So. Second full day in Thessaloniki. This is necessary, we believe; exhaustion both mental and physical has taken its toll, and we feel the irrepressible desire whenever we get the chance to do absolutely nothing whatsoever of importance. Not a problem in less-touristy Thessaloniki! The sites of importance are easily visited within the span of several hours, and we happened upon most of them yesterday purely by accident. We start off the day nice and slow with a lengthy coffee break in Dada Café where we write up more of these damnable blog posts. Well, not damnable precisely - we like writing them enough, but it is plenty of work. We remember back at the beginning of the trip when, bursting with youthful ambition, we imagined we would keep videos and GPS logs and attempt to get sponsorship and try to speak at schools about our travels and everything else under the sun. And then we actually got on the road, started biking; we understood fully what it means to ride 100km or more a day only to arrive wherever we can late-evening with depleted energy reserves and a pressing need to make camp and cook and write up the daily post and...and...well, it's not exactly surprising, given all this, that we routinely fall behind on writing and uploading these things. Hard work indeed!
None of that today, though; we sit in Dada Café for some time before sauntering back to The Guy for some more delicious Greek food, and then we pass several hours in blissful oblivion back at Stelios' apartment. He returns from his classes, and I ask him for the use of his printer. What for? Real life is fast approaching, as much as we would love to ignore it - and the US is notoriously strict in matters of work visas. I've got a number of forms to be sent off; we print them out, walk down to the nearest post office still open at this hour, and mail them out via regular post.
Time for dinner! On our way back from the post office we head through the covered food market downtown to pick up some fish, which we oven-bake with our oranges and almonds and a generous heaping of Kalamata olive oil. The result is delicious and well appreciated by our host, whom we engage in conversation about Cypriot politics and the Turkish occupation and war and the shortcomings of human nature and anything else of philosophical importance that comes to mind.
The train we plan to take leaves early - too early for Stelios' schedule; we say our goodbyes, invite him to visit us in San Francisco (an invitation we make to all our hosts, naturally, as well as anyone who should happen upon our CouchSurfing or WarmShowers listings once we make them), and grab another night of sleep. Last night of sleep on a mattress for a few days at least, for however long it takes to reach Istanbul, and it seems prudent to thoroughly enjoy it...