It's (almost)... November!

Hey everyone! It's pretty much November now. You do know what that means right? Yes, i'm departing at the end of the month.

FINALLY.

Okay. Before I ramble on about stuff, I think I should clear up something first. Just thought i'd offer some explanation on why I haven't been posting here at all. I have been around and like you, keeping up-to-date with Chris's adventures. To be perfectly honest, there hasn't been much I could update you with. Not much is happening here in Sydney. For me, it's the same routine day-to-day, a mix between sleeping, uni, work, going out and studying. I've just been SUPER busy. Uni has literally been owning me this semester, pretty much the toughest semester i've ever had, and now with exams looming over my head, all I can think about is the Eurotrip. I don't think i'll be able to concentrate at all during exams and i'm still wondering how exactly Chris managed this (got any tips for me mate?). That being said, i've got the most SCREWED up exam timetable ever (basically, 4 exams in 4 days straight), but I can't complain, at least my exams end before I need to depart.

Now for some good news. I managed to reach my savings target some time ago and now should have enough money saved up to fund the trip. If it wasn't for the silly financial crisis that we're currently in, we'd technically have a lot more saved up. The exchange rate has dropped drastically over the past few months, which basically sucks. The timing of it is bad, especially since Europe is so damn expensive in the first place. We're going to have to budget even more than we initially planned. Relax guys, i'm not talking about starving and sleeping out on the streets with our sleeping bags (at least, I hope not).

My last work shift for the pots and pans place was on Sunday. That's right, as of this moment, I have no job and will be focusing on the exams ahead (or trying to, procrastination is sort-of getting in the way at the moment). Believe it or not, I worked there for over 2 years and can't believe how fast it's gone. 180 days ago, I was sitting here wondering how i'm ever going to be able to save for this trip, it feels great to know that you now have enough money and all that's left standing in your way now are the number of days until departure. Okay, so like I said, i've completed saving up and have quit work so that I can focus on studying. Sorry for all you people that were hoping for some discount on pots and pans (lol).

Some more news on the trip; I went to STA travel last week and purchased Eurail passes for both me and Chris. For those of you who forgot and for those who simply had no clue, a Eurail pass is an inter-rail pass which allows us to travel to 20 different countries in Europe for 15 days/uses within a 2 month period. It's basically a prepaid travel ticket and it's a cost-effective way of travelling through Europe. Works out a lot cheaper than buying each ticket individually, not to mention how convenient it is not to worry about planning and such. These tickets don't come cheap, but work out better overall. I picked them up today and they give you a whole rail map of Europe (it's huge) and also a timetable book which i'm sure will be handy. We were going to buy our passes separately, but STA travel has them a lot cheaper than buying them online, so we thought we'd save some money and i'll purchase the tickets from here. Ofcourse, we're "winging" the entire trip, so basically have little or no idea when and where we're going. As you know, we've got a tentative plan, but the Eurail pass offers us the flexibility we need. Chris will be booking our Eurostar tickets from London (that's to go from London to Paris, Eurail passes don't cover this). Only other thing left is the hostel booking in Paris, but that should be easy.

In terms of planning for the trip ahead, there's not much left for me to buy. I still need to get my full driving license. It's almost expired I think. I had planned to get it like what, 5 months ago. Haha, talk about laziness. Anyways, my exams finish on the 19th of November and I fly out on the 29th. I still have a 10 day period in which I can finish planning/packing which is PLENTY of time (I hope?). Oh, and i've made some changes to the blog. Our route through Europe map can now be accessible on the right-side of the page.

Again, i'd like to apologize for my lack of posts here, but i'll be updating more frequently now since my departure date looks a lot more realistic.

Stay tuned. Cheers.

Rishi

Barcelona: City of Gaudi

I KNOW I KNOW! I havent posted anything in a good long while. There are no excuses. I got lazy. However, now at least I have something to write about! The last couple of weeks have been a hive of activity from my end, contrasting heavily with the previous months of relatively no travel. A couple of weeks ago I decided to take a much needed holiday from work and Milton Keynes in general. I took off to Barcelona, Spain.

This trip had actually been planned ever since I had left Sydney. Kezia was going to be stopping in Spain for a couple of weeks after her trip around Europe, and we decided it would be very poor form indeed not to meet in Barcelona considering it is only an hour and a half flight from London. Quite conveniently, this trip fell almost exactly at the halfway point in my work here in England, so served as a nice break. Needless to say, getting on the road again was fantastic, and really revitalised me.

The story actually starts the night before my departure for Barcelona. I had booked a flight which took off at 5am in the morning, as this was a much cheaper option than a departure in more sane hours of the day (and for good reason!). Ben, one of my very good mates over here, offered to drive me to Luton Airport in the morning, but the problem was that we were working that night and would only finish at 11-12ish. As completely responsible adults, we decided that it was futile to try go to sleep for such a short period of time, so proceeded to juice ourselves up on 'Monster' energy drinks and push through the night. Needless to say, we had some good fun and quite surprisingly made it through the night and to the airport on time and without serious injury.

Upon my arrival in Barcelona, Kezia greated me at the door and we had a very happy reunion. Bubbling with stories from both of our trips, we decided to go set me up at the hostel first and then go do some site seeing around the city. I had heard a lot about Barcelona's Barri Gotic Cathedral so wanted to go find this first. With a rough idea of where it was, we set off down the famous 'La Rambla' street, a pedestrian boulevard that is world famous as being choked full of life, cafes, stalls, artists, buskers and human statues. It really is a blur of activity, and proved a perfect introduction to the delights of Barcelona. We didnt find the Cathedral straight away, but explored around the side streets and just absorbed the charm and relaxed, yet extremely bustling feel of the city. We eventually found the Cathedral, but it was late on a sunday so it was closed to tourists. Unfortunately, most of the facade was covered by construction material as they are trying to restore it so it was not as impressive as it otherwise would have been. What was visible looked quite special. We checked out the Picasso museum, which houses 4000 works of the artist. We were.....educated and enlightened. Maybe? We arent sure yet.
We then made our way down to the beach to relax, soak up the sun (OH HOW I MISSED THEE!) and munch on ice-cream. The plan of action was then to head into the city again and check out 'La Sagrada Familia', apparently another church/temple/cathedral that I had heard mutterings about. How under-rated it was. This building was the most impressive piece of architecture I have ever seen, AND I HAVE SEEN A LOT OF ARCHITECTURE! It was gigantic, rising up above everything else in the city. It was designed by the famous architect, Gaudi, whose works are dotted all through Barcelona.
Construction started in 1882, and will only be completed in around 2020. There will eventually be 18 towers all over 100m high, representing the 12 Apostles, 4 Evangelists, Mary, and the the tallest tower (170m) will represent Jesus Christ. ALthough it is a construction site, you are still able to tour around parts of the impressive temple. We were unable to go inside on this occasion, as we had just missed closing time, but the facade on the northeast and northwestern side of the building are extremely detailed, and we had a great time picking out the different scenes depicted.

Our next stop was Parc Guell, and the house of Gaudi. This place has been converted into a public park, but its landscaping is clearly dotted with Gaudi's influence. It was a very interesting place to walk through and observe the experimentation he implemented in his own backyard. We had a great time strolling, and then climbed to the top of the hill and looked over the city towards the sea for the sunset (which set BEHIND US kezia. BEHIND US!) before making our way back to the hostel, including the interesting experience of sleeping through your train stop on the Spanish rail service.

The next day consisted of us walking all around Barcelona in a never ending tour. We tried to get into both the Cathedrals again, but for one reason or another this didnt happen. We saw a large monument to Christopher Columbus and his discovery of America, climbed up the Central Park called 'Montjuic' and made it to the castle at the top, which had spectacular views of all sides of Barcelona. We then had dinner on La Rambla, which wasnt as amazing as it should have been. After going out for a couple of drinks, we decided to call it a day.

Finally we managed to get inside the Cathedrals the next day, but only after having the best bagel of my life. They were equally impressive inside as out. LaSagrada Famila in particular really needs to be seen to be believed. It really takes your breath away. It is SO big, but seemingly so light. The roof should not be staying up. There is so much empty space inside, and this jsut adds to its magnificence. The Barri Gotic was also impressive, but in a different way. Big and imposing, it had a sort of grace and beauty on the inside, which I assume is what the architect was aiming for. Needless to say, both these places would be amazing to go to church in. The girls then wanted to do bunch of shopping, so we went exploring in all these chic, classy and fashionable clothes stores. I bought nothing :D.

Our last day in Barcelona was really just a kind of limbo. With the prospect of us leaving hanging over us, we really couldnt do very much. We wondered around La Rambla again, stopping to take in a rather skillfill Michael Jakson/robot statue man. After strolling a bit, we had some more ice cream, and then decided it was time to depart. We went to the tube station, where we were to part ways again and had a very teary farewell. It was very difficult to say goodbye, as we had had such a fantastic time, and would have to wait anohter 4 months to do it again. All in all, it was a very healthy experience for me. I returned revitalised and recharged, ready to take on work and England again. Needless to say, I was once again shocked out of lethargy and bitten by the travel bug. This led directly to my next extremely random, but equally exciting adventure......

Work Work Work

Well it has been quite a while since my last post. Be that as it may, there really hasnt been much happening here in England worth writing about. Shift work is thouroughly disinteresting, and it has become a matter of trying to get though the day to day. When we arrived at the Wavendon Arms, the pub was going through quite a tight spot. We have been working extremely hard in trying to turn fortunes around and in this we have been somewhat successful. The front of house service has been completely turned around, but the kitchen still needs a lot of work. We have started to completely fill the restaurant twice over on the weekends, but the weekdays are still pretty quiet. We have a little bit to go, but we are almost there after a month of work.

The people I work with are pretty cool. I live with them and see them almost every day, so its no surprise that we are becoming pretty good friends. The people that live in my house are Dean, an aircraft engineer from Darwin, the twins, Ashley and Danielle who have just completed 3 months at a summer camp in the US, Brandon who has moved here from Cape Town and Thomas from
Slovakia. Along with the locals, Jon, Hannah , Olly and a multitude of others, form the rest of the core group that run the pub. I share a room with Dean and Brandon, but I get on the best with Dean. Needless to say we all have a lot to do with each other and these people form the general social circle with which I hang out.

While working at the Wavendon Arms is quite tough (not so much the actual work that has to get done, but the whole monotany and seeming pointlessness of it all), there are lights at the end of the preverbial tunnel. First and foremost, of course, is the backpacking with Rishi at the end of the year, which is what all this is in aid of financially. It is this that really does keep me going and the prospect of the amazing adventure to come. I will also be travelling to Spain soon to visit Kezia who will be finishing up her travelling in Europe. With these things to look forward to, I am able to push on with the work here at the Wavendon.

I was fortunate enough to make the trip into London to visit the British Museum this week. After a months break from anything to do with ancient history, going to possibly the most prominent of all ancient history museums was a real treat. The whole place is absolutely HUGE. I had no idea how long it would actually take me to get through it. I set aside an entire day, but I only managed to get through about 2 thirds of the Greek and Roman section in 5 hours. It was almost comical. I thouroughly enjoyed being around ancient history again, and returned to Milton Keynes recharged.

I hope to make other trips in and around England soon, as sitting at home here in Milton Keynes is rather pointless (even though it does have the benefit of saving a ton of money). I will hopefully be visiting a number of universities while I am here including Kings College in London, UCL and the University of Sheffield in order to scout out possible post-graduate options. I also want to visit Stone Henge, the Lakes District, Edinburough and Ireland. I probably wont be able to do everything, but I can always give it a go!

Until I have something else worthy to report!

Chris

The Wavendon Arms

The change of lifestyle in the past week has been quite dramatic. I am now working full time in England at a country pub/ restaurant in an area called Milton Keynes, about an hour North West of London. I never thought I would ever do bar work or wait on tables, but here I am working 40+ hours a week doing exactly that at The Wavendon Arms. The place is actually very nice. It is aimed at probably the middle aged, slightly upper class and so we dont have many problems when it comes to bad behaviour or over drinking. People are mostly out to have a good meal with their families, a few drinks with some good friends or conduct some business meetings. The restaurant has a great atmosphere, and is really quite a pleasant place to eat and the bar is very comfortable. I actually wish we had a few more bars like this place around Sydney, as it is really a great place to have a good social drink.

I have had to make a conscious change in the state of mind I have been in for the last 3 months. I am no longer in tourist mode. As a result, I am trying to slip into some sort of routine. The reason I am doing this is mainly to save money. I can't afford to go out and spend money on travelling all around England at the moment, especially considering how expensive everything is over here. This is somewhat helped by a combination of the work at the pub, and a research paper I am in the process of writing for Mitrou.

The work at the pub isn't too difficult. Mostly, it is about customer service and efficiency. I have had plenty of experience in customer service from working at Mobil for 2 years back in Sydney, and the principles are exactly the same. The efficiency however can only come from experience, but I am trying to learn as fast as I can. The most challenging thing is memorizing the entire menu offered at the restaurant, so that I know exactly what people are talking about when they ask me questions. The wines list is also quite challenging but I am slowly getting the hang of it. Needless to say the accent is helping things tremendously. It is a point of conversation with customers, and makes you a lot more interesting. I am milking it to the max!

The interesting thing I have noticed about England, is that the english spend most of their time thinking about what they could be doing if they were anywhere except england. Right down the road from where I am staying they have a huge indoor snow slope where you can ski, and also an indoor skydiving centre. There is also, slap bang in the middle of the shopping centre, a large sandbox equipped with umbrellas, beach balls and lifeguards. Incredible.

Well thats all from me right now. I really don't have much to write about as I have slipped into a routine here that doesnt involve much excitement. Im not quite sure what people would like to hear about, so suggestions would be appreciated.

Goodbye Mitrou!

Leaving Mitrou and Tragana was really really sad. Saying goodbye to all the villagers who had been taking care of us these past 2 odd months gave us a constant desire to just stay one more week. Saying goodbye to the Mitrou crew, however, was much harder and was really actually quite depressing. We have gone through a lot together. We have had to deal with the challenges of archaeology and its joys. We have worked side by side for 2 months to the point where we were literally dropping where we stood to sleep. As a group, we have been baptised through fire (thats not an understatement with the sun the way it was!). Saying goodbye to these people now, many of whom I probably wont see again, was really really sad.

The final week of archaeology was terrifying. A kind of madness gripped the entire camp. DIG DEEPER DIG DEEPER DIG DEEPER seemed to be our mantra. We had to reach our goals. Every trench had to work harder than ever before to get to the point where the site needed to be at the end of 5 years of excavation. We needed to work hard in order to secure funding for another season. We needed to work hard in order to gather as much information about the site as humanely possible. As a result we began staying after hours to work. This gradually increased into some trenches staying open from 6am till 7-8pm almost every day. On top of this, we had our final exams to prepare for and some of us had research papers to work on. Needless to say, very little spare time, and VERY little sleep was available. Especially that considering it was the last week, we wanted to go out many nights just to hang out with everyone.

Through the crazyness of the final week, some extremely interesting finds were made. While these finds were not made within our trench itself, they are very important for the future of the site. Firstly in one of the trenches inside our biggest building uncovered so far, a beautifully crafted gold ring was found as well as links to some sort of gold chain. This was the most significant item of gold uncovered at the site in all the 5 years of excavation and is extremely exciting. It means that wealthy people were roaming around Mitrou 3500 years ago, and is further evidence for the importance of our site in the Bronze Age. Even more exciting was what was excavated in the final 2 days of digging. A HUGE block of stone was uncovered within the same building, standing vertically upright. No one knew what it was. Upon further exploration of the trench, side slabs were also found, and the evidence for a foot slab. The entire structure is very big, almost 5 metres by 2 metres. It is very similar to the smaller cist graves found all over the site, except for its size, and it MAY be possible that this is a giant sized one. What is interesting is that we are pulling a lot of bronze jewelry from this area, and also found a pretty cool gold leaf. We could be sitting directly on top of a HUGE cist tomb. No one knows yet... As for our trench, we managed to uncover another penguin quite deep down in probably Middle Bronze Age levels. ONce again, the Olive Grave delivered on quality and this cist provided us with an amazingly preserved skeleton of a small child, and a beautifully intact pot without as much as a scratch on it!

After leaving Tragana on Sunday, me and 4 of the other guys made the trip into Athens and checked into our hostel. We finally found a place to eat (the place we wanted to go to was closed, or so we found out after trekking halfway across Athens to get to it), and parted ways with Jessen and Josh who had decided to sleep in the airport for their flight the next day. Doug, Alex and I were certainly ready to go to bed but we had made a sacred pact together. We were going to go see 'The Dark Knight', even if we had to die trying. We almost did. Once again the trek around Athens began as we tried to find a cinema. It was raining (very inconvenient when you are walking around), so all the rooftop cinemas were obviously closed. We had to walk all the way into central Athens to find a regular cinema complex. When we finally found one, we were met with the nasty knowledge that the next session was 2 hours away. We were at the verge of giving up and going to bed when we rallied and decided to wait the 2 hours inside the cinema waiting area. Im glad the movie was so good, or I would have fallen asleep :p

In the morning it was time to say goodbye to Greece and head off to England. I travelled into the airport with Doug and Alex and said our goodbyes. I arrived in England, and had to negotiate the underground system with very limitted directions from my pub. Eventually, after a few hiccups, I arrived in Wavendon at The Wavendon Arms and was greeted by some of the staff, given some beer and food, and then given the run down on how the place operated. Ill include more information about the pub after my first shift tonight. After saying hi to everyone, I was taken to the staff house and managed to settle in to a comfortable bed in liveable conditions (much better than I have been coping with recently :p). Seemed like a 5 star hotel I tell you!

Thermopolae

Thank you to everyone who has been commenting on my blogs and also for sending me emails. I may not have time to reply to every one in kind (which is what this blogspot is for) but you can be reassured that I read and love every single one of them. Thank you for keeping me updated on the happenings back home, and please please please continue to do so. I love them.

Now back to the action.....

Things are now starting to wind down. We have started to do that silly little game of 'this is the last time we will etc etc etc..' which is rather depressing. However, with the knowledge of only haveing a few dig days left, a type of energy has creeped into our work and we are moving very fast. We want to get as much as humanely possible done as this is the final year for this season of excavations at Mitrou. What will follow is a research season, and perhaps a few small dig years which will certainly not be on the same scale. After this year, large scale excavations on the island will cease until everything is published.

The mood in our trench this past week has been strained to say the least. We were working towards our primary objective of uncovering the pink marl floor all week long, but it seemed that every single centimeter of soil we uncovered from the trench, something appeared that delayed our progress. If it wasnt a new set of walls, it was a pebble surface (that bane of our trench rears its ugly head all too often). If it wasnt a pebble surface, it was a plaster one (which to be honest was very cool!). We were also affected by external influences, all too often that of a lack of sleep which affected our pace. We have been trying very hard to cram as much into our trip as possible and I think this has now started to take its toll on our bodies. We are always tired. For these reasons I think that we have been a little snappy and strained. The abundant amount of surfaces that have occured within the trench has also made it extremely difficult to understand what exactly is going on. This manifests itself in long periods of us just sitting around staring dumbly at the baulk or trench trying to make some sort of sense of it.

This mood was overcome by the end of the week though. On Thursday afternoon, we FINALLY managed to get down to the level of the pink marl floor. All of a sudden our mood completely changed. We had reached our goal! We started excavating down to the surface, trying to trace it out, and had no trouble finding it. The soil just lifts itself off of it in chunks. I was happily going along when all of a sudden, the soil was no longer behaving like it was before. The surface was gone. The pink marl floor was preserved in patches. Very small patches. It also only extended into our trench about 15 centimeters. If you had to look up anti-climax in the dictionary, you would see 'see LG790-079, Mitrou, Tragana, Greece'. We werent happy, but I dont think anyone really cared. This is what archaeology usually is. A constant anti-climax dotted with a few short spurts of excitement. You live for those short spurts :p

The weekend found ourselves on our final field trip of the season, and for me one of the most exciting ones. We were going to go visit the ancient battlefield of Thermopolae. This was the site of one of the most famous battles in all of history. I can go on about this for an absolute age, but I will just give you the general jist of it. Basically, thsi is the site where 300 Spartans and around 3000 other Greeks made a stand against the hoards of Persia numbering probably around 200 000 (but this is jsut an estimate. The actual numbers range from as little as 150 000 to as many as 2.5 million). Whichever way you look at it, the Greeks were vastly outnumbered. They were sent there to delay the Persian advance for as long as they could. Basically it was a suicide mission. They held the pass against the Persians for 6 days and 3 days of fighting. The Spartans and the Thespians held their ground to the last man and allowed the rest of their allies to get away safely. They also bought time for the Athenians to be evacuate Athens. Leonidas and his 300 became the symbol around which the entire Greek resistance rallied and were able to ultimately drive out the Persian invaders, setting on course history as we know it. The battle and the selfless acts of sacrifice performed there mean many different things to different people.

Needless to say, to visit the monuments there and also see the battlefield itself had a profound effect on me. Not only was I getting the worst case of Ancient History Tingles I have ever had, but I was actually almost choked up as silly as it may sound. It was really awesome to see various dedications and wreaths left at the foot of the statue of Leonidas and at the famous inscription 'Go tell the Spartans, passer by, that here obedient to their laws we lie'. People still remember and appreciate the sacrifice and hardship undergone by those brave men 2500 years ago.

DURfaces, Walls and Delphi!

Things in Greece are coming to a rapid and alarming conclusion. I can't believe that I only have a meagre two weeks to enjoy myself here at Tragana. It feels odd as on one hand I cant imagine that I have in fact been over here for 2 months already, but on the other I am relieved that I am going to be able to take time to recover from the rigours of excavation and the harsh living conditions. This last week has been, as always, both interesting, difficult and incredibly memorable all at the same time. Unfortunately, I find myself at the computer without my USB flash drive so photos will have to wait. IM SORRY I FORGOT!

Excavation wise, we have been chasing a beautiful pink marl plaster floor that we think is just below where we are currently at. Unfortunately, between us and the prize have consistently turned up layer after layer of 'surface'. Surfaces are the most annoying thing in the world to excavate. They are indicated by a slight hardening of the soil, maybe a colour change, and perhaps if you are lucky some flat lying sherds of pottery or a bunch of pebbles. They are very difficult to identify while digging as you are required to feel subtle differences in soil density with your trowel. Even when you 'find' them they are almost always patchy and you loose them within seconds. As they are supposed to indicate occupation of the area, we have to take photographs and everything every single time we come across one. Most of those in our trench are convinced these surfaces are nothing more that phantoms and have so named them 'DURfaces'.

While digging our way towards the marl floor, we uncovered two very substantial walls running on a completely different axis to what we have already in the trench and also quite a bit deeper. This means that they are walls from a different occupational period and are very exciting. They are part of a new building which our trench seems to luckily encompass the inside. We are looking very forward to proceeding deeper to see what we will find inside this new building.

This weekend our trip was to the famous and magnificent site of Delphi. This is the place of the legendary 'Oracle of Delphi' which was world famous all the way from Archaic Greece (c. 800BC) to Roman times. People from far and wide made pilgrimage to the site in order to ask the oracle about what the future had in store for them. Cities and Empires from across the globe also asked about pressing political concerns, matters of war and colonisation. It was indeed one of the most important sanctuaries in Greece. The place is pretty impressive. It is set on the slopes of Mt. Parnassos, and overlooks the extremelly majestic surrounding countryside.

There are remains of a large Gymnasium, a temple to Athena, a large theatre and a huge stadium used for the famous Pythian Games held every two years. The main attractions here though are the large Temple to Apollo (where the Oracle sat and spoke the words of the god to the pilgrims) and the large city treasuries built by many different states across Greece to hold their dedications to the sanctuary.

After our visit to the various sites and Museums, we were encouraged to attend an optional hike to the top of Mt Parnassos directly behind the site. This was advertised as a 'easy walk to the top of the mountain with exceptional views of the bay and site'. As the guide had only done it 18 years ago, things maaaaay have been a little hazy to remember. It was not an 'easy walk to the top' but a veritable bushwhack through rough, thorny scrub that ripped and tore at our legs. We also lost the trail 3/4 of the way up and had to go offroad to find the edge of the mountain. Me and a couple others went on a scouting mission and finally found the place. It was possibly the best view I have yet to encounter in Greece. You had a perfect aerial view of the site and EVERYTHING around it. It was breathtaking. Photo's forthcoming!

I have to dash because my parents have just called :D

Adiossas and Kalispera!