Day 9 - City, city, city!

Today was the day of many discoveries and rediscoveries about the city. Georgia and I walked around from 1:30 until 5:30. And then Dan, Georgia, and I continued for another few hours. And finally Dan and I finished late in the evening.

Georgia and I started on the Cathedral square. We checked out the updated Stibukla tile where Georgia made some wishes for me and Isabella. She told us the next day that she wished for Isabella to grow up soon and was disappointed it did not come true yet.

Then we saw St. Casimir's chapel - the most beautiful one in the church. The statues on the altar are designed in such a way that it looks like angels and other figures are floating in a white cloud. Really sublime. We also found out about the tours of the cathedral crypt and will be checking these out next week.

The next stop was the little Japanese garden on Pilies. As implausible as it seems they've managed to add a pavilion to it. Inside the gallery there was a bunch of ladies doing beautiful paintings on silk and with aquarel. Despite the tranquility of the setting they've glared at us like a bunch of old "tetkas" that they were. This time we were not going to be intimidated. We stuck around until we figured out who the decision maker was. That was the friendliest lady. She said that it was their last class and that they would be starting the new one in the fall. She gave us a flyer from another instuctor who would be coming in town shortly and might have some extra classes.

After that we did a quick run through the 2W gallery located in the courtyard of the Argentinian restaurant. Nothing thrilling. Next was the gallery of the red lady. Here is how you save 2LTs: you walk in to the gallery when the sole attendant there is washing the floors and ask to break 100LT note. She waves you in.

All the paintings and etchings there are for sale. That makes it even weirder that they would charge the cover price and that little as that. I think the only explanation is to cover the expense of the attendant. We were left alone to wander around even to the secret offices of the gallery. Inside the building is pretty plain and most of the beautiful architecture is plastered white. The artworks are very pretty. Georgia asked me to tell her a story about many of them and insisted on the happy ending before we were able to move on to the next one.

The day was very hot so next stop was to get some ice-cream.

After that onto the University bookstore - nothing special there. Check out the picture on the left enlarged, just another little courtyard in LT. We headed up the Traku gatve and found what for a moment looked like Mecca - the milk bar across the Coffee Inn. Unfortunately they got the bar part right and missed everything else. Not even a little bandele in sight.

After that, with a few more stops on the way we visited the Orthodox Church of St. Michael and St. Constantine. Georgia really liked it. It is as always under construction but looks pretty nice. Finally we stopped by at Tautodailininko Dirbtuve where the artist creates amaz, which was one of our main destination points on the way. The artist who works there creates amazing artworks by carving out shapes on paper with a scalpel. Unfortunately it was closed despite the posted hours. Next time we would have to call in advance. One more look at the Orthodox Church. Maxima to get some food for the evening. And we were off to the Meno Nisa gallery on Basanaviciaus. It features some beautiful jewlery, mostly enamels, and, among other things, horrific looking paintings in strange media that looked like colored play foam.

It was an awesome afternoon. We picked up Dan and continued down Pilies. Watched the procession of Krishnaits. Would be interesting to find out more about them. What drives these people to go on these periodic walks chanting "Hary Hary Krishna" and other stuff knowing all to well that they have just provided 3 minutes of the entertainment for the most people around. Maybe it was a punishment?

Do a close-up of the picture on the right. Must have been a lot of effort to put it up unless they have some special equipment.

It is enjoyable to walk through the souvenir booths that at night turn into simple photo screens and look at the old streets and try to see if we can recognize where they are today.

We went down our favorite Literatu street and saw that art college students had continued their tradition of plastering their art to the walls. There were a whole bunch more "things" hanging of every possible kind.

There is now an organic shop on Literatu. Fruits and veggies look like a somewhat rotten variety of their counterparts on the market but other things like meats, cheeses and deserts undeniably appeal to your senses. We had to think about dinner coming up and our rapidly expanding figures so we left this experience for the next time.

Next we went to the youth park and then met up with Andrei and Natasha. We dropped of Georgia at home and had dinner together on the city hall square. It was really pleasant to sit there and watch the people go by. Walked back to the Literatu street later. We finally got home at around 11:30 but 10 minutes too early - the very last thing of the day were the enormous fireworks, barely visible from Georgia's window.

Additional notes about the Lithuanian way of working:

While we worked in the morning we had a quick phone call with Alicia. She said she does not need a cleaning woman and that's why she asked Rita, the parasite, to give her the key. But that she still needs help with getting her groceries and other small tasks and Rita would be helping her with that. It is like some kind of a crazy circle. Dan tried to reason with her but I don't think he was very successful.

Then, coincidentally t.Ira called and gave me the contact info for the person who watched her boss's late father as a full time job. The idea was that we are looking for someone to clean the apartment once a week and spend 4 hours weekly doing various chores like grocery shopping. The lady I spoke with sounded pleasant and chatty. I conveyed the expectations and the first thing she said was that "older people need a lot of company, I will be there every day." I repeated the message in the nice terms. Then she said that the house needs a wet cleaning every day with cats and all. I still repeated the message. Then we dicussed the price for a bit. For 6 hours of work she wanted 1/2 of what she was getting the last time around for 30 hours. I gave her our numbers and she countered that we can still discuss it, very pleasantly albeit saying that Alicia needs a lot of help and she would get an idea of how much from her directly. Initially I agreed to meet with her on Monday.

But after hanging up and thinking about how she spoke and getting a clue about the math, Dan and I decided to call her back and say that we will not continue the conversation. She was pretty upset and unpleasant about that. But I really don't like it that a person who did not even make a personal contact is already dictating her rules. We called t.Ira to explain and she said she will continue working on getting the contact for us.

To continue the rant on the subject of the work ethic, Irina has been really great so far: kids love her and she is very patient with them, takes them to her apartment, buys Georgia water and treats, and even treated us to lunch on Friday. But she has not showed up once on time during this whole week and said she had stuff scheduled in the evenings even though we agreed that she will work 3-4 evenings per week. I guess this is how it works here and in most other countries. But I am used to and like better the American way of doing things where the terms of the working relationship are very clearly defined and still leave room for a personal relationship.

Last night our portion of the building lost the power late in the evening. Our German neighbor said that he walked into a man messing with the wires outside our building and he ran away. Dan was concerned that someone might have been setting up the house for a robbery since the power failure disabled all the alarms in the builting. Just in case we called Algirgas the aparment owner. He said not to worry - our apartment has a double metal doors. Nice to know he cares.

Day 8 - Making the plans

Nothing thrilling unless you don't count the barbeque flavored mini-bloodwurst sausages that we found in Maxima today. If you like bloodwurst, you would die for this BBQ flavored variety. We are so lucky to be here.

Anyway, it rained the whole day. Irina managed to get the kids over to her place where they'd stayed for the large part of the day until we got the car and picked them up. We were at home. The kids really enjoyed themselves.

Dan and I walked around during lunch. Had a doner kebab from the new fast food joint on Pilies. It is lousy. The staff is really unfriendly too. Can't believe we already have eaten there twice.

Then we decided to check out the new galery at the beginning of Pilies. Apparently the entry fee is 1LT. We took a free look around and saw similar paintings with the same woman all around. So we decided to skip on that. Now I am thinking that it might have been deliberate and there are other paintings with other women if you only shell out that 1LT (or 37 cents). It might also be interesting to go in to see the building inside. Maybe we will go tomorrow with Georgia. Decisions, decisions.

Coffee Inn from Pilies moved across the street. The new location is even better - there is a cozy separate room with the tables and couches. Don't know how they stay in business with that much real estate not really generating much of the return.

Alicia, Natasha and Andrei came over for dinner. It was very nice to have them over and we had a good time. The story with the parasite was sort of muffled over. Alicia says she spoke with that woman and she would be giving her back the keys. We got a call from Dan's mom's friend about some contacts to be reaching out to us shortly. It could probably work short term.

What else? Having a high chair makes a huge difference. Previously we went through elaborate setup with Isabella with one person holding her and another maneuvering the food in her mouth while protecting themselves from her swiping the food off onto them. The car seat seems to be the top part from the two part infant car seat. There are stickers on the side showing how to attach it to the car with the seat belts using various protuberances on the carseat.But such setup is flimsy and carseat is being held in place by the front seat. Plus, Isabella is too big for it and has to keep her feet holded when riding. We got her a new seat from the car rental company. It is better. It is a big booster seat with some stickers showing how to use it on the 7kg babies. And it is front facing. Maybe there is a different attitude about the baby car safety here. But not to sorry - I think she will be grown out of her 12month clothing by the time we are back.

We reserved hotel Alma and a car for our stay in Brussels next month. Hopefully there won't be any surprises there. Will need to make plans for our trips to Palanga and Tallinn later this month.

Day 7 - Turbulence and Parasite

Today was great on many levels. First of all, it was raining in the morning and we left kids at home with Irina and tried to go to work in the Double Coffee on Vociechu (like the spelling of my name by some third parties, this one evades me). But the waitress threw her body in the doorway and declared that they only open at 10. Somewhat taken aback by the rashness of her act we slithered back home.

But it was not bad. We got a lot of things figured out: we will be getting the car tomorrow from the autobest just like on the other trips. Marius, the director, who used to be a really helpful during our past trips, apparently is still associated with the company but in a supervisory capacity that does not involve picking up the phone or answering his emails. You would think it would be the other way around. But anyway, we would be getting a bigger car for almost the same price. Algirgas, the home owner, came with technician, turned off the light everywhere and got the dishwasher fixed. He also asked what we do for work. Aparently inspired by the telecommuting he told us that he wanted to share the fact that he is selling the apartment for a bargain price of 900,000. It is really a major markdown from 1,100,000 they were offered years ago. At these prices one would think this place is hotter than Paris or New York. I hope that the European Union would press them to take the property taxes, that could fix this bubble or at least get the poor crumbing historical building fixed at last. Alex Lazutka came in the evening and brought a car seat and a high chair. If only Isabella's appetite would match ours. We made some planning for Belgium where we will be going at the end of the trip. We also chatted with Diana Olshevsky who lives across the street and decided to meet soon.

For lunch we walked over to the Gediminas prospectas to soup and kibinai place. Soup was so so, especially considering that the single woman who was working there went into the kitchen loaded with the dirty soup bowls and emerged moments later having filled them with saltibarsciai. I remembered my squeamishness in Madagaskar and decided that I would never be like that again. Kibinai was to die for. I could practice replicating it for years and I would not even come close. Afterwards Georgia and I gathered and split the crumbs and went outside for a walk while Irina was with walking with Isabella, and Dan went back to the apartment to work.

Georgia and I enjoyed a pleasant walk down the Vilnius gatve stopping every now and then to check out the drawing supplies for Georgia or a toy for Isabella or a cup of coffee for me. When we got to St. Catherine's she said that she is ready to hit the galleries but needs a few minutes of sleep first. So we went home and she went to sleep pretty much until 5p. Forgot to mention that yesterday we saw a very interesting dog - an old english sheepdog. It looked like a mixture between a dog and a sheep. More like a sheep actually with its thick fluffy mane and pink skin around the eyes. I guess it works like that: the old english sheepdog hangs out on the grass pretending to munch and then a wolf comes by and aims for its butt. That's when the dog turns around and barks. The wolf drops dead from the instant heart attack. Next wolf...

At 5 we walked over to Alicia. On the way we passed the raising of the flag near the Presidential Palace. We took the picture because the soldiers really looked leisurely about it. Some, kind of gathered around and were watching the guys who were raising it. Those guys were keeping their form. Maybe it was a practice or something. On the way we also passed by some evidence of extra-terrestrial life hanging suspended under one of the bridges.

So speaking about Alicia, we figured that's the most humane way to break it to her that we are here. But Kostik beat us to it 4 minutes prior to our arrival - he called her on Skype. Still I must say he did not make it any less exciting. We also got to see Andrei and Natasha from Ekaterinburg.

That's when I get to the parasitical part.

Alicia has a cleaning woman that leaves her apartment smelling like a cat shelter in a third world country for only 100LT/pop. That is in contrast to other women who made apartments we lived in in old city in prior years clean for only 50LT. I guess it makes sense to charge extra for the smell. We tried to convince Alicia last year to try someone different but she could never do it to such a wonderful human being. So, anyway, Alicia has a bank card for to be used when really needed. Dan tracks transactions on it. We noticed that the card was charged twice early in the month when Alicia was traveling in Poland. We asked Alicia who she shared the card and its pin with and she said "with 2 other people": her relative Nina (who would walk naked with bare feet on the burning coals, rip out her tongue with tweezers or do other horrible things to herself before considering something bad), and her cleaning woman with excellent work ethic. The cleaning woman had the keys to the apartment and Alicia, and even Andrey and Natasha noticed the aroma and changed settings on TV and computer when they arrived. And, so by the method of deduction, it is not to hard to figure out who took the liberties with the card. Dan wanted to question the woman right away, but Alicia and Natasha did not let him. They argued that Alicia is comfortable with her and needs someone to help her. They even called the woman to warn her and got vehement assurances that she is pure. This makes me really sad. First of all that this is clearly an example of a parasite feeding off the elderly lonely helpfless woman. Secondly, that this woman would be so dependent of this parasite that she and Natasha would lose perspective on who works their ass off to refill the card and would actually defend the perpetrator. And thirdly, that few people would understand the helplessness and frustration one feels when dealing with such a situation.

We were very sad. Irina stayed with the kids and we walked around a bit. It was very pleasant. First of all, there is a GIANT TV screen on the city hall square and most of the surface area of the square was filled with people sitting on the chairs watching the game between Spain and Germany. Now that's the way to watch the game. We walked up to the Gates of Dawn, my favorite part of the city. Will have to take Georgia to the wax museum and let her touch the pope. Then we walked down Pilies and saw that one of Double Coffees that was closed yesterday, opened today as Gorky Bar. The hotel that was up for sale actually has a bar in it and there were people inside watching the game as well. There is also a new gallery in the beautiful old building on the left at the beginning of the street (next to the Argentinian restaurant). Incidentally Argentinian went underground. And there is also a new chocolate cafe next to where it used to be.

Then I decided that I need some ice-cream to call it a day and we went down Pilies and around to Vilnius gatve looking for anything that was open, and at 10:30 almost nothing was.  Even the traffic light on Barbora's gatve shut down at 10:40. We finally got back to Vocieciu and sat down at the restaurant outside and downstairs of our apartment. It used to be Cili Kaimas but it is now Hesburger. Hesburger used to be at the place a few doors down that went through the multiple transformations and ended up being a Kebabai house. To complicate the matters further, across the street there used to be a blinnie place that opened up last summer. We wrote about it - it had a kindergarten like ambience. This summer it is something like a Rapid Chiken. If it is confusing, I can supply pictures.

We asked the waiter for ice-cream and he brought us two expressos. Then we asked him for some ice-cream and he brought us two vases of vanilla with fresh wild strawberries and preserved whole cranberries. I wrapped myself in a blanket and we ate the desert. It was really great and awesome way to finish the day.

Hence the turbulence.

While we were sitting there, a girl passed by offering the fliers from a night club that is in the former hotel. Apparently the schedule goes as follows: Monday: some boring music, Tue: Italian (like what, opera?? but I guess to put on in the mood), Wed: RandB. Thu: Wet foam party, Fri: Happy Ending, Saturday: Midnight fever. On Monday you restart the cycle.

The game was over and fans filled up the streets as people headed for their cars, bikes, and I want to say feet, but that would be wrong. We got up and left too. Stopped on the way to look at the schedule in the Double Coffee. Apparently they open at nine in the morning, unless it is Sunday. I guess it is easy to get these confused: nine and ten share two letters. Incidentally Coffee Inn on the Vilnius gatve opens up at 7am. This is kind of miraculous.

There were some ups and downs but it was a really great day.

Day 6 - Just because

Nothing really interesting to report. Saw Rosita at last. She looks beautiful in the orange flowing robes, golden slippers, and in full makeup. Incidentally the "America, America" guy does not have his bike anymore. This sucks, really, ruins his image. I am going to take pictures of all the special chracters.

There is also a national holiday going on for the forth day. Not sure how it started, but today was the anniversary of crowning of King Mindaugas who was Lithuanian first king. At 10:30 there was hardly a person on the street. But by 1pm small groups started to gather on the Cathedral square waiting for some kind of costumed show at 2pm. It was pretty hot. We waited until 1:45. Watched an argument between the leader of knights and the leader of soldiers, in English. We finally lost patience and went home leaving the kids with Irina. She took some pictures.

In the evening we went to Forto Dvaros. Still as good. Smoked pig ears are the best. Called it a day early. At night there were some wild screams from the outside. Someone must have scored a goal. There isn't as many public displays of soccer watching here so I don't know who beat whom.

Remember the big fight over the souvenir shop when all the booths were closed and vendors spent days doing the sit in and hunger strikes to bring international attention to their plight. What happened this year was that they all reappeared across the street on the St. Paraska's parking lot. They have beautiful new booths with the walls covered with the pictures of Old Vilnius. It looks very nice. In the evenings there are tours around the booths for the seniors. So it is a win win any way you put it.

At 11pm we called Alicia who was supposed to have gotten home from a 10 day driving trip around Poland. I want to do that when I am almost 80. We did not tell her we are here because we are thinking of the ultimate way to break it to her without giving her a heart attack. We considered telling her that we got the tickets to Belgium and she has to pick them up on Vokieciu. Maybe we will just walk over to her place tomorrow.

Day 5 – Settling in

Today was a pretty uneventful day. Irina picked up the kids in the morning and took them to the park while we worked. We joined her for lunch at Gusto’s. It seems that she was the only Lithuanian in the room – everyone else was a foreigner. It is probably because there is a 4-day national holiday going on and many of the people are away on the coast or on their dachas.

In the morning Georgia worked poor unsuspecting Irina to buy her water and snacks.

After lunch the apartment owner came in to take a look at the dishwasher that was not working and make us the list of the English-speaking channels reached by the huge satellite dish between our balconies. The only ones that have a strong signal and readily come up are Vesti and Al Jazeera. I thought there would be a secret method but he simply went one by one through the hundreds of channels recording the numbers on a piece of paper. I hope they have a printout somewhere.

He spent hours trying different settings on the poor 14-year-old dishwasher that just wanted to die in peace. It became clear that his family never used it in other than the rinse mode while living at the apartment. That also explains why the dishes are so dirty. He also followed us around and tried to turn off the light after us, teach us how to use the washing machine, and in general offer useful advice. He has a special attachment to the rag made from a former towel that he keeps outside on one of the balconies. He said it was really amazing and I should just “try it.”

This thriftiness is in sharp contract to the attitude about the water – they pay fixed fee for hot water and he and his wife advised us to not worry about using as much as we want, and if it does not come out hot right away just wait as long as necessary. Not only Belgians have their mysterious ways.

We walked around a bit in the evening. Saw few more potential eateries. Lots of locks on the bridges to Uzupis. And more pregnant women on the streets than I have ever seen. I guess you have to do something. Incidentally the wealth gap is much more apparent this year. There are now more people on the streets with the “fresh out of Bentley” look and more drunks as well. That being said, lots of regular looking people are outside enjoying the nice weather, the restaurants are full, so there must be some things going right here.

The apartment owner came back later again; this time with the technician. They spent hours until finally finding the problem. They will be back again tomorrow to replace the pump. Dishwasher would be really handy. The owner asked not throw out the rag, which, being the active participant of the dishwasher molestation, by now had changed the color quite substantially. I’ll give it another 10 hours. To be fair to him, he spent a big portion of his day off chasing after this problem.

Day 3 – Bruges and Ghent

Today was awesome. In the morning, after a fresh portion of croissants (we are diligently working on the varied inventory of one of the station cafes) and Starbucks coffee we headed out to Bruges.

Georgia and I played the make-believe game on the way. I was a baby lemur and she was a mommy lemur trying to convince me to brush my teeth. After I whined a bit, she admonished me: “if you do not brush your teeth they are going to be just like they are now.” Pretty scary if you think about it.

The trip to Bruges was only 1.5 hours. The kids were in good spirits and so were we and we enjoyed walking through the city thoroughly.

Dan and I hardly remembered anything from our backpacking days and it was like discovering the city again. It is picture perfect and we took aplenty. Here are some.

Towards the middle of the day it started to rain and we sought cover in one of the restaurants on one of the main square. The service was very fast, the food was great, and the waiters very courteous. They even offered to warm up the formula. I forgot the name of the place…

It continued to rain even after lunch and after considering to scale the 366 step belfry with Georgia and being easily turned off by having to wait for the few other visitors to go down we headed down to Ghent.

The kids fell asleep on the way and Irina offered to stay with them while we got out and walked around Ghent a bit. Despite the rain, we liked it even better than Bruges. Some guides say that its charm is in that it is less picture-perfect and more real than Bruges. But part of the reason could be that its inventory of the beautiful medieval sites is at least as big but as a town it is also taller and more sophisticated.

There was a portion of the medieval fortifications wall, really awesome, and we counted 4 huge city-center worthy churches (would not know their names but the ones we saw inside they were equally impressive). And not to forget all the other beautiful residential and guild buildings all around. In one of the major square a huge TV screen and several mobile bars were set up helping the large crowd thoroughly enjoy the soccer game between Uruguay and Argentina. The views of the bridges across the river were great.

After we walked around for about an hour the kids woke up and Irina called us. We spent a few more hours in the city. It would be a worthy alternative to Antwerp to consider at another time.

In the evening we packed up and prepared for the next portion of our journey – onto Vilnius tomorrow. We got a banana for Isabella. She has been refusing to eat her bottled baby food and had grown sick of formula as well. She pretty much focused on the freeze dried bananas for the last few days and only ate formula at night (grandparents make a collective gasp). It has fun to watch her destroy the banana straight on the bed. She was completely covered in it.

Day 4 – Back to Vilnius

We woke up early today and Dan went out to get our final installment of the local bakefare. We drove to the airport – note, if you are returning a rental, the closest gas station is on the way out from the airport. They did not figure out how to do one on the other side of the road as well. However, with our trusty Tom Tom it was not a problem to turn around and find our way back.

The plane was half empty. That makes you think considering our trials and tribulations the night before.

Back in LT, there was a moment of truth. Audra met our two cabs on the playground and we walked upstairs to the third floor. The apartment was really not a three bedroom but two, but it was awesome, much like the one we stayed at in Warsaw but all on the same floor. It is basically two apartments connected into one. It’s kitchen, dining room, and living room windows face Vocieciu, and bedrooms face the playground in the back. Almost all the furniture is brand new; the apartment is large and spotless. Oh, what a relief.

We left our things and went out for a stroll. The streets were kind of empty but Svejais Bandeles was still open. They are now open every day until 9. Here is a bit of rationalizing but if we had known it earlier it would have been even easier to take the cope-out option. Some eateries did not survive the winter; others had sprang in their place. One that got us really excited was the empty abandoned building right next to St. Catherine’s. Now there is a wine cellar and a restaurant there. And it has been only a year since the local alcoholics and Georgia had left traces of their presence in that area.

But there were the same few buildings that were slowly disintegrating since the last time: the beautiful art nouveau building with the globe on the roof, still uninhabited and attempted to be sold off as a hotel. Another series of buildings on Vilnius gatve that used to the music school before the war. They were beautifully restored during our first summer trip and now is also falling into disrepair.

On the right is what I assume the picture of the Lithuanian underwear. When it get to be like -50 F outside. Sexy and warm. In Russia they probaby make the same thing from felt.

Georgia recognized a few things and forgot about others. When she saw the statue of Gediminas, she exclaimed: “I remember this guy, but where is the dragon?” She also asked if he was dead already. But she remembered the ice-cream kiosk nearby and demanded her portion for the day. That’s our little girl!

On the subject of eating, Isabella has progressed to the baby cookies. Our supplies of dry bananas are drying out so it is nice to know there are alternatives. We stacked up on the local baby food and cereals at Maxima to try tomorrow. They also sell Similac here and the other baby brands that we are used to so that is another comforting thing to know.

We even saw two of the three city characters: our extremely smelly homeless guy with the dreadlocks was still making his rounds via the very similar route. And also, in the distance we heard the bicycle guy singing his perpetual “America, America.” Rosita was missing but maybe she is taking a day off.

As the final word of welcome, a really strong thunderstorm started when we were next to the theater on Gediminas Prospectas. We stayed under cover near the post office and watched the barrels of water come down like there is no tomorrow. It was great.

We came back, bathed the kids, put them to sleep in their rooms (Isabella sleeps in the corner of ours), unpacked, did the laundry, and finally sat down with the mini sausages and kefir. We are really happy to be settled in and comfortable even though we do feel a bit like and expect to be called woosies. One last bit of rationalization that we will tell our kids would be that we did it for them. Promise to try harder the next time.

Day 2 – Antwerp and planning the next step

The kids did it again – even though we were all crammed in the little room they slept amazingly well. I woke up at around 9am (never before since October of 2009), and proceeded to wake up Dan and Georgia so we could get ready to explore the city some more and plan what to do with the apartment. We got Irina and finally woke up Isabella who was still sleeping amongst all the fun around her. She woke up smiling and happy to see everyone.

We went to the station to pick up some croissants and other freshly-baked goodies we saw in the half a dozen stores on the station. We finally settled at Starbucks, a monumental looking store, large enough to host weddings.

Then Georgia’s stomach started hurting and we headed back to our room. It was a bit like our last arrival day to Vilnius but not as much throwing up. Dan stayed with her and Irina kept busy with Isabella while I looked for the apartment with the help of 20 euro per day Internet, the highest one ever.

At around 2 pm I confirmed an appointment with Renee who had 3-bedroom apartment on Italiëlei 191. He said that if we move in on Saturday, it would be 3200 euro, but if we wait until Monday, it would be 2700. I was not sure why 3 days made 500 euros of a difference but assumed that maybe there was some kind of contract or work going on at the apartment at the time. Renee asked pick him up from his apartment in the South of the city but we suggested to meet at the apartment instead.

Dan was a bit suspicious about it having seen number 155 a day before but we did not hear back from any else. Audrene confirmed several options in Vilnius. One, on Vokieciu, had us really salivating where we saw the apartment and where the windows were facing. But, even though it was a nice option, going to Vilnius seemed a bit of a cope-out.

Having waited in the heat in front of the building for Renee for 15 minutes, I finally called him and somewhat frustratedly he said I should have just called the apartment and came up. Which apartment, on what floor? There were 6 of them in that building. He said on the fifth floor. So we rang and were let in. The building was modern but some features were really strange, like a super-narrow winding staircase between the floors and elevator large enough for 2.

Inside we were met by Vinny, Renee’s Oriental wife. The apartment was big and pretty, and, should it have been the first one we saw, we would be happily moved in by now. There was no towels or toilet paper here either. Apparently it is not the thing with the Europeans anymore. Having discussed with Renee on the phone for a few minutes she won that concession for us. Our only remaining concern was where to store the stroller that would not fit into the elevator. Vinny suggested keeping it near the entry door and the post office box downstairs. She said that the rest of the tenants in the building were the Eastern European laborers who woke up early and would not be bothered by the stroller. She also showed us the garage that the building came with. Renee offered it for extra 250 euros. It was definitely safer place to keep our stroller but it was designed with the same miniature people in mind who rode the elevator and walked the stairs - our van would not even make the clearing.

Still it suddenly became an option. We discussed it as we continued our walk around the city and became convinced that this is the best thing for us. Dan and I decided to call Renee to see if he would knock down 3200 to 2700 given that no one was living in the apartment right now.

After the opening statements Renee said that the apartment was now 3250 euros. I was incredulous and countered with the number he shared earlier in the day. He responded that as I wait, it would only get higher, not lower. I’ve never heard such a thing. I did the only thing I remembered from the business school and said I don’t understand and stopped talking. After trying to explain how his reasoning worked he gave the phone over to Vinny, She mildly said that he probably made a mistake in giving me the price earlier in the day. I kept my silence. She talked a bit with Renee and said that they are willing to give it to us to 3200. I said “great,” we will give them a call tomorrow evening after we come back Brugge about moving in.

Dan and I discussed this afterwards. We just don’t get it. Maybe it is because of who we are and where we come from? Maybe, he assumed that we are, like the rest of his tenants, willing to accept any option? Which, in truth, we weren’t far from anyway. And, incidentally, what Eastern European laborers would jump to the luxury to stay in a “luxury apartment next door to the old town.” We just did not get it. But Dan pointed out one thing that we overlooked. Booking even at this price would be at least $2,000 more than flying the whole family and Irina over to Lithuania and staying in the center of the old town there. My supporting argument was that given that it would be kind of crazy to get garage to store the stroller it would be a matter of hours before it was gone too. And we really liked the stroller. So it was Vilnius again for us.

We checked for other responses before calling Audrene. There were none. We also looked the flights to Vilnius. The only option was through Amsterdam. We called Audrene and confirmed our reservation. Wow, what a day.

Meanwhile, back in the city we had fun watching a group of Dutch take over one of the bars to watch and cheer the soccer game between Brazil and Holland. They were filming themselves with their own crew and that was kind of weird.

Irina offered to watch the kids and so Dan and I headed back to the city. It really is beautiful. Many streets in the historical center die off in the evening. We went to the bohemian South part and there was life on some streets. We found the area where the remainders of the gay pride parade last week enjoyed their drinks at the restaurants overlooking the river. The parade also explained why there are so many men in pink in the city.

We talked about where we had gone wrong. The main error was that we never researched this agent and looked in person at any of her other listings to get on the same page about what works for us and what doesn’t. Secondly, the location was not right even though it was “in the center.” For example, even though 1.5 km from the old city did not sound like much, it took us 35-40 minutes every time we wanted to get there. This is a very different kind of experience from being in the middle of it. We also should have visited the city prior to coming to meet other agents, explore the neighborhoods, and get better feel of the local logistics like the local supermarkets, playgrounds, and availability of the free wifi spots (primarily in McDs in this town). So far we did not find any supermarket in the vicinity that sold baby food. Finally, if we could find other telecommuting families like us maybe we could compare notes.

Further down south along the river there was a busy luna park with all sorts of attractions. We had a great late dinner at the Moroccan Lemedi and watched the people on the street especially the weird play between several drivers of expensive cars who blocked the driveway of one of the building owners preventing her from getting out. She went around looking for a person responsible and finally sat in the car with her cell phone. Eventually the driver showed up and moved the car so that the owner could get out. Moments later a convertible pulled in onto that spot and the driver walked over to another building entrance. Incidentally all the driveways on that street were blocked. We did not get it.

On our walks we saw a city character who, just like his counterparts in Vilnius and all the other larger cities, must keep the company to the ageless monuments and buildings. This was a homeless guy with beer who was singing.

Another travel note is that there are too many huy words around us. It seems like the language is full with them: hui, huichelaar, huis. Maybe it is the mood that we were in…

At home we spent the next two hours trying to book the flight to LT. Orbitz infuriatingly let you get to the screen where you got to select the flight and then indicated that the flight was not available at that rate, but rather the double of that. KLM dealt only with the numbers in 700 euros per person. Eventually I’d tried Brussels again out of the desperation and it worked from the Brussels airlines. On top of that none of our credit cards could be used to make the booking other than Dan’s working Amex. But at least we finally made the reservations for the Sunday flight. It was a much more convenient to be leaving from the airport in Brussels because we are familiar with it rather than driving up to Amsterdam really early. The girls woke up while all this excitement was going and kept Dan busy. But at the end of the day we had the plan again and had started to put it to work.

Day 1 – Arriving to Antwerp

We should have suspected something. It started too well.

Our plane neighbors and us prepared for the worst but the kids were great on the flight to Brussels. Georgia watched the dragon in training and fell asleep pretty much until the end. Isabella also had two long sleep stretches and no crying. We watched Dr. House for 1.5 hours and then CSI for about the same. And pretty much did not know what to do with ourselves the rest of the time. Towards the end even the grim-faced French-speaking people around us broke into occasional smile.

Then, at the airport, we got a brand new mini van instead of our planned mini-economy. It was a good thing too because we ended up using every available bit of space in the trunk with our suitcases, stroller, duffel bag, and a carry on bag for every person. Gone are the days when we traveled with just one carry-on one suitcase for the two of us. And then we got a sim card and called the apartment owner Coco and agreed to meet at the apartment. And then, in perfect spirits, we drove to Antwerp. And that’s when all the fun started.

The building on Italiëlei 155 looked pretty old. The street itself looked like a tree lined valley on the Google earth but turned out to be a major city thoroughfare with 8 lines of traffic going through. We still hoped that we would get something nice with all the high ceilinged windows facing the front.

When the Flemish-looking Coco showed up, Georgia and I walked with her inside through the narrow hallway with stairs. The apartment front looked as on the pictures – high wooden ceiling, pleasant leather sofas. The terrace was actually pretty private yard with grapes and roses, walled with the surrounding buildings kind of how it is in some Greenwich village apartments. The kitchen was just a kind of a counter with an old fridge and tiny microwave but it was not the type of place one spent most of their time anyway.

Then I asked about the bedrooms. Coco directed us toward the winding metal staircase. Three of the bedrooms were in the basement. Not the nice, put your pool table down and entertain your guests type of basement, but the real thing: cold, damp, and having the smell that brought to mind the multiple sewage spills. The basement was sectioned into several rooms with tiny windows, and two single metal beds in each room. The bathroom had no door. For the child-friendliness part Coco also provided the antique 3-walled crib and the baby chair from the dawn of the furniture construction for children.

It kind of dawned that it would be pretty tough to live in this 5* luxury as implied by her listing (http://www.antwerpflats.be/fotosfft0a.htm). I hope that others would not be fooled like us. Read the small print: kids friendly (Yes) actually means the metal staircase and a few other things to provide ample training and hardening to your small kids. In case you decide to forego the hardening, there is a staircase outside in the backyard that also goes downstairs to the basement. And since when does “linens” include the bathroom towels and the toilet paper.

I communicated my feedback to Coco. Coco said that other Americans (one older couple) had stayed in the apartment and were rather appreciative of the dampness and coolness. And her kids grew up in the similar conditions. And why aren’t I saying thanks for the crib.

Dan saw the apartment next and agreed with me. Given that we, or me, pretty stupidly, did not consider any other options prior to coming here, I went back to her and tried to get a heater for the downstairs and the crib that did not come from the dumpster of the museum for the child abuse. She said “absolutely no” to heater and offered a play box for Isabella. Having offered to make this concession she said that she is not happy with my attitude and complaining, and feels it is in her best interest to give me back my deposit so I could get out. After a short discussion it did come to that. She initially said that she does not have the money on her but I pointed her to the bank that was just downstairs and surprisingly she did give back our 500 euros.

We were actually very relieved. We drove to the city center, and walked around and eventually settled down on the beautiful stadthouse square for lunch. While we were waiting for our food, I walked over with the kids to the Tourist Information office to ask for the names of other apartment agents. The sight of disheveled woman holding a somewhat stained infant, and an older kid plentifully producing the snot, did not initially warm up the information clerk. But after I explained our sorry state, he got nicer and suggested to stay at the brand new cheap hotel Etap near the main train station while we sort things out. He provided the hotel info and offered to check the next-door government office for the ideas on how to approach the apartment hunting.

We finished our French fries and beer and walked around some more. Antwerp has one of the prettiest old towns. There are plenty of the colorful winding narrow lanes and awesome old buildings. The church of the lady of the town is huge and awesome. The city is beautiful not in a “preserved” and sterilized sort of way but does show the signs of continued life; such the Arab hosts inviting “bellas bambinas” to the Italian eatery. Incidentally, the number of food choices is pretty amazing. It makes sense considering how well integrated the city is. You have to hunt for the original Flemish and they usually would turn out to be from Holland anyway.

Our only worry was that we would miss Irina who was coming later that day from Vilnius to help us take care of kids. But, surprising us again, Coco gave our number to her and she was able to get in touch with us. We checked into the hotel and continued our exploration of the city. On the way, as a crazy backup plan, we called our wonderful Vilnius agent Audrene from McDonalds free hotspot and she promised to check into getting an apartment for us.

And we are back, back again...

Here is our family blog "Summer in Munich, Antwerp, Vilnius (III)." Our original plan was to spend 6 weeks in the summer in Munich with the kids. Early in the spring we did our research, learned the town plan, and contacted some agents. They suggested waiting until May when more options would open. But in May these options failed to materialize. The best one was someone called Wallace Burrus who offered a 4-bedroom apartment for a 4500 Euro on the German Craigslist. The only issue was that Wallace was willing only to work together was if we sent half the payment down with the Western Union. And then he would share his full contact information with us. We do a lot of dumb things, but that’s where we drew the line, panicked, and switched our plane tickets to Antwerp.

In contrast to Munich that required some fishing out of the agents, who incidentally take 40% portion of your monthly rent as a commission, Coco’s site (http://www.antwerpflats.be/hoofdeng.htm) was one of the first ones that came up when we looked. After dealing with Wallace it was like a breath of fresh air. Coco had not one, but 3 options, and ultimately suggested the child-friendly 4 bedroom on Italiëlei 155 for 2500 euros. She was communicative and responsive, and even provided her full contact and bank info for the wire transfer of the deposit. Now that was a deal and a bargain too.

Ultimately, however, as seen from the next post, we still ended up going “the usual” route. But hopefully, just like the sequels in the movie theaters this summer, this one will be Oscar worthy :)