Almost Robbed & Happy Birthday Alan!

That thing I said about nice people yesterday, scrub that.. well fine.. scrub that for the alcoholics, drug addicts and whoever it was that tried to rob our apartment last night and destroyed the lock on the bicycle chain that keeps our stroller attached to the stairs downstairs.  

I guess it is better to start from the beginning. Last night we heard some noises that sounded like they were coming from our apartment. Usually the noises from the night club downstairs do sound like they are coming from our apartment, but those are usually laughter and Brits saying incomprehensible things. These were scraping noises. Dan went to investigate and did not find anyone in our apartment.

So in the morning we headed down to grab the stroller and go outside – and the lock was all scraped up. They did not manage to open it so to get over their sorrow they got some stuff stuck inside so we could not get the key in.

The evil Renata from BookingEstonia first said it is 9am and she is not at work yet. And anyway “she warned us that this is the old town and any kind of riffraff hangs out here.” She actually did not – she said it is OK to leave the stroller downstairs. The bike chain was Dan’s idea. Anyway she suggested to wait till 10am and the bike rental place opens up to see if they have the special scissors to cut open the chain. I asked if we should call police – she said don’t bother, they have enough to worry about.

We did call the police (110) and initially the girl on the phone said it is not their responsibility to open up the chains and that I would have to call the locksmith. But she agreed to send over the car to get report filed. Meanwhile Irina found another bike guy near the information office who was at work at 9am and so he called someone over to help. At about 10am both the cops and the guy showed up at our place. The cops were friendly young guys who spoke very good Russian. They helped the guy with metal saw to open up the chain. Took him a good 10 minutes. So it was a very good chain. Afterwards they did do a police report in Russian so I could understand it – and I could see that this is not something that they typically do since the guy really had to think hard not misspell. So that thing about nice people is still on J. We got the new bike chain and now take the stroller inside for the night. So we are all good!

Other than that nothing really that exciting. The first part of the day was kind of scrubbed. And things seemed a bit sad afterwards, well until lunch anyway. After lunch it was as good as new J .   

Dan spent some quality time with the coin guy near Solaris. Got a book he is excited about. Thinking about some more books tomorrow.

We walked around in the evening looking for a perfect chocolate cake. Realized that most of the restaurants in the old town are Italian. There are a few Old Estonian ones that specialize in bucktorn jelly and rhubarb cake which are great but not chocolate enough. We finally found a tiny coffee shop on the fashion designer street. It was really beautiful inside and had copies of Pikker magazine that dated back to early 70s. In pristine condition. The coffee and cake left a lot to be desired though. We are thinking that past 11pm the best choice is trusty McDonalds. Its donuts are soft and tender and deep with flavor. Almost sounds like a poem.

We were in a perfume store today with Georgia and she was sampling. For one of perfumes she said: this one must be really healthy for you. I asked why? She said the smell is not so good J

Krishnaits are lot more dedicated bunch here than those in Vilnius. They typically greet us as we come out of Viru mall at the end of the day, every day. And they usually have something new and fun going on. Today they were playing harmonica and carring around a sign with some kind of a mask.

Waiters on the main square still try to invite us in even though we refused for the last 3 weeks. Well today, one of the guys who works at the restaurant in the cellar of the city hall followed us around with a goblet in his hands putting on a beautiful drunk act and offered us a flier with a free cucumber if we go to his restaurant. This is one invitation we cannot refuse. So we have a date set for tomorrow J 

Happy 3rd Birthday Alan! Georgia said Hello! Isabella looks like in a few months she might say Hello too.