notes from the road

Um.
Bed bugs.
BED BUGS!
Bed bugs, bed bugs, bed bugs, BEEEEEEEED BUUUUUGGSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I mean, holy freaking crap, what else can you say.
Yuck.
Awfulness.
Eww, eww, eww.
EWW.
Yucky, yuck, yuck!!!!!!!
Bleck!!!

Here’s the story.
I had been staying in a pretty decent hostel on the outskirts of Auckland, right?
But since Edgar and Sebastian were flying in to catch our flight to Rarotonga, it was up to me to book us a hostel in the city close to the airport pick-up/drop-off.
And herein is where things went a little awry.
As it turned out, the hostel I booked was a wee bit on the sketchy side.
It’s only redeeming quality was an old elevator for which you had to pull the metal door shut and then the gate shut for it to go up or down (just like you always think of in NYC apartments), and when you opened the gate while in route, it stopped in-between floors (wink, wink if you catch my drift).
The rest of the place kind of reminded me of a crack house.
Ha.
Scary bedrooms, scary beds, scary sheets, scary kitchen, and scary lounge – all was scary.
So we stayed there 1 night and the next day while we are on the plane, I notice these absolutely horrific and insanely itchy bites all over my neck, with some on my back, arms, and face.
I mean, c’mon. You have got to be kidding me.
Well, I begin to freak out.
I’m pretty sure they’re bed bug bites and I know that those spread like lice. One of the hostels I stayed at actually had to get new carpet and mattresses in a room because of a bed bug problem. One girl who had bed bugs went sailing to a small island, infected the whole ship and the whole island.
Lice from hell.
Crap.
CRAP.
When I get to the island, I spend the $15 to have my laundry washed here ($15!?!?), but I’m scared to tell the hostel that I might have bed bugs – what if they kick me out? Where will I go? What will I do?
And since I’m just traveling with these “instant-travel friends”, I’m not so sure they’d stick with me through thick and thin.
So I suck it up, hope with all my heart that the bugs won’t spread, and ask Jesus to please, please have mercy on this poor little traveler.
And I guess he did.
No new bites, no more bugs, no more worries.
Phew.
Thank you Jesus.