I woke up in the middle of the night not because of the lack of salsa music blaring, but to a distinct scratching noise somewhere, probably in the wall. I just wanted to turn around and just go back to sleep, when quite unbidden my brain popped up the memory of a documentary I’ve seen ages ago about rats in New York, and that for every human living there (12 mio.) there are at least two rats (>24 mio. See, math so isn’t overrated). And at least 10 of them, I assumed, were right now in the wall right beside my ear. The paper thin wall, they could tear down with one movement of their itty bitty tiny paws to EAT US ALL ALIVE!! Then a dripping noise. Probably one of the rats peeing. This wasn’t covered in the documentary, but I thought the film makers just had glossed over certain needs of the rat population. Then a new sound: a loud clang clang. Rats sword fighting? Now even in my sleep deprived state I had to admit that my theory was loosing credibility at a starteling pace. Well, in the end it turned out no rats, but the radiator taking up its job.

When I told the story to our host the next morning, hoping for a “never saw a rat in my live” reassurance, they just told me, that they had had a horrible rat problem last summer, but that the exterminator killed all of them in one afternoon. Brilliant. No rats, but a uncounted number of angry rat ghosts to be wary of.