The third week of excavation began with the express intention of 'plowing' through the plow zone and finally getting rid of it. I was feeling really good on Monday, thanks mainly due to the weekend, and was ready to work really hard. However, as soon as we got on site I was approached by the Dig Director and instructed to pack up my things and move over to a new trench down in the Olive Grove. I had mixed feelings about this turn of events as I was really enjoying working with Dave, but when the Dig Director tells you to do something you simply dont question it. The reasons they decided to move me seem to be the fact that they were lacking a strong digger within the area, and mostly because the research project I have decided to undertake while I am here deals with the time period that the Olive Grove seems to directly focus on.
This trench is one of the more exciting trenches on site. In 2006 they uncovered incredibly good quality pottery from the same time period as the shaft graves at Mycenae which is very rare to have in a settlement context. Controversially they also seem to have some evidence for the largest and earliest ship in Bronze Age Greece within this area. it is an incredibly rich depost that hopefulyl will yield many fantastic finds throughout the season. Unfortunately the trench is located very much away from the central excavation area. As a result we are somewhat segregated and it feels most of the time like we are a completely seperate group. We prefer to be referred to as the 'Grovenians'.
Upon my arrival at the trench I discovered that some backfill still needed to be removed in this area. With much moaning, groaning and sweating this was swiftly removed and we were soon ready to break ground in the new trench. I cant get over the excitement that comes wiht the first swing of the pickaxe. It is truly fantastic. I suppose its the little things that make something memorable. Excavation continued throughout the week with very few significant finds as we were once again moving through the plow zone. Some interesting things uncovered were a piece of a lead bracket, a loom weight and, very commonly, some extremely high quality pottery. On the Wednesday, we decided to work ridiculously hard and do a 50 cm pass throughout the trench to try and get past the plow zone. This we accomplished much to the amazement of the rest of the crew, and in doing so we broke a record for the most amount of soil moved within a single day (233 20L zambelies to be precise. You can work that out in your own time :p). This was not to the detriment of accuracy, as we still managed to pick out about 7 pails of pottery. Needless to say I loved the work, but my body was absolutely destroyed for the rest of the week. At the end of this 50cm pass we uncovered a large mudbrick melt surface that seemed to extend across the entire trench. This slowed down our excavation substantially as we concentrated on tracing the surface. Many very large pieces of pottery were revealed within this melt layer so we think that this was perhaps used as some sort of surface.
On the Thursday night of the week it was the 21st birthday of one of the trench assistants (Tyler). We all went out to celebrate and had an absolutely fantastic night out. It made fridays excavation incredibly interesting as everyone was moving at about half pace. I made the silly decision of trying to work through any remnants of a hangover, and while this resulted in me working probably harder than normal, it also resulted in me being too tired to keep my eyes open at dinner. Sleep was goooood.
The weekend consisted of a field trip to the large island of Eubea just to the NE of us. The crossing was pretty awesome, as the island is only a few hundred meters off the mainland. We went to the site of Lefkhandi, Eretria and Chalkis where we saw a canal that was only about 20m wide seperating the mainland from the island. I was not VERY interested in the sites but still had a good time. Saturday evening was completely out of control as it turned out to be the dig directors birthday. Considering he knows almsot the entire town personally there was a big party planned down by the beach bar. At some point in the night, huge watermelons were brought out that had had their centres semi-liquified and some concoction of alcohol poured inside them. This juice was then ladled out into shot glasses and systematically destroyed by the entire bar. It was a lot of fun and despite the temptation of hollowing out the empty watemelon and fashioning a helmet, ended up being completely harmless. It was an incredibly late night and we only ended up getting to bed at around 6am. Thankfully the next day was a free day and we could sleep it off without much trouble.
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PS> I am having computer problems still but should be sorted out by this week. Photos will then be forthcoming. Apologies.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Plow Zone, Pottery and Pizza
The rest of the first week of work at Mitrou went by very smoothly. We continued to take out all the remaining backfill and expose the trenches. We were all suitably exhausted by the end of the week, but the good thing about backfill is it exposes the hard workers and the slackers. It sort of serves as a bonding experience (Baptism through fire if you will). I actually quite enjoyed it despite all my grumblings. It is quite mindless work, and is extremely good exercise. You can just zone out and enjoy the workout. At the end of the week we had exposed and swept out most of the trenches on site. FINALLY our islet was looking like a functional archaeological site rather than a quarry.
Friday night was reason enough for a mini-party down by the beach, and almost everyone turned out to bring in our first weekend. We enjoyed ourselves suitably, as only University students can, and got to know everyone on a different level away from the dust and grime of the site and the mugginess of the Apothiki. Conveniently one of my roommates, Doug, has some sort of psychological problem. If he has had enough to drink, he will compulsively buy beers and alcohol for almost anyone around him. Needless to say, I figured this out very early on in the night and proceeded to act appropriately. It was a good night.
The weekend was spent travelling to the nearest town, Atalanti, and visiting a couple of interesting mini-sites and the museum. The museum houses the most important finds from the entire Ephoria (or archaeological district). It was really good to check it out. I have forgotten how much of an absolute nerd I can be when it comes to museums. I can get lost in them for hours and hours.
The rest of the weekend was free time, so I enjoyed the break and spent most of it hanging out on the beach and reading/researching for a paper I want to write while I am here. The break was much needed and welcomed.
The second week of archaeology was extremely exciting. This was not due to many significant finds or anything like that, but mainly because of the novelty of actually starting to excavate for real. A couple of students and I were assigned to a trench with Dave, Ainsley (both trench assistants) and Beth (our supervisor). We started with a detailed surface survey, and finally broke ground for the first time. That first pick axe swing was magical. If it was in a movie, it would have either a) been done in silhouette or b) been done in super slow motion with inspiration music playing in the background.
Unfortunately, the novelty pretty much wore off very quickly. We were digging through a layer called 'plow zone'. This is the entire layer of soil that has been ridiculously disturbed. Almost all of the things we find in this layer are tiny little sherds of pottery, ranging in size from a pinky nail through to palm sized pieces. As in archaeology, context is almost everything, these pieces are pretty much useless to us even if they are good quality. Pieces of shell and bone are also found, highly disturbed and because of this, we tend to try go through this layer quite quickly. Unfortunately it can be meters deep at some points, so it is extremely frustrating.
A couple of interesting things did come up though that I was very proud of. On the first day of excavation I managed to spy a piece of really high quality painted Mycenaean pottery that my trench assistant had compeltely missed. As a result I was named Eagle Eyes for the rest of the day. The next day, I was taking out some stones that we had determined were jsut floaters (big stones that werent part of anything significant), and was picking underneath one when I discovered almost half of a really large bull figurine. As our dig supervisor is making a particular study of these figurines I received massive browny points, further cemented my status as Eagle Eyes and received a free beer in the process. Unfortunately that also marked the end of my good fortune, and I did not find anything really special for the rest of the week. Worse still, we soon lost Beth and Ainsley to a more "important" trench, and Dave was left in the deepend trying to supervise a trench. He hasnt had any experience doing this, so he is struggling. I enjoy working with him though and I am learning a lot from his mistakes (which to be honest have been few and far between).
That weekend we went on a weekend trip to Athens. We were shown around the sites of the Agora, Acropolis and Keremaikos (ancient cemetery) of Athens by the actualy archaeologists who are the dig coordinators for the respective sites. As a result, we were allowed behind locked gates that usually bar the public, and into the actual trenches to have a look see. It was incredibly exciting as these guys really put the history into perspective. One of the best moments was standing in the middle of the 'Stoa Basileus' and realising that almost everyone I know from Greek history had once had office there and administered the city of Athens, or visited on some sort of political business. The same was true for the Parthenon. It was truly spine tingling stuff. Some of the greatest and most ingenious men to have ever lived had stood in exactly the same place as I was standing. *insert ancient history tinglies here*
The rest of the Athens trip included a visit to the National Arhcaeological Museum. Naturally I spent about 5 hours wandering around the different rooms and I loved every minute of it. That Saturday night, while some were preparing to hit the clubs in Athens, I decided to have a low-key night with some of the guys and we went on a search for some form of Pizza. You do not understand the craving. We have had ham and cheese for breakfast, second breakfast, and lunch for almost 2 weeks in a row. I was ready to KILL someone for something that tasted good. We eventually found a great pizza place (intriguingly, Pizza Hut here in Greece is a posh restaurant complete with wine lists, appetisers, deserts, music, candles, everything. It was amazing) and proceeded to really splurge. I think we ate enough to last us for a couple of weeks :D.
We would need it.
Friday night was reason enough for a mini-party down by the beach, and almost everyone turned out to bring in our first weekend. We enjoyed ourselves suitably, as only University students can, and got to know everyone on a different level away from the dust and grime of the site and the mugginess of the Apothiki. Conveniently one of my roommates, Doug, has some sort of psychological problem. If he has had enough to drink, he will compulsively buy beers and alcohol for almost anyone around him. Needless to say, I figured this out very early on in the night and proceeded to act appropriately. It was a good night.
The weekend was spent travelling to the nearest town, Atalanti, and visiting a couple of interesting mini-sites and the museum. The museum houses the most important finds from the entire Ephoria (or archaeological district). It was really good to check it out. I have forgotten how much of an absolute nerd I can be when it comes to museums. I can get lost in them for hours and hours.
The rest of the weekend was free time, so I enjoyed the break and spent most of it hanging out on the beach and reading/researching for a paper I want to write while I am here. The break was much needed and welcomed.
The second week of archaeology was extremely exciting. This was not due to many significant finds or anything like that, but mainly because of the novelty of actually starting to excavate for real. A couple of students and I were assigned to a trench with Dave, Ainsley (both trench assistants) and Beth (our supervisor). We started with a detailed surface survey, and finally broke ground for the first time. That first pick axe swing was magical. If it was in a movie, it would have either a) been done in silhouette or b) been done in super slow motion with inspiration music playing in the background.
Unfortunately, the novelty pretty much wore off very quickly. We were digging through a layer called 'plow zone'. This is the entire layer of soil that has been ridiculously disturbed. Almost all of the things we find in this layer are tiny little sherds of pottery, ranging in size from a pinky nail through to palm sized pieces. As in archaeology, context is almost everything, these pieces are pretty much useless to us even if they are good quality. Pieces of shell and bone are also found, highly disturbed and because of this, we tend to try go through this layer quite quickly. Unfortunately it can be meters deep at some points, so it is extremely frustrating.
A couple of interesting things did come up though that I was very proud of. On the first day of excavation I managed to spy a piece of really high quality painted Mycenaean pottery that my trench assistant had compeltely missed. As a result I was named Eagle Eyes for the rest of the day. The next day, I was taking out some stones that we had determined were jsut floaters (big stones that werent part of anything significant), and was picking underneath one when I discovered almost half of a really large bull figurine. As our dig supervisor is making a particular study of these figurines I received massive browny points, further cemented my status as Eagle Eyes and received a free beer in the process. Unfortunately that also marked the end of my good fortune, and I did not find anything really special for the rest of the week. Worse still, we soon lost Beth and Ainsley to a more "important" trench, and Dave was left in the deepend trying to supervise a trench. He hasnt had any experience doing this, so he is struggling. I enjoy working with him though and I am learning a lot from his mistakes (which to be honest have been few and far between).
That weekend we went on a weekend trip to Athens. We were shown around the sites of the Agora, Acropolis and Keremaikos (ancient cemetery) of Athens by the actualy archaeologists who are the dig coordinators for the respective sites. As a result, we were allowed behind locked gates that usually bar the public, and into the actual trenches to have a look see. It was incredibly exciting as these guys really put the history into perspective. One of the best moments was standing in the middle of the 'Stoa Basileus' and realising that almost everyone I know from Greek history had once had office there and administered the city of Athens, or visited on some sort of political business. The same was true for the Parthenon. It was truly spine tingling stuff. Some of the greatest and most ingenious men to have ever lived had stood in exactly the same place as I was standing. *insert ancient history tinglies here*
The rest of the Athens trip included a visit to the National Arhcaeological Museum. Naturally I spent about 5 hours wandering around the different rooms and I loved every minute of it. That Saturday night, while some were preparing to hit the clubs in Athens, I decided to have a low-key night with some of the guys and we went on a search for some form of Pizza. You do not understand the craving. We have had ham and cheese for breakfast, second breakfast, and lunch for almost 2 weeks in a row. I was ready to KILL someone for something that tasted good. We eventually found a great pizza place (intriguingly, Pizza Hut here in Greece is a posh restaurant complete with wine lists, appetisers, deserts, music, candles, everything. It was amazing) and proceeded to really splurge. I think we ate enough to last us for a couple of weeks :D.
We would need it.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Mitrou: It Starts
The last 2 days of archaeology have been intensive. After waking up to a very late start by dig standards on the first day, we headed down to Straboula’s, the restaurant and owner who has been burdened with providing the entire dig team with breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here there was a buzz of excitement as everyone could not wait to get onto the site and working. We had a few quick introduction and orientation speeches, also detailing the context of Mitrou within history which were incredibly fascinating. I had not realised just how amazing Mitrou itself is. Some of the things that they have found here add to cutting edge research and theories in todays academia. This is not just ‘another site’, but something that is unique and can answer some very tricky questions.
At the conclusion of the speeches, we all piled into an assortment of vehicles along with equipment and headed down to the beach. Mitrou is a tidel Islet about 20 meters off the mainland. It was not always an island, but a REALLY big earthquake in the late 1800s altered the landscape so completely that the fields around the site were covered with water, and made into a large bay. As a result the archaeological site itself extends quite a far way into the water.
To get to the islet, we have to wade out every day into water that can be up to knee deep. It really adds to the whole charm of the place. We had to walk quite a few meters inland to the trenches and pits that have been dug. The site of Mitrou is so big that in 6 years of excavation, they have only uncovered 2.1% of the islet which means that there is still an incredible amount of potential archaeological wealth still available. We got quite a shock when we arrived. The place did NOT look anything like we were expecting (although I am truly not sure what we were expecting exactly). Long Grasses had almost completely covered the site. Large mounds of backfill were dotted all over the place, and weeds were rife. This is the price that a seasonal dig site pays.
After a quick tour of the island, we were put to work. We grabbed whatever tool we felt we needed and began to clear away all the scrub and weeds off the sides of the trenches and pits. This was very hard work as the vegetation was incredibly thick in some places. Finn (assistant trench supervisor), Mary-Page (student), and me decided it would be good to work as a team and we had a good system in place. We were quickly making progress until Kerril (Dig Coordinator) noticed and decided to put us to work building a road. Kerril made building a road sounds quite rewarding and sort of fun. Oh how wrong we were. The road was supposed to be up a mound to the side of the site, where dirt and debris from all the trenches were dumped last year. Obviously the trend was to continue but there was a problem. The mound had been completely COVERED by a thick layer of very stubborn grass. We were there shovelling, hoeing and rakeing for much of the 6 hours we had on site. It was extremely backbreaking work in quite hot conditions. The sun is fierce and at this stage of the excavation, there is no shade tarpaulines in place. We made steady progress though and soon the mound began to take the shape of a large ramp.
It might be worth making break from the narrative here to describe a typical day on site. Work begins usually at 6:30am. We work for around 3 hours before we are given a Kalatzo (second breakfast) typically of fruits, yogurt and breads. Work then again resumes, and the sun is starting to get very hot. 2 hours later we are mercifully given a short Karpuzi (watermelon) break. We are told again and again how important it is to take advantage of the watermelon as it reduces the amount of water you have to have flowing through your system, and therefore decreases the loss of minerals and vitamins. I don’t normally enjoy watermelon but it is definitly helpful in getting through to the end of the day which comes 2 hours later at around 2pm. By now the sun is much to hot to safely work, and all of Greece goes into a 3 hour siesta from 3-6pm.
By the end of the day we were all utterly exhausted. I decided to take a swim, after work beer and shower during siesta which did wonders for my energy levels. At 6pm we had to meet for a quick hike some way up the mountains backing Tragana in order to have a look at some Mycenaean Chamber Tombs that had been excavated. Only 1 had not been backfilled, but it was very interesting to see. We will be going to a museum in the next town (called Atalanti) to view some of the things found there. While up the mountain we also had a formal introduction to the field school. The entire program sounds absolutely fantastic, and I will be throwing myself completely into doing as much as possible.
After this we went out to dinner to Strabula’s, and I turned in for an early night soon after.
The next day went by much the same schedule. Upon reaching the site, Ben and I (student and roommate) were commandeerd to help construct the shade tarpaulins because we were tall. While we waited for that to be organised I quickly helped Finn finish off what we still had to do on the road. We made extremely fast progress and soon the place was fit to be used as a ramp to the dump site. Finn continued to fiddle while Ben and I headed off to construct the tarpaulins. This job was extremely finnicky and ANNOYINGLY FRUSTRATING. We managed to construct 2 6x5 Tarpaulins and 1 5x5 before we were out of time. Yes, it took us almost the entire day. There is still quite a lot to do so we will in all likelihood continue in the morning.
After work on the site we had the afternoon free till dinner. I took advantage of the time to get to a computer and call my parents who had not heard from me yet. My baaaaaad :p
At the conclusion of the speeches, we all piled into an assortment of vehicles along with equipment and headed down to the beach. Mitrou is a tidel Islet about 20 meters off the mainland. It was not always an island, but a REALLY big earthquake in the late 1800s altered the landscape so completely that the fields around the site were covered with water, and made into a large bay. As a result the archaeological site itself extends quite a far way into the water.
To get to the islet, we have to wade out every day into water that can be up to knee deep. It really adds to the whole charm of the place. We had to walk quite a few meters inland to the trenches and pits that have been dug. The site of Mitrou is so big that in 6 years of excavation, they have only uncovered 2.1% of the islet which means that there is still an incredible amount of potential archaeological wealth still available. We got quite a shock when we arrived. The place did NOT look anything like we were expecting (although I am truly not sure what we were expecting exactly). Long Grasses had almost completely covered the site. Large mounds of backfill were dotted all over the place, and weeds were rife. This is the price that a seasonal dig site pays.
After a quick tour of the island, we were put to work. We grabbed whatever tool we felt we needed and began to clear away all the scrub and weeds off the sides of the trenches and pits. This was very hard work as the vegetation was incredibly thick in some places. Finn (assistant trench supervisor), Mary-Page (student), and me decided it would be good to work as a team and we had a good system in place. We were quickly making progress until Kerril (Dig Coordinator) noticed and decided to put us to work building a road. Kerril made building a road sounds quite rewarding and sort of fun. Oh how wrong we were. The road was supposed to be up a mound to the side of the site, where dirt and debris from all the trenches were dumped last year. Obviously the trend was to continue but there was a problem. The mound had been completely COVERED by a thick layer of very stubborn grass. We were there shovelling, hoeing and rakeing for much of the 6 hours we had on site. It was extremely backbreaking work in quite hot conditions. The sun is fierce and at this stage of the excavation, there is no shade tarpaulines in place. We made steady progress though and soon the mound began to take the shape of a large ramp.
It might be worth making break from the narrative here to describe a typical day on site. Work begins usually at 6:30am. We work for around 3 hours before we are given a Kalatzo (second breakfast) typically of fruits, yogurt and breads. Work then again resumes, and the sun is starting to get very hot. 2 hours later we are mercifully given a short Karpuzi (watermelon) break. We are told again and again how important it is to take advantage of the watermelon as it reduces the amount of water you have to have flowing through your system, and therefore decreases the loss of minerals and vitamins. I don’t normally enjoy watermelon but it is definitly helpful in getting through to the end of the day which comes 2 hours later at around 2pm. By now the sun is much to hot to safely work, and all of Greece goes into a 3 hour siesta from 3-6pm.
By the end of the day we were all utterly exhausted. I decided to take a swim, after work beer and shower during siesta which did wonders for my energy levels. At 6pm we had to meet for a quick hike some way up the mountains backing Tragana in order to have a look at some Mycenaean Chamber Tombs that had been excavated. Only 1 had not been backfilled, but it was very interesting to see. We will be going to a museum in the next town (called Atalanti) to view some of the things found there. While up the mountain we also had a formal introduction to the field school. The entire program sounds absolutely fantastic, and I will be throwing myself completely into doing as much as possible.
After this we went out to dinner to Strabula’s, and I turned in for an early night soon after.
The next day went by much the same schedule. Upon reaching the site, Ben and I (student and roommate) were commandeerd to help construct the shade tarpaulins because we were tall. While we waited for that to be organised I quickly helped Finn finish off what we still had to do on the road. We made extremely fast progress and soon the place was fit to be used as a ramp to the dump site. Finn continued to fiddle while Ben and I headed off to construct the tarpaulins. This job was extremely finnicky and ANNOYINGLY FRUSTRATING. We managed to construct 2 6x5 Tarpaulins and 1 5x5 before we were out of time. Yes, it took us almost the entire day. There is still quite a lot to do so we will in all likelihood continue in the morning.
After work on the site we had the afternoon free till dinner. I took advantage of the time to get to a computer and call my parents who had not heard from me yet. My baaaaaad :p
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The Journey to Tragana
I was really excited to get going to Tragana. After spending the morning wondering around the national gardens and Syntagma square (the main square in Athens), the group decided it was time to get a move on. We had carefully planned our trip down to a tee, because precious little detail was given to us by the dig coordinators about how exactly we were to find the bus terminal that would take us to Tragana.
We lugged our luggage out of the hostel and said goodbye to the amazing staff there. I was the most economically packed of everyone there, and I was not having any trouble at all carrying my bags. The girls on the other hand (especially Maddie and Ashley) were completely over packed, and this made navigating the narrow streets and many stairs of Athens extremely difficult. Originally we had planned to take a bus from Syntagma square to the KTEL bus station in the North of the city, but we all felt that we should try for the trains instead as our luggage was hardly suited to inner city travel on the bus. I managed to figure out what station we should get off at, but was a little unsure as to exactly how to get to the terminal as all of our maps did not go that far north. We thought we would be able to figure it out.
Upon exiting the station, we wandered outside and quickly found that we were NOT in what you would call 'touristy' Greece. The streets were quite crowded and dirty, and almsot no one spoke english. Luckily I have managed to pick up enough Greek to be able to exchange pleasantries and also ask for directions. I was quite nervous but I managed to successfully ask one man how to get to the KTEL bus station. Unfortunately the Greek I know is extremely limited so his reply was very difficult to understand. Thanks to a mixture of hand signals and limited Greek I was able to get the general jist of what direction to go, so we set off. We actually managed EXTREMELY well. It was quite a far walk, but I stopped twice more for directions and they were all consistant so I was not misunderstanding. We managed to get to the bus terminal unscathed and quite early. Our tickets were booked and we settled in to wait for our bus to depart.
While we were waiting, another group of quite obvious Americans arrived and made their way to the bus. We followed them and boarded. Soon after we departed and were on our way toTragana. Upon our arrival we were shuttled into our seperate accomodations. Different families have vacated their houses for the dig. Most of the guys were sleeping in a house called Mixouris, right near where we eat our meals. We also have the luxury of having a wachine machine and hot water, but the detriment of having the most residents with all 10 guys staying there. It isnt exactly what you would call luxury accomodation but it is comfortable enough. Believe me, after a week of digging you would sleep on a cold concrete slab like a baby.
We were given a little tour of the town by one of the staff members, a returning student by the name of Dave or 'Jersey' as everyone calls him. We had a couple of beers at the local hangout called Zoe's, and were shown where the local general store was, an alternative place to eat and were introduced to some of the locals. Tragana is one of those small country towns where everyone knows everyone and despite not being able to speak Greek, we were being recognised by some of the more frequent locals and shop owners in no time.
After heading to dinner and being introduced to even more people, we headed to Zoe's for a social drink. I decided to accompany some of the retunring students down to the beach. Its a good 1.5 kilometer walk, but we were quite chatty and made short work of it. I was then taken to a local Taverna on the beachfront called Maria's where obviously she knew most of everyone. I was quickly singled out as the new face and subsequent celebrations of Tequila on the house were forced upon me. I am starting to realise just how generous the Greeks can be, especially if you are friendly. It was a fantastic time, and it was good hanging out wiht some of the more experienced people on the dig team. Some of the other students arrived a little later, which put another glow on Maria's face.
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I now have very little spare time available to me to write blogposts. I have been trying my best, but as you have noticed I have fallen off a little bit and am quite far behind. As of now, I will post a little less frequently and roll a couple of days together in a little less detail. Stay tuned!
We lugged our luggage out of the hostel and said goodbye to the amazing staff there. I was the most economically packed of everyone there, and I was not having any trouble at all carrying my bags. The girls on the other hand (especially Maddie and Ashley) were completely over packed, and this made navigating the narrow streets and many stairs of Athens extremely difficult. Originally we had planned to take a bus from Syntagma square to the KTEL bus station in the North of the city, but we all felt that we should try for the trains instead as our luggage was hardly suited to inner city travel on the bus. I managed to figure out what station we should get off at, but was a little unsure as to exactly how to get to the terminal as all of our maps did not go that far north. We thought we would be able to figure it out.
Upon exiting the station, we wandered outside and quickly found that we were NOT in what you would call 'touristy' Greece. The streets were quite crowded and dirty, and almsot no one spoke english. Luckily I have managed to pick up enough Greek to be able to exchange pleasantries and also ask for directions. I was quite nervous but I managed to successfully ask one man how to get to the KTEL bus station. Unfortunately the Greek I know is extremely limited so his reply was very difficult to understand. Thanks to a mixture of hand signals and limited Greek I was able to get the general jist of what direction to go, so we set off. We actually managed EXTREMELY well. It was quite a far walk, but I stopped twice more for directions and they were all consistant so I was not misunderstanding. We managed to get to the bus terminal unscathed and quite early. Our tickets were booked and we settled in to wait for our bus to depart.
While we were waiting, another group of quite obvious Americans arrived and made their way to the bus. We followed them and boarded. Soon after we departed and were on our way toTragana. Upon our arrival we were shuttled into our seperate accomodations. Different families have vacated their houses for the dig. Most of the guys were sleeping in a house called Mixouris, right near where we eat our meals. We also have the luxury of having a wachine machine and hot water, but the detriment of having the most residents with all 10 guys staying there. It isnt exactly what you would call luxury accomodation but it is comfortable enough. Believe me, after a week of digging you would sleep on a cold concrete slab like a baby.
We were given a little tour of the town by one of the staff members, a returning student by the name of Dave or 'Jersey' as everyone calls him. We had a couple of beers at the local hangout called Zoe's, and were shown where the local general store was, an alternative place to eat and were introduced to some of the locals. Tragana is one of those small country towns where everyone knows everyone and despite not being able to speak Greek, we were being recognised by some of the more frequent locals and shop owners in no time.
After heading to dinner and being introduced to even more people, we headed to Zoe's for a social drink. I decided to accompany some of the retunring students down to the beach. Its a good 1.5 kilometer walk, but we were quite chatty and made short work of it. I was then taken to a local Taverna on the beachfront called Maria's where obviously she knew most of everyone. I was quickly singled out as the new face and subsequent celebrations of Tequila on the house were forced upon me. I am starting to realise just how generous the Greeks can be, especially if you are friendly. It was a fantastic time, and it was good hanging out wiht some of the more experienced people on the dig team. Some of the other students arrived a little later, which put another glow on Maria's face.
----------------------------------------
I now have very little spare time available to me to write blogposts. I have been trying my best, but as you have noticed I have fallen off a little bit and am quite far behind. As of now, I will post a little less frequently and roll a couple of days together in a little less detail. Stay tuned!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Hostel Tag >>> Not As Fun As It Sounds
I lost Jasha. I loose everything, so why should it be any different with people? We had to check in to different hostels after our night on the rooftop bar as there was no space at my hostel. We made plans to meet at 10:00 am (or so I thought!) and headed to bed. I slept very well and woke up very early to take care of some things. I was down waiting for Jasha at 9:30, thinking he may be on the ball and early. Unfortunately this did NOT seem to be the case and I was still waiting at 12:30. Noooooooooot good. I wasnt sure whether to go off and find him, sit there more or jsut go off on my own. I eventually decided to go and find him at his hostel.
I managed to navigate my way through some backstreets to his hostel, which was incidently in an amazing part of town. The guy at the desk said that he was checked in, but did not know if he was here. He also wouldnt let me go knock on the door. So I left empty handed walking back to the hostel. I did this twice. On the third go, when I returned, the girl at the desk at MY hostel said that Jasha had jsut been in and told her that it would be too difficult to find each other. I took that as 'go off and do what you want', which is exactly what I did. I WASNT GOING TO WASTE MY LAST DAY IN ATHENS!
I was tossing up between heading to the National Archaeological Museum, exploring the city more, or heading in for a closer look at the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The latter won out, as I had been intrigued by my distant view the day before. The temple was even more amazing up close. The columns TOWER over you. It is impossible to explain the sheer magnificence of these monumental structures. The temple must have been one of the most amazing buildings ever conceived when it was complete. I wondered around the temple for about 4 revolutions, taking it all in. I then decided to explore the rest of the site, which included a temple to Apollo Delphinos, the Delphic Law Courts, a couple of archaic buildings, a temple to Rhea and Kronos, and a temenos sanctuary to Zeus. I suppose all of these would not have been that interesting to the lay person who did not really know what they were looking at, as they were mostly just foundations and ruins. They were amazing to me though. and I enjoyed every minute of it.
I made my way back to my hostel, as a few people from my Mitrou dig were schedueled to arrive soon. I soon managed to spot a girl named Mattie at the check in desk, and after helping her with her bags, we decided to go for a walk. After getting her a few essentials we decided to walk around the Plaka (marketplace). We soon made our way back to the hostel where we found another girl by the name of Britney. We decided to head to the rooftop bar for a little, tosee if we could find anyone else but this didnt work out. The girls were really hungry so we went out for a meal at a local Taverna which was incidently close to Jasha's hostel. I popped in there and managed to convince him to come to dinner with us and say goodbye (as we were heading out to Tragana in the morning).
Dinner was alright, and we were soon back at the rooftop bar. After saying cheers to Jasha, we found 3 other people from the dig, Ashley, Doug and Alex. They were quite animated about a pub crawl that was happening later that night but I was much too tired and wanted to get my rest before heading out to Tragana in the morning. I took my leave and managed to sleep like a baby. I probably wouldnt have If I knew what was in store for me the next day.....
I managed to navigate my way through some backstreets to his hostel, which was incidently in an amazing part of town. The guy at the desk said that he was checked in, but did not know if he was here. He also wouldnt let me go knock on the door. So I left empty handed walking back to the hostel. I did this twice. On the third go, when I returned, the girl at the desk at MY hostel said that Jasha had jsut been in and told her that it would be too difficult to find each other. I took that as 'go off and do what you want', which is exactly what I did. I WASNT GOING TO WASTE MY LAST DAY IN ATHENS!
I was tossing up between heading to the National Archaeological Museum, exploring the city more, or heading in for a closer look at the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The latter won out, as I had been intrigued by my distant view the day before. The temple was even more amazing up close. The columns TOWER over you. It is impossible to explain the sheer magnificence of these monumental structures. The temple must have been one of the most amazing buildings ever conceived when it was complete. I wondered around the temple for about 4 revolutions, taking it all in. I then decided to explore the rest of the site, which included a temple to Apollo Delphinos, the Delphic Law Courts, a couple of archaic buildings, a temple to Rhea and Kronos, and a temenos sanctuary to Zeus. I suppose all of these would not have been that interesting to the lay person who did not really know what they were looking at, as they were mostly just foundations and ruins. They were amazing to me though. and I enjoyed every minute of it.
I made my way back to my hostel, as a few people from my Mitrou dig were schedueled to arrive soon. I soon managed to spot a girl named Mattie at the check in desk, and after helping her with her bags, we decided to go for a walk. After getting her a few essentials we decided to walk around the Plaka (marketplace). We soon made our way back to the hostel where we found another girl by the name of Britney. We decided to head to the rooftop bar for a little, tosee if we could find anyone else but this didnt work out. The girls were really hungry so we went out for a meal at a local Taverna which was incidently close to Jasha's hostel. I popped in there and managed to convince him to come to dinner with us and say goodbye (as we were heading out to Tragana in the morning).
Dinner was alright, and we were soon back at the rooftop bar. After saying cheers to Jasha, we found 3 other people from the dig, Ashley, Doug and Alex. They were quite animated about a pub crawl that was happening later that night but I was much too tired and wanted to get my rest before heading out to Tragana in the morning. I took my leave and managed to sleep like a baby. I probably wouldnt have If I knew what was in store for me the next day.....
Sunday, June 8, 2008
This One Time, On the Areopogus.....
My first day in Athens was fantastic. Defenitly a step up from terminal 5, 2 and 4 at Heathrow :p. When I finished my last post, I was still waiting for Jasha and Steph to come meet me and I had about an hour and a half to kill. So I decided to go exploring. I have gone out exploring on my own in a foreign city before in Rome and Cairo, and I find it is certainly the best way to orientate yourself, and make some nice discoveries. Athens did not dissapoint.
After a little difficulty I managed to find myself an ATM machine, and I decided to draw out as much money on my BA Compensation Visa card as possible, as the first transaction on it was free. I can now say that drawing large amounts of money out of an account that isnt yours is a very pleasurable experience. I then decided to go see what I could find in 15 minutes before heading back to the hostel.
I did not expect to stumble on the remains of the biggest temple in Greece. I was walking along a road that was bordered by some parkland area, and it seemed that this parkland area was strewn with some ancient remains dotted all over the place. I didnt think this was that unusual considering where I was. I turned a corner and decided to continue following the parkland border, and in the distance I noticed a large archway, similar to the Arches in Rome. I decided to check it out.
After a little difficulty I managed to find myself an ATM machine, and I decided to draw out as much money on my BA Compensation Visa card as possible, as the first transaction on it was free. I can now say that drawing large amounts of money out of an account that isnt yours is a very pleasurable experience. I then decided to go see what I could find in 15 minutes before heading back to the hostel.
I did not expect to stumble on the remains of the biggest temple in Greece. I was walking along a road that was bordered by some parkland area, and it seemed that this parkland area was strewn with some ancient remains dotted all over the place. I didnt think this was that unusual considering where I was. I turned a corner and decided to continue following the parkland border, and in the distance I noticed a large archway, similar to the Arches in Rome. I decided to check it out.
As I approached the arch, I saw that hidden by a spruce of trees was a MASSIVE column. When I say massive I mean it was.....unbelievable. I now know that these columns are 19 metres tall. As I got closer, I saw another column. and another. and another. This was the Temple of Olympian Zeus. It was started in the 7th century BC and was only completed by the Roman Emperor Hadrian 700 Years later. 700 YEARS! It used to house the famous Ivory and gold statue of Zeus Olympios, that was the basis of early christian portraits of Jesus and subsequently our modern conception of what Jesus looked like. He had to look like a god of course, and Zeus was the greatest of them all.
As you can tell I was getting extremely distracted. I turned my attention to thearhcway and I noticed a large inscription near the top on either side. I could easily make out the Ancient Greek words for city, Theseus and Hadrian. I assumed the translation was something like 'This arch was built for the city of Theseus by Hadrian' or some such. I later found out that it actually says on one side 'This is the city of Theseus' and on the other, 'this is the city of Hadrian and not Theseus'. Very odd. I was now jolted to reality by the time. I had to meet Jasha in....5 minutes. So I ran back to the hostel.
We all decided to go check out the Acropolis (forgetting that if we waited one more day we would get in for free as it is free on Sundays).Luckily our hostel is VERY close, and it was only about a 2 minute walk away. The Acropolis is a truly AMAZING place. I get Ancient History tingles every time I go there. The Parthenon is obviously not the only thing to see on the Acropolis, and our first stop was the Theatre of Dionysus (Dionysus Eleuthereus to be exact :p). This was part of the sanctuary of Dionysus and it was here that the Great Dionysia (a very major festival) was celebrated. The theatre would have hosted great plays by the dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides (You-Rippa-Dees. teehee).
We next hit the sanctuary of Asklepius, the deity of health and healing and also the Stoa of Eumenes. We pushed onwards and found the Odeion of Herodus Atticus, built in the 2nd Century AD and stiull used today for artistic events. Still further up the hill we travelled and rounded a corner onto the Propylaea (the monumental entrance onto the Akropolis proper, also serving as a temple to Athena Nike or Athena the goddess of Victory). The unfortunate thing about being so majestic and just plane gob smacking, is that the tourist crowds are RIDICULOUS! you can barely move among the throngs of tourist groups. This defiintily detracts from the splendour I suppose but there isnt much you can do about it :p. Moving on through the towering Propylae (which Jasha and steph assumed was the famous Parthenon) We came out onto the top of the Akropolis. As we did, I said to Jasha 'that wasnt the Parthenon buddy. THIS is the Parthenon!' and there it was.
Words like 'WOW' jsut dont work here. The Parthenon was built at the urgings of Perikles in the 5th Century BC. The Acropolis had been completely destroyed by the recent invasion of the Persians and after they had been pushed out of Greece and the Athenians were able to return to the city. Work was begun on upgrading the temples and sanctuaries. Athens was in control of a large alliance in the Aegean Sea and tribute from various city states was used to fund this project. The Parthenon itself took 10 years to build at MASSIVE expense. The result of this is a religious complex that forms the greatest architectual and artistic buildings bequeathed by Greek Antiquity to the world.
After exploring all around the top, including the Erektheion and the amazing views over the city, we started on down. I made sure we climbed up the Areopagus Hill, one of the most sacred places in Athens. This was a cliff from where priestesses breaking their vow of chastity were thrown off. Paul also made his sermon from here when he was in Athens. We visited the ancient Agora and surprises were all around me. We found remains of the ancient Panathenaic Processional way which was the route taken during the major religious festival of the year in Ancient Athens. *insert ancient history tingles here*. We also visited the Stoa of Attalus, a restored replica of the ancient one. It has been turned into a little museum. In ancient times, the stoas dotted around the city were used as meeitng places and social areas. Works of art were displayed for criticism and entertainment. So I suppose turning one into a museum is rather appropriate.
The rest of the Agora was incredibly awesome. Although Im sure by this time Jasha and Steph werent quite so enthusiastic. I was still running around like a kid in a candy store. We made our way out making some small stops along the way, including lunch. We decided to head back to the hostel becasue by this time we were very sunburnty and quite tired from all the walking. The route we decided to take home was through the Plaka (markets). The whole place just REEKS of tourist traps, but luckily we were qwuickly out of there. We made our way through some charming backstreets that gave us a completely different view of what its like to live in Athens.
BAck at the hostel it was really good to freshen up. We made our way up to a relly good rooftop bar at the top of our hostel where it was happy hour. A few beers later and a couple of ouzo shots and the night wasl ooking preeeeeeeeeeeeetty good. The night gets hazy from then on, and I woke up the next morning in my hostel bed still dressed :p
Thats all for now. I had another big day today so a new post will be up about that later.
Adiossas!
Chris
After exploring all around the top, including the Erektheion and the amazing views over the city, we started on down. I made sure we climbed up the Areopagus Hill, one of the most sacred places in Athens. This was a cliff from where priestesses breaking their vow of chastity were thrown off. Paul also made his sermon from here when he was in Athens. We visited the ancient Agora and surprises were all around me. We found remains of the ancient Panathenaic Processional way which was the route taken during the major religious festival of the year in Ancient Athens. *insert ancient history tingles here*. We also visited the Stoa of Attalus, a restored replica of the ancient one. It has been turned into a little museum. In ancient times, the stoas dotted around the city were used as meeitng places and social areas. Works of art were displayed for criticism and entertainment. So I suppose turning one into a museum is rather appropriate.
The rest of the Agora was incredibly awesome. Although Im sure by this time Jasha and Steph werent quite so enthusiastic. I was still running around like a kid in a candy store. We made our way out making some small stops along the way, including lunch. We decided to head back to the hostel becasue by this time we were very sunburnty and quite tired from all the walking. The route we decided to take home was through the Plaka (markets). The whole place just REEKS of tourist traps, but luckily we were qwuickly out of there. We made our way through some charming backstreets that gave us a completely different view of what its like to live in Athens.
BAck at the hostel it was really good to freshen up. We made our way up to a relly good rooftop bar at the top of our hostel where it was happy hour. A few beers later and a couple of ouzo shots and the night wasl ooking preeeeeeeeeeeeetty good. The night gets hazy from then on, and I woke up the next morning in my hostel bed still dressed :p
Thats all for now. I had another big day today so a new post will be up about that later.
Adiossas!
Chris
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Who wants to Hear about my Day(s)?
'The Great Journey' has taken on completely new significance courtesy of the 'good' people at British Airways and Heathrow Airport. If I can help it, I will never fly with them again. Now I left my last post anxiously awaiting my connecting flight from Heathrow to Athens. This was supposed to be a moderate 2 hour stop (as we were running a little over time from SIngapore). Put it this way. 6 Hours after getting to the boarding gate, I was still sitting there. In Heathrow. It all started when..............(insert flashback splash scene):
We received the Gate number for our Athens connection. 'FANTASTIC! We can finally get going.' So I hop on the tram system to get to the correct part of the terminal (Heathrow Terminal 5 is MASSIVE. Its really cool!). I was supposed to be meeting one of the peeps from the dig who jsut happens to be getting on the same flight although she is connecting from the USA. I walked around the gate area for AGES trying to find her but no luck.
The boarding time came and went and still nothing happened. Eventually a bunch of names were rattled off by the ground staff, but I wasnt on that list so I jsut sat and waited. After an hour or so, we were told that there was a 'technical' fault with the plane anda new plane had to be organised. This was all well and good, as these things happen. Unfortunately British Airways, in all their wisdom, did not have the same SIZE plane available and had to settle for a smaller one. Some people were therefore forced off the flight. As I am a single adult male travelling alone, I am of course first off the list. The customer service aspect was SHCKING handled by the groundstaff. It took a full 3 hours for us to be told ANYTHING. I was standing in line to talk to these people to figure out what was going on for AGES and they jsut werent having anything to do with us. By now, the groundstaff on scene had multiplied exponentially and it seemed like some management was floating around too. I now believe that the size of the stuff up is directly proportional to the amount of groundstaff partaking in a pow wow, seemingly NOT sorting it out. This is a new 'law' that I will be proposing, and just may be the answer to Stephen Hawkings quest for the ultimate laws of the universe.
Eventually we were told (I still had not been spoken to directly NOR had my boarding pass checked or anything) that we were going to be booked onto an Olympic Airways flight, leaving a couple of hours later, but we would have to be reissued with tickets and go through the palava of security and check ins again. We awere also given a nice sum of money as 'compensation'. We eventually got to the check in counter and LOW AND BEHOLD the Olympic Airlines have already given their flights to a bunch of Americans who had been delayed and missed their earlier Olympic Airlines flight. I thought this was perfectly justified as our problem was a BA problem and not Olympic. The result was that only a few of us managed to get onto the Olympic flight. I was one of the lucky ones it seems, although it was quite the miracle. I got the LAST possible seat. I just felt horrible leaving about 15 odd people behind, some of whom were really nice people with the patience of saints. I attempted to give up my seat to a girl who was particularly struggling with the situation and offered to stay the night at Heathrow instead. However this didnt seem possible, and we both agreed that we had already been through enough and didnt need to start causing problems.
It now entered my mind that I needed to get in contact with Jasha somehow, as he was patiently waiting for me at Athens for a flight I wasnt on. Unfortunately, he is only able to receive text messages and I still did not have a European Sim Card. I had the bright idea of trying to call home and get my parents to text him my details for me. A lovelly women lent me her phone for the international phone call, and this was organised quickly. I thank my parents for not asking questions when I did not have time to answer them, and simply agreeing to follow my instructions. That helped a lot. Jasha received the text message and was waiting for me when I eventually stumbled into Athens Airport.
We managed to get the final subway out from the airport (it was now almost midnight) and we were on the way to Akropoli station. I purchased my ticket fine (I managed to do it in broken greek too!) and got on the train, failing to notice some random yellow boxes at the entranceto the station. We had to change lines down the way, and got off at a station. While walking around that station we were stopped by a ticket inspector. I have lived in Sydney for almost 6 years now, taking public transport fairly frequently, and i have NEVER been stopped by a ticket inspector. I was in Greece for little more than a couple of hours and BOOM there he was. Amazing. He noticed I had not 'validated' my ticket by putting it in the yellow machine at the start of my trip, but he let me off with a warning. Literally 2 minutes later (while Jasha was apologising for not letting me know I needed to do this) we were stopped by another ticket inspector and this one was not so understanding. She promptly wrote up a fine. I dont understand much of what is written on this pink ticket, but from what I can make out, I now have to pay a massive sum of 210 Euro. However, I was talking to the hostel people and they say I dont have to do it. I will find out for sure, and if I do, possibly contest the fine. I was in the country for 2 hours and already I was in trouble with the law. Good work Chris!
When I eventually stumbled into the hostel, I managed to confirm my booking fine and was given a key to my room. Mumbling something to Jasha about meeting him in the morning at 10:30 in the foyer, I stumbled up marble stairs to my floor and boom crashed my way into my dorm where 6 other people were already snoring away (and when I say snoring I MEAN snoring. Chronic snoring and Backpackers must go hand in hand). Stuffing around with my packs in the dark was great fun, until I found my torch. I managed to SOMEHOW organise everything in a manner that things wouldnt get stolen, changed, and crashed onto the thin hostel mattress. I had been on the road for 35 hours straight, with precious little sleep for 44 hours and thousands of kilometers of travel behind me.
It is now the next morning, and I got surprisingly little sleep considering how tired I was. I woke up at 6am (5 hours sleep) and managed to have a long hot shower, change clothes, brush my teeth and generally feel human again. Breakfast was meagre but free. A few pieces of stale toast with chocolate spread and jam, plus a couple of boiled eggs and tea. I am meeting Jasha in an hour, and playing tour guide for the day I think, considering Ive been here before and Im the anceint history nerd.
Got to go.
Chris
We received the Gate number for our Athens connection. 'FANTASTIC! We can finally get going.' So I hop on the tram system to get to the correct part of the terminal (Heathrow Terminal 5 is MASSIVE. Its really cool!). I was supposed to be meeting one of the peeps from the dig who jsut happens to be getting on the same flight although she is connecting from the USA. I walked around the gate area for AGES trying to find her but no luck.
The boarding time came and went and still nothing happened. Eventually a bunch of names were rattled off by the ground staff, but I wasnt on that list so I jsut sat and waited. After an hour or so, we were told that there was a 'technical' fault with the plane anda new plane had to be organised. This was all well and good, as these things happen. Unfortunately British Airways, in all their wisdom, did not have the same SIZE plane available and had to settle for a smaller one. Some people were therefore forced off the flight. As I am a single adult male travelling alone, I am of course first off the list. The customer service aspect was SHCKING handled by the groundstaff. It took a full 3 hours for us to be told ANYTHING. I was standing in line to talk to these people to figure out what was going on for AGES and they jsut werent having anything to do with us. By now, the groundstaff on scene had multiplied exponentially and it seemed like some management was floating around too. I now believe that the size of the stuff up is directly proportional to the amount of groundstaff partaking in a pow wow, seemingly NOT sorting it out. This is a new 'law' that I will be proposing, and just may be the answer to Stephen Hawkings quest for the ultimate laws of the universe.
Eventually we were told (I still had not been spoken to directly NOR had my boarding pass checked or anything) that we were going to be booked onto an Olympic Airways flight, leaving a couple of hours later, but we would have to be reissued with tickets and go through the palava of security and check ins again. We awere also given a nice sum of money as 'compensation'. We eventually got to the check in counter and LOW AND BEHOLD the Olympic Airlines have already given their flights to a bunch of Americans who had been delayed and missed their earlier Olympic Airlines flight. I thought this was perfectly justified as our problem was a BA problem and not Olympic. The result was that only a few of us managed to get onto the Olympic flight. I was one of the lucky ones it seems, although it was quite the miracle. I got the LAST possible seat. I just felt horrible leaving about 15 odd people behind, some of whom were really nice people with the patience of saints. I attempted to give up my seat to a girl who was particularly struggling with the situation and offered to stay the night at Heathrow instead. However this didnt seem possible, and we both agreed that we had already been through enough and didnt need to start causing problems.
It now entered my mind that I needed to get in contact with Jasha somehow, as he was patiently waiting for me at Athens for a flight I wasnt on. Unfortunately, he is only able to receive text messages and I still did not have a European Sim Card. I had the bright idea of trying to call home and get my parents to text him my details for me. A lovelly women lent me her phone for the international phone call, and this was organised quickly. I thank my parents for not asking questions when I did not have time to answer them, and simply agreeing to follow my instructions. That helped a lot. Jasha received the text message and was waiting for me when I eventually stumbled into Athens Airport.
We managed to get the final subway out from the airport (it was now almost midnight) and we were on the way to Akropoli station. I purchased my ticket fine (I managed to do it in broken greek too!) and got on the train, failing to notice some random yellow boxes at the entranceto the station. We had to change lines down the way, and got off at a station. While walking around that station we were stopped by a ticket inspector. I have lived in Sydney for almost 6 years now, taking public transport fairly frequently, and i have NEVER been stopped by a ticket inspector. I was in Greece for little more than a couple of hours and BOOM there he was. Amazing. He noticed I had not 'validated' my ticket by putting it in the yellow machine at the start of my trip, but he let me off with a warning. Literally 2 minutes later (while Jasha was apologising for not letting me know I needed to do this) we were stopped by another ticket inspector and this one was not so understanding. She promptly wrote up a fine. I dont understand much of what is written on this pink ticket, but from what I can make out, I now have to pay a massive sum of 210 Euro. However, I was talking to the hostel people and they say I dont have to do it. I will find out for sure, and if I do, possibly contest the fine. I was in the country for 2 hours and already I was in trouble with the law. Good work Chris!
When I eventually stumbled into the hostel, I managed to confirm my booking fine and was given a key to my room. Mumbling something to Jasha about meeting him in the morning at 10:30 in the foyer, I stumbled up marble stairs to my floor and boom crashed my way into my dorm where 6 other people were already snoring away (and when I say snoring I MEAN snoring. Chronic snoring and Backpackers must go hand in hand). Stuffing around with my packs in the dark was great fun, until I found my torch. I managed to SOMEHOW organise everything in a manner that things wouldnt get stolen, changed, and crashed onto the thin hostel mattress. I had been on the road for 35 hours straight, with precious little sleep for 44 hours and thousands of kilometers of travel behind me.
It is now the next morning, and I got surprisingly little sleep considering how tired I was. I woke up at 6am (5 hours sleep) and managed to have a long hot shower, change clothes, brush my teeth and generally feel human again. Breakfast was meagre but free. A few pieces of stale toast with chocolate spread and jam, plus a couple of boiled eggs and tea. I am meeting Jasha in an hour, and playing tour guide for the day I think, considering Ive been here before and Im the anceint history nerd.
Got to go.
Chris
Friday, June 6, 2008
Travelling, Travelling and More Travelling
Sydney to London is a long flight. A VERY long flight. I have done this once before on my 2005 trip but I had forgotten just how long it was. After 8 hours on the plane we arrived in SIngapore for a fuel stop at around midnight. This was only a very quick stop, but it gave me a chance to stretch my legs. The flight was made bearable thankfully by my travel companions. I was sitting next to Leo, an Italian who was returning home after a year in Sydney. He was very talkative and managed to tell me a lot about what and what not to do in Italy. Also in my row was Samantha, a backpacker who was returning home to Cornwall after 6 months on the road. She was a little less talkative but friendly enough and also managed to talk a bit about her home, and what it is like to live in England compared to Australia (information that I am sure will come in handy on the second leg of my trip).
After Singapore, we re-boarded for the LONG 14 hour flight to London. This is equivalent to the usual flight from Sydney to Johannesburg which I have done many times, so I knew what to expect. Unfortunately what I am not used to is doing it directly AFTER 8hrs on the plane. As some of you know, I am a terrible sleeper when it comes to planes. I really dont stand a chance. However, I managed to get a couple of hours on this flgiht, and was pleasantly surprised at the entertainment on offer. I managed to knock off a few movies that I had never seen and they were all well worth it. Jumper, Sweeney Todd, Juno and There Will Be Blood. All very good.
I am now sitting in the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport for my connecting flight to Athens. It is very shiny and new, and kind of reminds me of the new the new terminals at Johannesburg. I have managed to get in contact with Jasha, and he will be meeting me at the airport in Athens, shaggy hair and all. It will be good to hang out wiht him for a couple of days before heading off to the dig.
I dont have much more to tell, so I will leave this here for now, and get to some emails before my internet time runs out.
Will post soon so stay tuned for the next episode of 'The Incredible Journey!' (patent pending).
Chris
After Singapore, we re-boarded for the LONG 14 hour flight to London. This is equivalent to the usual flight from Sydney to Johannesburg which I have done many times, so I knew what to expect. Unfortunately what I am not used to is doing it directly AFTER 8hrs on the plane. As some of you know, I am a terrible sleeper when it comes to planes. I really dont stand a chance. However, I managed to get a couple of hours on this flgiht, and was pleasantly surprised at the entertainment on offer. I managed to knock off a few movies that I had never seen and they were all well worth it. Jumper, Sweeney Todd, Juno and There Will Be Blood. All very good.
I am now sitting in the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport for my connecting flight to Athens. It is very shiny and new, and kind of reminds me of the new the new terminals at Johannesburg. I have managed to get in contact with Jasha, and he will be meeting me at the airport in Athens, shaggy hair and all. It will be good to hang out wiht him for a couple of days before heading off to the dig.
I dont have much more to tell, so I will leave this here for now, and get to some emails before my internet time runs out.
Will post soon so stay tuned for the next episode of 'The Incredible Journey!' (patent pending).
Chris
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Operation STUFF IT IN! (ie. packing)
The day is finally upon me. This last week has been even busier than I could have believed with saying goodbye to everyone, studying and writing my exams, and preparing all my equipment and gear for the big day. It seems that time has flown past and so I have to be brief, as I must be on my way to the airport.
To summarise this last week, my OWH stuff is now all organised. That was a big load off my shoulders. They will contact me closer to my arrival in the UK with exactly where I will be working. The good thing is now I know I will be able to afford this 'Great Journey'. The packing has gone extremely well. My brother has been offering his sage-like advice in packing techniques and general survival skills. Thank you to him :D. Even though I think my pack is jam packed to bursting point, he still assures me there is another square foot of space available to me. Ill believe it when I see it.
My head is full of directions, smatterings of essential Greek, things to do and places to go. It is all extremely overwhelming but there is no doubt in my mind that I will have a fantastic time. I simply can't wait to get in the air. Maybe the long flight over to London and Athens will give me time to put my feet up and rest a bit, although we all know that travelling is the worst kind of rest you can get. You always arrive more tired than when you left!
I will try put up another quick post when I arrive in Heathrow, as I have a 4 or 5 hour stopover.
Thank you to everyone for their wishes and support through this last few hectic weeks. You have all been fantastic.
As I said to Rishi last night when he came to see me off, 'SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE!'
PS> I will edit this post when I can to add some photos.
To summarise this last week, my OWH stuff is now all organised. That was a big load off my shoulders. They will contact me closer to my arrival in the UK with exactly where I will be working. The good thing is now I know I will be able to afford this 'Great Journey'. The packing has gone extremely well. My brother has been offering his sage-like advice in packing techniques and general survival skills. Thank you to him :D. Even though I think my pack is jam packed to bursting point, he still assures me there is another square foot of space available to me. Ill believe it when I see it.
My head is full of directions, smatterings of essential Greek, things to do and places to go. It is all extremely overwhelming but there is no doubt in my mind that I will have a fantastic time. I simply can't wait to get in the air. Maybe the long flight over to London and Athens will give me time to put my feet up and rest a bit, although we all know that travelling is the worst kind of rest you can get. You always arrive more tired than when you left!
I will try put up another quick post when I arrive in Heathrow, as I have a 4 or 5 hour stopover.
Thank you to everyone for their wishes and support through this last few hectic weeks. You have all been fantastic.
As I said to Rishi last night when he came to see me off, 'SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE!'
PS> I will edit this post when I can to add some photos.
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