Fundraising Goal: $9,000, or $9 per kilometer!!!
Make checks out to PDSNOKI, P.O. Box 33077, Cincinnati, OH 45233
My number in Lithuania: +370 648 857 10
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So today was a day of resting to prepare for the remaining 270 miles (390 km) from Kaunas, Lithuania to Warsaw, Poland. It looks roughly like I have 5 days of cycling ahead of me and I hope my body holds up! My legs are sore, but they'll be alright. I am more concerned about sitt
ing in the bike saddle for 5 more days and, more importantly, about my very stiff left Achilles tendon. But I think today's rest will do wonders and I am also planning another rest day before arriving in Warsaw. I also watched the Tour d'Espagne on Eurosport for inspiration, and I hear that the Tour de Pologne is going to be going on at the same time as my ride! Maybe we'll cross paths.
All is well here in Kaunas's Old Town. Although Kaunas is the 3rd largest city in the Baltic states, its old town really doesn't rival Riga's or Tallinn's. But there is still a lot to see. Nevertheless, first things first -- I spent the morning prowling the town for a place to do laundry. My hotel gave me an address that was within walking distance. I found myself wandering around in this alleyway of decrepit car garages and was eventually pointed to a big building which housed the local "American bowling alley" ("Americkietiski Kegliai"). I went in with my sack of dirty clothes and found that there were all sorts of random businesses in this complex, including a Harley Davidson store (and a sign that read, in English "Motorcycle parking only") and a sauna. I waited in the line to sauna to ask if they knew where the laundromat was and the elderly woman in line in front of me reminded me of why I am here. She clearly had Parkinson's and had difficulty picking up her change.The woman who ran the sauna seemed very displeased that I spoke Russian to her and I am starting to recognize that Kaunas has a very small Russian population (90% of its population is ethnically
Lithuanian, according to one narrative the tourist bureau puts out) and Russian is not frequently spoken here. That said, I did see some interesting graffiti in Russian in town, glorifying the Russian cult rock band, Kino, and thier lead singer, Victor Tsoi (see photo). Anyway, it turns out that the laundromat at the bowling alley went out of business and she was none too pleased to have to tell me that in Russian. So I wandered over to the tourist office and they found a laundry place (and the woman behind the desk told me that she took a trip similar to mine from Greece through the Balkans). Apparently there is only one place to have laundry done; it is in a basement inside a courtyard behind a government building. They'll have my clothes for me by tomorrow at noon, so that's good! 
After my tour of the churches in old town and a ride in the funicular up to the interesting, massive cathedral on the hill, I wandered down to the river, thinking there might be some good views. Rather, the river looked very polluted and sad, and the walk was pretty uninspiring. I've done a little more touring of old town and then I came back online here at the hotel in my quest to find a bike shop in Warsaw that will commit to packing up my bike in a box for the plane. I sent out a bunch of emails, so we'll see if I succeed.The other minor annoyance is that my 8 gigabyte memory card for my camera is already full. This is the problem of taking photos in "raw" mode (thanks for getting me hooked on this, Matt
Barton). I'll have to either start deleting or get a second card. On a related note, I also hope to have a connection where I can plug the camera back in to upload more pictures for this blog. My next two planed stops look like very small towns, though, so I am not optimistic.In other news, I have just heard that the remnants of Hurricaine Ike hit Cincinnati pretty
badly. My parents still have no power and a tree fell on the roof of part of my brother's house. So let's all keep our fingers crossed that they get the power back on soon and that the tree damage is minimal.Tomorrow, after the laundry comes back - body willing and weather permitting -- I'm heading about 80 km to the last town on the Lithuanian side of the Polish border, Kalvarija.
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