Czech This Out

The one where I got robbed...

I had an interesting weekend! i was getting used to being back, into a rhythm of talking to Stephen just the right amount of times per week (it's 7, by the way). We had agreed to have our Central Administrators meeting with ESI in Budapest - yay! That means going to the baths, cafes, and seeing our Slovakian and Hungarian friends! Well, two hours into it, Ben and I realize that we BOTH forgot our passports at home! That was going to be my big news for the weekend - that my pride had been knocked down. I had always thought i wouldn't do something so, well... so obviously dumb, right? Well...anyway, we went home (2 hours each way!) and the next train out was 7 hours later at 11 p.m. Night trains from Budapest are notorious for not being completely safe from thieves - ask Matt Smith! So I went through my backpack and unloaded a few pricey things, like my camera, so they wouldn't get stolen. My camera, I laid on my bed under a towel, near some Slovak money, which I thought I probably wouldn't use anyway.
We caught our night train, someone DID try to take my backpack, but Ben woke up and the guy just left. We got to Budapest at about 8 a.m., had our meeting all day, went to the thermal baths, and headed to a friend's house for a short night's sleep. The next morning,bright and early, we got back on the train. Ick - 9 hours on a night train, 25 hours in Budapest, 7 hours back. What a weekend!
So you can imagine my state of mind when we home to find that our flat had been robbed! Two of our windows, which are normally covered with bars (but had been uncovered all summer when they replaced our windows), were open. What was taken? WEll, among the missing were: the VCR, the DVD player, about 60-70 of Ben and Amy's DVDs (and one of mine that was in the DVD player), Amy's suitcase, and my CAMERA! The money was still thoughtfully left under the towel though! We also found a strange grocery bag filled with my hair dryer, 2 extension cords, and a Pepsi by the open window, as if they'd planned to take them too, but had forgotten or had their hands full. Weird and disconcerting!!!
The police came over about 2 hours later - welcome to Central Europe! It was like CSI for awhile there. They were taking fingerprints, etc...but I really dont' think that they'll find anyone. It was a petty crime, non-violent.
I am somewhat upset about the things - but they are only THINGS! I do want/need a camera, especially when travelling (like on my school trip to Scotland next weekend), but the stuff is replaceable. What I can't shake is the feeling that we're less safe than we were last week. Someone knows how to get into our flat! The school's insurance isn't planning to pay for our things because they could find no damage to the windows. That means that it's actually EASY to get into our flat, which bothers me a great deal! For now, we have to lock all of our doors from the outside so if someone gets into our windows, they'd be locked into that bedroom. We've also had to remove any of our remaining electronics. It just ticks me off that I am not as secure as I was before! I know that in the big picture, this is a small thing, but this changes my lifestyle and how I see people.

posted by Kassidee Kennedy @ 6:24 PM