Private accomodation @ CeBIT

People living in Hanover see CeBIT - and other big shows such as the annual Hannover-Messe - as a welcome opportunity to earn extra money, by renting out their private homes to the poor greenhorns who didn't reserve their hotel room a year or two in advance. If you're unlucky enough not to work for a company that has booked the whole of, say, the Sheraton, or else have an aunt whose best friend has a cousin who lives in Hannover, then you might end up having a very weird sleepover experience indeed.

I have stayed in private accomodation twice, and both times I convinced myself that the person renting out the room was a psychopath and I was not going to survive the night. Number one was an elderly gentleman living alone in a 5-bed flat stuffed full of antique furniture and porcelaine figurines. I was his only guest. As he showed me around the place, he kept glancing at my breasts (or so I thought), then led me to a room where the bedlinen was covered in
hundreds of little hearts. There was no key to lock the door. I think there wasn't even a key for the bathroom door, but I didn't stay long enough to find out. All perfectly innocent I am sure but I was very young and, well, very scared.

Number two was described to me by my client who had already spent several nights there as a "cross-eyed weirdo" who had rented out his 1-bed flat for the whole two weeks and gone to stay with friends, however had a habit of suddenly appearing in the doorway at 6am just
as you were making your way to the bathroom half-naked. There were hundreds of photos on the walls of his flat - all of this guy himself. I have never been so quick to get ready and leave the house in the morning!

Personally, I would rather stay in Hamburg and take the train every day than risk private accomodation again. Or, there is always sleeping on a boat on an obscure canal near Hanover ... but this is another story ...

Silja