulating ourselves on our selection. We decided to relax for a bit before going out on the town after the long train ride so we turned on the TV. There was a show called “Szexy or Not?” where girls and guys come out in bathing suits and a set of three judges rates them on their “sexiness factor”. Wow.
So then we took the metro into the city center and got a few drinks at a viking themed bar. They had aquariums everywhere and the walkway to the table was a koi pond with plexiglass over it which was pretty cool. At around midnight we took a long walk back to our apartment, checking out the city some more. We finally get to our apartment, Frank turns the light on and freaks out at what he sees.
“COCKROACHES!!!” he screams while running inside to smash as many as he can as they are scattering across the room. So here Frank is, frantically moving beds and bookcases around the place, cornering the cockroaches and smashing them while I am just sitting there in utter disbelief at the turn of events. When Frank has killed all possible roaches, I calmly say, “Frank. Call your mom. Right now. Use my phone, I don’t care, call her.” Our motto is, whenever in doubt just call Ronnie. So she tells us what we should do and then we get word there is a possibility of bedbugs where cockroaches are…so then we start inspecting the sheets and feel even more creeped out. So we slept fully clothed with the light and TV on hoping no cockroaches would be feeling bold enough to come out in the light.
The morning came and we called the apartment owner at 7am. He apologized sincerely and said the apartment had had a roach problem a few years ago, but never since. He offered to come pick us up right away and take us to another larger apartment in the city center. We were angry, but he was being very understanding which was nice. So we get dressed and pack up our bags again and get ready to leave. I put on my huge backpack and Frank looks at me in horror. He yells and starts stomping a cockroach that had fallen on the floor onto its back (possibly from my backpack?). I freak out and throw down my backpack and what do you know, two more cockroaches come crawling out of it! At this point I figure they must be crawling all over my body considering I had just put on clothes from that very backpack so I’m dancing around flailing my arms trying to get them off of me. We start dumping out my backpack, fully expecting hoards of cockroaches that had set up a colony in my bag the night before to come barreling out. No more came out, but we shook out all of my clothes and backpack to make sure.
Then the doorbell rang and it was the apartment owner, Mauritus. What a great time for him to show up. The other apartment he brought us to turned out to be really nice and in a prime location so we were happy, even though my skin still felt crawly. Lesson learned: clean rooms can still have cockroaches!
Oh my gosh Kel! Hotel rooms are kind of gross anyways because you never know what has all went on in the room in the past or how good they are cleaned, but that is horrible! Glad they worked with you on that one and got you into a better, cockroachless free room! Haha! I am enjoying reading your blogs! Hope everything else is going good with you and miss you tons! Safe travels little sis!