Cockroaches!!!

I know there are no cochroaches in the picture, but I just don’t feel like posting any pictures with them. You can see how destroyed some buildings actually are – cochroaches are happy about that.

How do you picture a typical Manhattan flat? Spacious, clean, with a gorgous view of the skyline in each window, right…? It may happen – if you are rich. Reality is more brutal, though.What is sure to surprise you here is the fact that no matter what kind of apartment you get here (even a Manhattan one), there will be a bunch of tenants already living there. Yes, I know you are planning to get a studio or a „one bedroom” type of place, but it’s simply inevitable that one fine evening, as you will be sipping on your whisky, looking upon the flames in your fireplace (joke) and downing a pint of ice cream, suddenly you will spot a moving black dot.

Unfortunately, cockroaches are a real terror of New York apartments. Their sizes vary, but they’re always equally gross. They get everywhere. I’ve seen only one in the apartments I rented in NY. Where do they come from? Most of the buildings here are old and decrepid, with thin walls. And since summers here are hot and humid, the roaches settle in nooks and crannies and then go out for a walk. If you leave your apartment for a couple of days and allow it to be exposed to sun, you can expect a larger number of tenants once you’re back. No matter how small they are (and in New York they’re usually large), I’m always grossed out when I see them. The biggest one I saw was the length of half of my middle finger. I once heard a story of demolishing old Bronx apartments – when the walls came apart, the roaches needed to be removed with shovels, they were that numerous. Enough!

Anouther group of New York tenants are bed bugs, but I will deal with them on a different occasion. I feel already bummed out discussing roaches, especially since I just killed one. Other ugly creatures will be dealt with at another time.