Okay. That last post of mine was far too long; fortunately, our stubborn persistence brought us to Igoumenitsa as of yesterday, where the going is non-existent and consequently far less eventful. This is our first day without any cycling of any sort since our two-day sojourn in Opatija - which was 1200 km, countless storms, a flood, and more than two weeks ago, so we feel entirely justified in kicking back and resting.
We start off the morning with Greek coffees at Café Corleone before asking the bookstore owner - who, as we recall, is the only person we've come across here with nearly flawless English - where we might find a laundromat; although the hotel offered to wash our clothing, the sleeping bag could use a washing after taking on a bit of damp during the flood. He gives some fairly precise directions, so Valkyrie returns to the room to pore over listings of graduate schools and research labs while I walk about looking for it: way down the waterfront past a church, a schoolyard, and a slew of cafés and restaurants and stores to this playground area, turn right just past that, walk up past the post, and it should be on the corner - he did, however, warn us that since laundry machines have taken hold here, many of the old neighbourhood laundromats are shutting down...
...as this one seems to have done; there is no evidence of said laundromat on any of the corners in a two-block radius. There is a dry cleaners, but the lady there points me down the street a few blocks. Walking over there, I find another dry cleaners where I am pointed back down the road some distance. With nothing better to do, I give it a shot - but the stretch of relative townness comes to an end back up where the waterfront road meets the main road, so I turn to walk back to the hotel. Not much use in putting even more effort into the search, not after having combed roughly the entire town...
We spend some more time loafing around, pausing in this lofty pursuit only to take ouzo at a local bar. There is still the matter of the sleeping bag and slightly damp tent to attend to, so we grab our ingredients and kitchen materials and take them down to the park by the water to cook up a delicious squid-tomato-spinach rice dish. Yum! Feels good to have decent food again, something nice and warm to shove down our throats. The sleeping bag and tent we lay over a nearby railing to dry, so that the whole thing forms a nice scene of our standard hobosity - we are even complimented by a passing couple on our culinary acumen.
Late afternoon rolls around. The shops reopen, allowing us to pick up some much-needed items: two polar fleece jackets (which at 37€ combined are well worth it!), a second rainjacket with full hood (we've had only one so far, forcing me to wear a garbage bag when it rains), and various food items to stock our pantry containers. We now feel much better prepared for any storms down the road, and the jackets make us look almost presentable...
...and that's mostly it; we spend a bit of time writing blog posts and downloading movies in Café Corleone, but otherwise the night passes uneventfully. This is perfectly alright by us - for tomorrow we finally head out again! Sleep well, weary travellers...