This post will be brief, as there's not much to report. We came back to Porolissum on Thursday. The camp still feels really empty without all my fabulous new friends; it's just Val, Eric, Mark, Zsolt, Alexandru, and myself. Arina was there as well but she left with her parents this morning. A couple of guys from the museum visit every so often too, Cristi and Adi, the latter having spent the night at the camp with us last night. The night was fun, as more alcoholic focus was spent on Val (for once!) rather than myself - I guess people have given up on trying to get me drunk? It's simply an impossible task.
This morning was short, as we went down to site around 9:00 instead of 8:00. Val and I worked on sketching floor plans for a couple of the trenches. After lunch, we didn't go back down because we were told some important archaeological commissioner was visiting, but he never came. In any case, we'll finish off our work tomorrow.
Right now we're in Zalau to meet up with Ioana for a girls' night out: dinner and drinks.
I'm really excited for the weekend, Zalau Days and Porolissum Days. We should get our completed togas soon, and it shall be awesome.
That's all for now, I've got to get going to meet Ioana.
P.S. I've completed Lamb, and have now moved on to Labyrinth, by Kate Mosse; it's Val's book and it's 700 pages - I'm not sure I'll complete this one in time before I have to return it! We shall see. I'd like to be able to say I read eight books in a six week period.
Ciao!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Short and sweet
So, I really don't have much to say, we had a nice final evening in Sibiu, I had a giant gogosi, it was amazing...yummy...craving one right now. We hung out last night, Eric and the gang were trying to get me intoxicated on wine...didin't really work, though I did have quite a few glasses and woke up with a fabulous hangover. Oh and our friend Arina's parents came by, they gave us wine and a copy of one of her fathers( like one of Romania's top architects) book. Um...today we are having a girls night with out friend Ioana, gonna have some fun, eat some food and it's Zalau days so there's lots going on.
C'est tout!
Much love from the land of windy roads and sweet wine,
Val
C'est tout!
Much love from the land of windy roads and sweet wine,
Val
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Sibiu Nights
Sibiu is a lovely town. I slept pretty well, except that my body clock seems set to wake up at 7:00 no matter what, but I can at least fall asleep again after that.
We snagged a quick breakfast of tea and bread that was offered by another lodger. Then we stepped out into a bright Romanian morning and made our way up to the town for sightseeing and shopping. (Especially shopping, this is the first time we've seen proper and appealing clothing stores, namely Kenvelo and Outlet.)
There was this bakery that sells something called covrigi, which looked like a twisted bagel, though I think covrigi is the word for pretzel, but I'll have to get that confirmed that another time. You could get it with sesame or poppy seeds, so... I'm thinking this is the closest you can ever get to a bagel in Romania. They were pretty popular too, people were walking around with small strings of them.
We wandered around the three squares, Piata Mare, Piata Mica and Piata Huet. We checked out the Pharmacy Museum, which was a necessary visit because my mother's a pharmacist; it was pretty interesting to see machines of old apothecary, pharmacological and homeopathic methods; there were various mortars & pestles, antique inhalers, surgeon's kits, pill-making devices and so on. (Unfortunately, Dad, I've yet to see a Lawyer's Museum; I can't imagine why.)
The other museum we visited was the World Ethnographic Museum, which would have examples of items from various places around the world. For example, they would have a selection of clay pots from Africa, Saudi Arabia and Romania, so you could kind of compare designs. There was also an Egyptian mummy, which was unexpected. One of my favourite items was this pearl oyster shell that had tiny inscriptions written all over it.
We visited the Evangelical Church which apparently houses the body of Vlad Dracul's son (also not a very nice guy), but we couldn't find out where it was, and there was nobody around to ask. In any case, the church was under heavy construction but it still seemed nice. We went up 192 steps of its tower and got to see all of Sibiu from its four corners.
Rob, a friend of ours from Porolissum (he's been there four years in a row) was flying out of Sibiu, so we got to see him for a little bit before he left. We all picked up some ice cream and chatted about the last days at Porolissum - apparently there was a radio interview done while we were away, which was kind of sad. In any case, I think we would've needed to speak Romanian to participate, so I don't feel too bad.
After a quick rest at the hostel, we headed back out to the city centre in the evening for gogosi and ice cream. I got a large, vanilla-cream-filled gogosi, and it was delicious. We walked to Piata Mare and caught the last two minutes of a cool fire tricks display. The rest of the evening was spent checking out the city at dark, and taking last-minute photographs. We walked back home with ice cream in hands; a woman at our hostel had suggested the Redal Cafe for ice cream, so we went there. I decided to be adventurous and try kiwi ice cream; it was so delicious, tasted exactly like kiwis and very refreshing.
So now we're settling in for the night. I may take a shower before bed. We'll wake up early tomorrow to check out and catch a bus back to Cluj.
Noapte buna.
We snagged a quick breakfast of tea and bread that was offered by another lodger. Then we stepped out into a bright Romanian morning and made our way up to the town for sightseeing and shopping. (Especially shopping, this is the first time we've seen proper and appealing clothing stores, namely Kenvelo and Outlet.)
There was this bakery that sells something called covrigi, which looked like a twisted bagel, though I think covrigi is the word for pretzel, but I'll have to get that confirmed that another time. You could get it with sesame or poppy seeds, so... I'm thinking this is the closest you can ever get to a bagel in Romania. They were pretty popular too, people were walking around with small strings of them.
We wandered around the three squares, Piata Mare, Piata Mica and Piata Huet. We checked out the Pharmacy Museum, which was a necessary visit because my mother's a pharmacist; it was pretty interesting to see machines of old apothecary, pharmacological and homeopathic methods; there were various mortars & pestles, antique inhalers, surgeon's kits, pill-making devices and so on. (Unfortunately, Dad, I've yet to see a Lawyer's Museum; I can't imagine why.)
The other museum we visited was the World Ethnographic Museum, which would have examples of items from various places around the world. For example, they would have a selection of clay pots from Africa, Saudi Arabia and Romania, so you could kind of compare designs. There was also an Egyptian mummy, which was unexpected. One of my favourite items was this pearl oyster shell that had tiny inscriptions written all over it.
We visited the Evangelical Church which apparently houses the body of Vlad Dracul's son (also not a very nice guy), but we couldn't find out where it was, and there was nobody around to ask. In any case, the church was under heavy construction but it still seemed nice. We went up 192 steps of its tower and got to see all of Sibiu from its four corners.
Rob, a friend of ours from Porolissum (he's been there four years in a row) was flying out of Sibiu, so we got to see him for a little bit before he left. We all picked up some ice cream and chatted about the last days at Porolissum - apparently there was a radio interview done while we were away, which was kind of sad. In any case, I think we would've needed to speak Romanian to participate, so I don't feel too bad.
After a quick rest at the hostel, we headed back out to the city centre in the evening for gogosi and ice cream. I got a large, vanilla-cream-filled gogosi, and it was delicious. We walked to Piata Mare and caught the last two minutes of a cool fire tricks display. The rest of the evening was spent checking out the city at dark, and taking last-minute photographs. We walked back home with ice cream in hands; a woman at our hostel had suggested the Redal Cafe for ice cream, so we went there. I decided to be adventurous and try kiwi ice cream; it was so delicious, tasted exactly like kiwis and very refreshing.
So now we're settling in for the night. I may take a shower before bed. We'll wake up early tomorrow to check out and catch a bus back to Cluj.
Noapte buna.
Oh Mr. Sun, sun, Mr Golden Sun...
Hellooo, so back at the internet again, I figure I will make my entry right now instead of having to wait for the net again later tonight.
So last night, Dara and I went for supper at this place on the main pedestrian street that was recommended to us. While we were waiting for our food...not far away,I spotted the sign with the greatest 6 letters in existence KENVELO. I had finally found my favorite store to shop in Romania...we had been there last year, but werent able to get to one yet. Anyways we got icecream and figured it would be closed by then, so we were just gonna have a peek through the window...well lo and behold it was OPEN!!....Dad, please don't look at my credit card purchases from now on....lets just say...I um, spent some money. :)
So this morning we woke up early to get the free breakfast that was advertised for the hostel, but that didin't work out so well because we didnt know what it was and the reception person was still asleep, so we had some tea and the french guy staying on the same floor as us gave us some bread. That tided us over till we got to this little bakery that we saw yesterday that makes some "twisted bagels", its like a bagel, but twisted, kind of like a cross between a pretzel and a bagel. It was awesome. We then did some more shopping, got a couple things from an "outlet " store. We then did some sightseeing in the main plazas....went up an evangelical church tower...129 steps up...129 scary steps ugh. But the view was fabulous and it was worth it. We also hit a pharmaceutical museum and a world ethnographical museum, complete with a mummy.
We had food on a terrace with really slow and crappy service and then we went and met up with Rob at the bus station for a quick icecream and goodbye because he had to go catch a flight to Germany to meet up with his girlfriend. So many goodbyes. Anyways there's no doubt we will meet again in the next year or two.
So, it's only around 4pm here and we will probly do some more walking around and some more shopping :) oh and get a giant gogosi that I spotted at a bakery yestery later,so I will either add some stuff tonight or just wait till we hit Zalau on Friday. Only 6 full days left in Europe, Holy poop!
Much love from the land of 3 room museums and scary stairs!
Val
So last night, Dara and I went for supper at this place on the main pedestrian street that was recommended to us. While we were waiting for our food...not far away,I spotted the sign with the greatest 6 letters in existence KENVELO. I had finally found my favorite store to shop in Romania...we had been there last year, but werent able to get to one yet. Anyways we got icecream and figured it would be closed by then, so we were just gonna have a peek through the window...well lo and behold it was OPEN!!....Dad, please don't look at my credit card purchases from now on....lets just say...I um, spent some money. :)
So this morning we woke up early to get the free breakfast that was advertised for the hostel, but that didin't work out so well because we didnt know what it was and the reception person was still asleep, so we had some tea and the french guy staying on the same floor as us gave us some bread. That tided us over till we got to this little bakery that we saw yesterday that makes some "twisted bagels", its like a bagel, but twisted, kind of like a cross between a pretzel and a bagel. It was awesome. We then did some more shopping, got a couple things from an "outlet " store. We then did some sightseeing in the main plazas....went up an evangelical church tower...129 steps up...129 scary steps ugh. But the view was fabulous and it was worth it. We also hit a pharmaceutical museum and a world ethnographical museum, complete with a mummy.
We had food on a terrace with really slow and crappy service and then we went and met up with Rob at the bus station for a quick icecream and goodbye because he had to go catch a flight to Germany to meet up with his girlfriend. So many goodbyes. Anyways there's no doubt we will meet again in the next year or two.
So, it's only around 4pm here and we will probly do some more walking around and some more shopping :) oh and get a giant gogosi that I spotted at a bakery yestery later,so I will either add some stuff tonight or just wait till we hit Zalau on Friday. Only 6 full days left in Europe, Holy poop!
Much love from the land of 3 room museums and scary stairs!
Val
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Sibiu Days
We've just arrived in Sibiu and are now hanging out in our lodgings, the Chess Hostel. We're taking a bit of time to check Internet, because we're not paying per session.
Where did I leave off... On Sunday we washed pottery, got a lot of bags done so they could be looked over and categorized by Eric. Then later that day we went for a drive with Eric and Arina (a girl we met last year and is visiting for a few days) to see monster rock formations in a nearby town. There was a small festival occurring at that time too, so we stayed for a couple of hours to watch the traditional groups dance and sing. And we climbed one of the rock formations, which was kind of neat. We also found out about a cave and went into that partway - it was very cold but nifty.
Monday was a regular excavation day, except without the team and half the Romanian workers had stopped coming as well. It went kind of slowly, just scraping down the walls and clearing away the dirt. Except I kept finding the teeniest tiniest little bones (Fish? Baby bird? Both?) so that slowed down the work considerably.
At the end of the day, Val, Arina, Mark and myself decided to sunbathe for awhile. I finished rereading Small Gods (as good as ever!) and had to patiently wait for Val to finish her book so I could start reading that one. It is, incidentally, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Jesus' Childhood Friend, by Christopher Moore; it's pretty funny and I find myself chuckling every few pages. This'll be my seventh book here, and as I wanted to beat last year's Personal Porolissum Record of six books, I'll be a happy camper when this one's done (which will be soon, as I'm already a hundred pages in.)
So we're going to spend a little more time on Internet here for awhile, then I expect we'll go out and explore the town for a bit. We'll snag some dinner and prepare for a full day's sightseeing and shopping tomorrow.
'Til next time, voi iubesc!
Where did I leave off... On Sunday we washed pottery, got a lot of bags done so they could be looked over and categorized by Eric. Then later that day we went for a drive with Eric and Arina (a girl we met last year and is visiting for a few days) to see monster rock formations in a nearby town. There was a small festival occurring at that time too, so we stayed for a couple of hours to watch the traditional groups dance and sing. And we climbed one of the rock formations, which was kind of neat. We also found out about a cave and went into that partway - it was very cold but nifty.
Monday was a regular excavation day, except without the team and half the Romanian workers had stopped coming as well. It went kind of slowly, just scraping down the walls and clearing away the dirt. Except I kept finding the teeniest tiniest little bones (Fish? Baby bird? Both?) so that slowed down the work considerably.
At the end of the day, Val, Arina, Mark and myself decided to sunbathe for awhile. I finished rereading Small Gods (as good as ever!) and had to patiently wait for Val to finish her book so I could start reading that one. It is, incidentally, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Jesus' Childhood Friend, by Christopher Moore; it's pretty funny and I find myself chuckling every few pages. This'll be my seventh book here, and as I wanted to beat last year's Personal Porolissum Record of six books, I'll be a happy camper when this one's done (which will be soon, as I'm already a hundred pages in.)
So we're going to spend a little more time on Internet here for awhile, then I expect we'll go out and explore the town for a bit. We'll snag some dinner and prepare for a full day's sightseeing and shopping tomorrow.
'Til next time, voi iubesc!
On the road again...
Hey, so sorry for that somewhat sombre last post, I was feeling kind of down. Well the rest of Saturday was pretty relaxing. We washed some pottery and did a bit of reading. It was pretty quiet to say the least. Sunday...well Sunday Dara and I did like a shitpile of pottery washing to help Eric out. It's kind of fun seeing how the dirty shards we find turn out to be quite pretty. That afternoon however, Eric invited us to join him on an outting to try and find some so called "monster rocks" he saw in a tourist magazine. Well we found the rocks, which were big, but they didin't look like monsters sadly. We climbed on them and we even found a cave. What we didn't know though, that there was the village nearby's festival going on right near the rocks. We were able to get a bite to eat, listen to some traditional romanian music and see some folkoric dancing. Good times
Archaeology wise...now this is the good part. I was put in a really awesome pit yesterday...Eric found some pretty much intact hypocaust pillars of the known bath complex and he asked me(and later Arina) to excavate it...turns out at the bottom of the pit, there was this really nice floor. So we definitely had a good day....we laid out to do some tanning after and Eric surprised us with icecream. Life doesn't get better than that.
Oh and more news...so I mentionned Roman Days at Porolissum a couple of posts ago...well not only will we be able to watch Transilvania's biggest toga party BUT WE WILL BE IN IT!!!! Yup...they are totally hooking us up with togas and sandals for the event. It's going to be beyond awesome and the best way to end our trip which ends in a week....but gianttogapartyomigoshyay!!!!
Oh ya...so we ditched our beloved Porolissum for one last sidetrip to Sibiu. We just got here..and it seems really nice with a friendly receptionist.
We have internet here...so we should be able to write again tomorrow...so if you need a fast response from us...now is the time.
Much love from the land of togas and 2 min showers,
Val
P.S Chucky your alliteration was fabulous!
Archaeology wise...now this is the good part. I was put in a really awesome pit yesterday...Eric found some pretty much intact hypocaust pillars of the known bath complex and he asked me(and later Arina) to excavate it...turns out at the bottom of the pit, there was this really nice floor. So we definitely had a good day....we laid out to do some tanning after and Eric surprised us with icecream. Life doesn't get better than that.
Oh and more news...so I mentionned Roman Days at Porolissum a couple of posts ago...well not only will we be able to watch Transilvania's biggest toga party BUT WE WILL BE IN IT!!!! Yup...they are totally hooking us up with togas and sandals for the event. It's going to be beyond awesome and the best way to end our trip which ends in a week....but gianttogapartyomigoshyay!!!!
Oh ya...so we ditched our beloved Porolissum for one last sidetrip to Sibiu. We just got here..and it seems really nice with a friendly receptionist.
We have internet here...so we should be able to write again tomorrow...so if you need a fast response from us...now is the time.
Much love from the land of togas and 2 min showers,
Val
P.S Chucky your alliteration was fabulous!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
In the last post I mentioned poutine - it was a hit! It was ooey-gooey and delicious; we had eggs alongside because that was the dinner option for the day, I suppose, but those were good too. It ended up being a late night, drinking wine and hanging with the guys. I used to be so responsible, going to bed at 11:30! Now it's been 2:00 am almost every night - but I justify it by saying it's the last week, and I have to spend as much time as possible with my new friends.
Friday was a hot day, but not nearly as bad as the previous week. It was a little boring, just clearing down rubble. I decided to carry rocks over to the pile for a change of pace. A baby animal skeleton was found in a nearby trench (ribcage, spine and a bit of shoulderbone were found).
Then came the big party; the entire team - students, Romanian workers, museum folk - got together for drinks and food. We had beer, tuica, mici, hamburgers, pasta and gogosi, quite the feast! I didn't drink much, actually, just a beer and a half, kissed the bottle of tuica and that was enough for me. Went stargazing on the Porta Praetoria, was continually amazed by the clusters of stars in the night sky - just a sight we do not get back home.
This morning was pretty sad. I formed some great friendships with these people, and I'm just never ready to say goodbye to them. I teared up but managed to keep myself composed. I hope to see them again - plans are always in the works but it's hard to keep to them!
Val and I will be going to Sibiu for a couple of nights, and Rob may join us for a day since he flies out of that city. Sibiu was the Cultural Capital of the EU a couple of years ago, and we keep hearing about how great it is, so it ought to be a nice time.
Couldn't finish Soul Music in time, had to return it to Lauren. I will reread Small Gods instead.
We have to go meet with Eric now for a ride back to camp - I'll write again soon.
Friday was a hot day, but not nearly as bad as the previous week. It was a little boring, just clearing down rubble. I decided to carry rocks over to the pile for a change of pace. A baby animal skeleton was found in a nearby trench (ribcage, spine and a bit of shoulderbone were found).
Then came the big party; the entire team - students, Romanian workers, museum folk - got together for drinks and food. We had beer, tuica, mici, hamburgers, pasta and gogosi, quite the feast! I didn't drink much, actually, just a beer and a half, kissed the bottle of tuica and that was enough for me. Went stargazing on the Porta Praetoria, was continually amazed by the clusters of stars in the night sky - just a sight we do not get back home.
This morning was pretty sad. I formed some great friendships with these people, and I'm just never ready to say goodbye to them. I teared up but managed to keep myself composed. I hope to see them again - plans are always in the works but it's hard to keep to them!
Val and I will be going to Sibiu for a couple of nights, and Rob may join us for a day since he flies out of that city. Sibiu was the Cultural Capital of the EU a couple of years ago, and we keep hearing about how great it is, so it ought to be a nice time.
Couldn't finish Soul Music in time, had to return it to Lauren. I will reread Small Gods instead.
We have to go meet with Eric now for a ride back to camp - I'll write again soon.
Crazy!
So yesterday was the last day of official digging at Porolissum. It was a hot day with very little work....cause we slacked off. The team in a trench near us found the skeleton of what they think is a baby.It was pretty cool...I will hopefully get to see/help excavate it over the next couple of days.
Anyways, last night we had our end of season party. It was really fun, lots of beer, mici, pasta,hamburgers and tuica. We also watched stars on the porta pretoria. This morning however, kind of sucked, cause virtually the whole group of students left for Cluj. It was tough saying goodbye, particularly to my roomates and some of the guys.
Apart from that, there isn't much to say. We changed our plans are going to be visiting the town of Sibiu for 2 nights. It's only like 3 hours away and was the European capital of culture a couple of years back. Should be nice..we are staying in a cheapo hostel to save some dough, but I found one with free breakfast, so rock on.
Hope all is well back home, will be back on in a couple of days probly. Apart from Sibiu, we are staying in the region and should be able to write more often. Porolissum is kind of dead without the group...:(
Val
Anyways, last night we had our end of season party. It was really fun, lots of beer, mici, pasta,hamburgers and tuica. We also watched stars on the porta pretoria. This morning however, kind of sucked, cause virtually the whole group of students left for Cluj. It was tough saying goodbye, particularly to my roomates and some of the guys.
Apart from that, there isn't much to say. We changed our plans are going to be visiting the town of Sibiu for 2 nights. It's only like 3 hours away and was the European capital of culture a couple of years back. Should be nice..we are staying in a cheapo hostel to save some dough, but I found one with free breakfast, so rock on.
Hope all is well back home, will be back on in a couple of days probly. Apart from Sibiu, we are staying in the region and should be able to write more often. Porolissum is kind of dead without the group...:(
Val
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Bye! Bye! Bye!
Helloo dear readers! So this past week has been kind of bittersweet. It's the last week with the Porolissum team and tomorrow will be the last day of "official" digging. I can say that although it took longer than last year, I believe that I did make some great friends and that I will be quite sad when they all leave Saturday morning. We had a busy week of social engagements. Monday was Rob's birthday dubbed the "Robanalia". We went to the pub and one of the workers made him this deliciously fluffly cake covered in fruit slices( I have a pic) . We gave him a bottle of Dracula vodka from Sighisoara as a gift. Then we had a couple of quiet nights...till last night when one of the workers named Ioana invited us for a swim at her house. Turns out her family is very well off and we got to cool down, have a beer and some good food. Her family was very kind and very generous. Good times.
Um...yeah...it was hot today and my brain is kinda fried...sooo...what else...I found a cool tile with a stamp on it, its fantastic and really clear. It's from the "1rst legion Hispania" or something. anyways I will double check with the resident Rome geek before I leave.
So on an FYI note. Here are our potential plans for the next 13 days or so. We are planning on staying to help out at Porolissum till the 28th or the 29th. Then we will head to the Black Sea coast for a couple of days if we can find a cheap flight, cause its far, then we will be back to Zalau in time for Roman Days( like everyone gets dressed up in Roman getup at Porolissum...awesome...more on it later. Then we will probly hitch a ride with Eric to Budapest, since he has to go through there on his way to Italy.
I have to end it here sadly...well not really. We must get back to make Poutine. Yup. Its poutine night in Romania...Hurray!!!
Ciao from the land of rocks and lemon fanta!!
Val
Um...yeah...it was hot today and my brain is kinda fried...sooo...what else...I found a cool tile with a stamp on it, its fantastic and really clear. It's from the "1rst legion Hispania" or something. anyways I will double check with the resident Rome geek before I leave.
So on an FYI note. Here are our potential plans for the next 13 days or so. We are planning on staying to help out at Porolissum till the 28th or the 29th. Then we will head to the Black Sea coast for a couple of days if we can find a cheap flight, cause its far, then we will be back to Zalau in time for Roman Days( like everyone gets dressed up in Roman getup at Porolissum...awesome...more on it later. Then we will probly hitch a ride with Eric to Budapest, since he has to go through there on his way to Italy.
I have to end it here sadly...well not really. We must get back to make Poutine. Yup. Its poutine night in Romania...Hurray!!!
Ciao from the land of rocks and lemon fanta!!
Val
We live in interesting times
The countdown's running, and we've got a day left with the team. Tomorrow (Friday the 24th) will be the big party, with all sorts of good foods and good music. It'll be a nice time, even if it is a prelude to sadness.
Monday was Rob's birthday, or Robanalia as we like to call it, so we all went down to Otilia's bar and had cake and wine. We stayed up, had a lot of laughs and a fabulous time. Took the party back up to the camp and had more laughs. Sean continues to have a love of tuica and decided that faceplanting on the floor of our room would be a good idea.
Tuesday was Sober Day, designated so because there are so few of them. (It's interesting to compare party habits between the seasons I've been here. Last year it was more steady and small, a little bit of tuica and wine with nearly every dinner, and the very occasional party. This year, it's way more wild, and we run out of wine and beer pretty quickly. I'm still careful, of course!)
Wednesday, Ioana (the one we work with in the trenches) invited us over to her house in Zalau, which also has a swimming pool. So we had a great dinner (sarmales, mici, placinta) and some time in the pool. They also had a ping pong table, so I had great fun scaring people off with "Ping pong is in my blood!", though I did lose a couple of games - I get overeager with the slam attempts. We played games and chatted well into the night, though a handful of people left around 11:00 and Val was one of them, but I'm usually up for a good time. We got Brian to sing some Frank Sinatra, and a few guys got thrown into the pool.
Today we're making poutine as a side dish for dinner, so we'll have to leave for camp pretty soon. Val brought three St. Hubert poutine packets, we asked Eric to buy something approximating mozzarella cheese, and Teresa & Ioana are making french fries (cartofi pai! I'm learning more food names this year.)
I finally found something good in the trenches: three bronze shards - something not pottery or bone! It's been so hot lately, it must have been in the upper 30s today.
I have also finished The Sword of Shannara (all 726 pages of it), and have begun Soul Music by Terry Pratchett.
Right now we're looking up ways to get to Constanta, since we're planning on spending a couple of nights there. We need to look up flights and hostels and all that. So I'm gonna leave this post at that and I shall write again.
Monday was Rob's birthday, or Robanalia as we like to call it, so we all went down to Otilia's bar and had cake and wine. We stayed up, had a lot of laughs and a fabulous time. Took the party back up to the camp and had more laughs. Sean continues to have a love of tuica and decided that faceplanting on the floor of our room would be a good idea.
Tuesday was Sober Day, designated so because there are so few of them. (It's interesting to compare party habits between the seasons I've been here. Last year it was more steady and small, a little bit of tuica and wine with nearly every dinner, and the very occasional party. This year, it's way more wild, and we run out of wine and beer pretty quickly. I'm still careful, of course!)
Wednesday, Ioana (the one we work with in the trenches) invited us over to her house in Zalau, which also has a swimming pool. So we had a great dinner (sarmales, mici, placinta) and some time in the pool. They also had a ping pong table, so I had great fun scaring people off with "Ping pong is in my blood!", though I did lose a couple of games - I get overeager with the slam attempts. We played games and chatted well into the night, though a handful of people left around 11:00 and Val was one of them, but I'm usually up for a good time. We got Brian to sing some Frank Sinatra, and a few guys got thrown into the pool.
Today we're making poutine as a side dish for dinner, so we'll have to leave for camp pretty soon. Val brought three St. Hubert poutine packets, we asked Eric to buy something approximating mozzarella cheese, and Teresa & Ioana are making french fries (cartofi pai! I'm learning more food names this year.)
I finally found something good in the trenches: three bronze shards - something not pottery or bone! It's been so hot lately, it must have been in the upper 30s today.
I have also finished The Sword of Shannara (all 726 pages of it), and have begun Soul Music by Terry Pratchett.
Right now we're looking up ways to get to Constanta, since we're planning on spending a couple of nights there. We need to look up flights and hostels and all that. So I'm gonna leave this post at that and I shall write again.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Let's do the time warp agaaain!
Now you're probably wondering why I used that Rocky Horror song reference as the title...and no, I'm not intoxicated. It has to do with our little weekend getaway to medieval Sighisoara. We splurged and decided to ditch Porolissum and come stay at a nice hotel at the top of the medieval citadel. On a side note: we met some more than friendly Romanian boys(not very attractive sadly)... and we exchanged e-mails and such. One guy named "Raoul" gave us some tuica on the train. I wasn't going to have any till Dara revealed that my "tuica face" is quite hillarious and he insisted that I try some.It was waaay strong and both Dara and Raoul had a giggle from my tuica misery.
ANYWAYS It's the most authentically medieval city I have ever seen. Our building is a historic site, narrow streets and cobblestone roads,banners hanging from the rooftops...the whole shebang. Anyways, it's pretty awesome. Its our dear amigo Vlad's birthplace...so Dracula images abound. We ate lunch at the cheeseball "casa dracula" complete with some old guy in Dracula getup.The greatest part of this city are the small museums showcasing the city's vast history from the bronze age, to the German occupation...and so forth. There was also a vast collection of incredibly well preserved medieval arms and a small torture museum.
Back at Porolissum it continued to be hot as hell...and I finally got moved trenches. I went from "cleaning rocks" to "defining a wall"...which is archaeological talk for "cleaning more rocks but we think theres something there". C'est la vie I guess. The team leaves on Friday..time has past really fast it seems.
We have a busy week of work and partying coming up and we have to start planning the end of our stay here in scenic Romania.
Here are a few random things I felt should be said in point form:
-I finally had some lemon Fanta. I am in heaven.
-Eric wants to set me up with a guy named Sean...not happening
-I think I might have overdone it and am kind of"gasp" getting sick of mici
-I ate too many gogosi the other day and felt sick all night
-I love saying" Da" instead of "yes"..it's much more fun.
-We had a big spider in our bedroom and a boy used my trowel from Home Depot and now it's full of spider guts
-I hate polenta. I keep trying to like it, but I just can't...its that gross.
I'm sorry if this blog entry was boring...I'm sure I'm missing things..but anywhoo thats all for now...I just wanted to let you know that I LOVE reading COMMENTS...because COMMENTS are so wonderfull and its nice hearing from back home where you have internet and time to COMMENT :P
Much love from the land of vampires and moonshine!
Val
ANYWAYS It's the most authentically medieval city I have ever seen. Our building is a historic site, narrow streets and cobblestone roads,banners hanging from the rooftops...the whole shebang. Anyways, it's pretty awesome. Its our dear amigo Vlad's birthplace...so Dracula images abound. We ate lunch at the cheeseball "casa dracula" complete with some old guy in Dracula getup.The greatest part of this city are the small museums showcasing the city's vast history from the bronze age, to the German occupation...and so forth. There was also a vast collection of incredibly well preserved medieval arms and a small torture museum.
Back at Porolissum it continued to be hot as hell...and I finally got moved trenches. I went from "cleaning rocks" to "defining a wall"...which is archaeological talk for "cleaning more rocks but we think theres something there". C'est la vie I guess. The team leaves on Friday..time has past really fast it seems.
We have a busy week of work and partying coming up and we have to start planning the end of our stay here in scenic Romania.
Here are a few random things I felt should be said in point form:
-I finally had some lemon Fanta. I am in heaven.
-Eric wants to set me up with a guy named Sean...not happening
-I think I might have overdone it and am kind of"gasp" getting sick of mici
-I ate too many gogosi the other day and felt sick all night
-I love saying" Da" instead of "yes"..it's much more fun.
-We had a big spider in our bedroom and a boy used my trowel from Home Depot and now it's full of spider guts
-I hate polenta. I keep trying to like it, but I just can't...its that gross.
I'm sorry if this blog entry was boring...I'm sure I'm missing things..but anywhoo thats all for now...I just wanted to let you know that I LOVE reading COMMENTS...because COMMENTS are so wonderfull and its nice hearing from back home where you have internet and time to COMMENT :P
Much love from the land of vampires and moonshine!
Val
Final Free Weekend
This is the last free weekend that we get, as the next weekend is when the season finishes and members of the team go their separate ways.
Ioana, (not the cooking Ioana, but another girl who is one of the Romanian workers) invited all of us to go to Diesel, a club in Zalau. After a shower and three pre-club shots of tuica, I was ready to go. I'd borrowed a dress from Erin and was looking pretty snazzy, if I do say so myself. All the ladies looked great that night. Ashley had gotten pretty smashed though, and Val had to take her home early. But I think they continued to have a bit of fun back at the camp, so it wasn't too bad for them.
At the club, it was Annie, Erin, Brian, Jonathan, Lauren, Mark, Sean and myself, as well as Ioana with her friends. Sean dislikes the fact that I seem to be a bit of a tank when it comes to drinks, so he bought all of mine. However, he failed in his endeavour, and I was capable of walking straight at the end of the night.
Saturday, Val and I got up early for our trip to Sighisoara (where I write now). Eric kindly drove us to Zalau where we caught a bus to Cluj. Then we took a train straight through to Sighisoara.
It's a very nice and very concentrated town. There's lots of construction going on here, probably in preparation for the medieval festival next weekend. We're staying in this charming budget hotel called Casa Wagner, and it's in a historic monument (which technically isn't all that impressive, because the entire town is made up of them.) It's got two comfy beds and a shower; we've decided to shower four days straight, just because it's a luxury we can't afford at Porolissum.
Saturday, we decided to stay in after a delicious dinner in the hotel's restaurant (applesauce chicken and rice pilaf, yummy!) We spent the night watching music videos on VH1.
Sunday: We've seen most everything within the citadel, and it was all fairly easy to find. The sights are so close together that you can just take one day here to see it all. We started with the Clock Tower which also houses the History Museum. There were lots of displays like pharmaceuticals, pottery, and Hermann Oberth's life (the space physicist who grew up here). You could also see the mechanics of the clock, which has statues (of mythological, mystical and astronomical figures) that rotate to a window outside, each one according to a day of the week. Then we went to the Torture Room museum, which was really just a small room with some chains and torture devices - a very quick visit, but still neat. Next stop was a Medieval Arms museum, which held various weapons of different types and centuries, and had English explanations for them.
After a quick stop at the statue of Vlad Tepes, we ate lunch at Casa Dracula, a restaurant in the house of Vlad Tepes who supposedly lived there until the age of 4. I had breaded chicken wings and boiled potatoes, while Val had mici and french fries. We walked up the 172 steps of the covered stairway to the Church on the Hill. It has a nice view of the citadel below, and the Church was unique, being stone-built with painted walls inside (though deteriorated and painted over, because it was Catholic first and the Saxon Protestants took it over and covered the Catholic imagery.)
We've been dropping in and out of various souvenir shops, and we've found them to be of much better quality than the ones in Brasov and Maramures; mostly we've been window shopping, but it's still enjoyable.
After this stop at the Internet Cafe, we might drop by the Tailors' Tower for a final sightseeing spot. Where to next, we don't know. Tomorrow morning we'll travel back to Porolissum, thus missing one day of excavation but we should get there in time for Rob's birthday party.
Right now I'm reading a fantasy novel, The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks; it was lent to me by Jonathan because I didn't have anything left of my own to read (except for Small Gods by Terry Pratchett, which I've read before). I'm 200 pages in, out of about 700. We'll see how far I can get tonight and tomorrow!
Another week with the team; the parting will be pretty sad. But Val and I will have some time left in Romania, and I'm looking forward to further travels.
Until next time, cheers!
Ioana, (not the cooking Ioana, but another girl who is one of the Romanian workers) invited all of us to go to Diesel, a club in Zalau. After a shower and three pre-club shots of tuica, I was ready to go. I'd borrowed a dress from Erin and was looking pretty snazzy, if I do say so myself. All the ladies looked great that night. Ashley had gotten pretty smashed though, and Val had to take her home early. But I think they continued to have a bit of fun back at the camp, so it wasn't too bad for them.
At the club, it was Annie, Erin, Brian, Jonathan, Lauren, Mark, Sean and myself, as well as Ioana with her friends. Sean dislikes the fact that I seem to be a bit of a tank when it comes to drinks, so he bought all of mine. However, he failed in his endeavour, and I was capable of walking straight at the end of the night.
Saturday, Val and I got up early for our trip to Sighisoara (where I write now). Eric kindly drove us to Zalau where we caught a bus to Cluj. Then we took a train straight through to Sighisoara.
It's a very nice and very concentrated town. There's lots of construction going on here, probably in preparation for the medieval festival next weekend. We're staying in this charming budget hotel called Casa Wagner, and it's in a historic monument (which technically isn't all that impressive, because the entire town is made up of them.) It's got two comfy beds and a shower; we've decided to shower four days straight, just because it's a luxury we can't afford at Porolissum.
Saturday, we decided to stay in after a delicious dinner in the hotel's restaurant (applesauce chicken and rice pilaf, yummy!) We spent the night watching music videos on VH1.
Sunday: We've seen most everything within the citadel, and it was all fairly easy to find. The sights are so close together that you can just take one day here to see it all. We started with the Clock Tower which also houses the History Museum. There were lots of displays like pharmaceuticals, pottery, and Hermann Oberth's life (the space physicist who grew up here). You could also see the mechanics of the clock, which has statues (of mythological, mystical and astronomical figures) that rotate to a window outside, each one according to a day of the week. Then we went to the Torture Room museum, which was really just a small room with some chains and torture devices - a very quick visit, but still neat. Next stop was a Medieval Arms museum, which held various weapons of different types and centuries, and had English explanations for them.
After a quick stop at the statue of Vlad Tepes, we ate lunch at Casa Dracula, a restaurant in the house of Vlad Tepes who supposedly lived there until the age of 4. I had breaded chicken wings and boiled potatoes, while Val had mici and french fries. We walked up the 172 steps of the covered stairway to the Church on the Hill. It has a nice view of the citadel below, and the Church was unique, being stone-built with painted walls inside (though deteriorated and painted over, because it was Catholic first and the Saxon Protestants took it over and covered the Catholic imagery.)
We've been dropping in and out of various souvenir shops, and we've found them to be of much better quality than the ones in Brasov and Maramures; mostly we've been window shopping, but it's still enjoyable.
After this stop at the Internet Cafe, we might drop by the Tailors' Tower for a final sightseeing spot. Where to next, we don't know. Tomorrow morning we'll travel back to Porolissum, thus missing one day of excavation but we should get there in time for Rob's birthday party.
Right now I'm reading a fantasy novel, The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks; it was lent to me by Jonathan because I didn't have anything left of my own to read (except for Small Gods by Terry Pratchett, which I've read before). I'm 200 pages in, out of about 700. We'll see how far I can get tonight and tomorrow!
Another week with the team; the parting will be pretty sad. But Val and I will have some time left in Romania, and I'm looking forward to further travels.
Until next time, cheers!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!
Hey so I didn't write yesterday because I was really hungry and had to go eat with my friends. So I will make up for it today. So the rain did stop and now we are stuck with really warm, difficult to work in weather. We spent the weekend in Maramures, and did the usual sites and stayed in the lovely lodge once again. The ride in the van was crazy..those roads combined with the crazy van and driver make for a few "almost carsick" incidents. I did some shopping too, finally, so that was fun and all in all it was a good weekend.
I'm still loving the food, but I am feeling kind of icky cause of it sometimes..and I think im gaining weight...Im not walking as much or doing much hard labour this year, so I will be nice and fat, much to Alexandru's content
Archaeology wise, we still havn't removed those columns we found. I have litterally been cleaning stupid rock scatters for the past 4 ish days...its kind of shitty to be honest. But on the plus side, because Alexandru is so convinced that it is a tomb, we have had 2 seperate groups of journalists come by, one with a video camera and the other lady was writing for a tourist magazine. So its not as fun as having the fabulously pretty Andrew Curry from National Geog. come..but its still cool...we will be plastered all over Romania .
Oh and I tried beer pong for the first time...and kind of rocked it. I was paired with this guy named Johathan and we did pretty good..then me and Sean almost beat the undefeated team. I didnt realize how much beer drinking was involved...eeesh.
Anyways I think im done. Off to Sighisoara this weekend! Yay vacation and Eric is letting is take Monday off!
ciao!
Val
I'm still loving the food, but I am feeling kind of icky cause of it sometimes..and I think im gaining weight...Im not walking as much or doing much hard labour this year, so I will be nice and fat, much to Alexandru's content
Archaeology wise, we still havn't removed those columns we found. I have litterally been cleaning stupid rock scatters for the past 4 ish days...its kind of shitty to be honest. But on the plus side, because Alexandru is so convinced that it is a tomb, we have had 2 seperate groups of journalists come by, one with a video camera and the other lady was writing for a tourist magazine. So its not as fun as having the fabulously pretty Andrew Curry from National Geog. come..but its still cool...we will be plastered all over Romania .
Oh and I tried beer pong for the first time...and kind of rocked it. I was paired with this guy named Johathan and we did pretty good..then me and Sean almost beat the undefeated team. I didnt realize how much beer drinking was involved...eeesh.
Anyways I think im done. Off to Sighisoara this weekend! Yay vacation and Eric is letting is take Monday off!
ciao!
Val
Heat Wave
Such hot days this week. The rain seems to have abated in favour of cloudless, sunny days. Today especially was sweltering at a temperature of 33 degrees Celsius, and working in the field makes it much worse. But I was kept busy clearing down trench levels so at least my mind was mostly kept off the heat. It was very nice to get back to camp, change out of sweaty clothes and find some shade. Teresa made gogosi (pronounced 'gogosh', kind of a round donut pastry), which was the perfect treat; it's even better when you add maple syrup to it, yum.
Right now, I'm in Zalau with Val, Lauren and Ashley. Val and I need to prepare for the trip to Sighisoara this weekend. We'll probably leave Saturday morning and come back Monday afternoon. We need to find a hostel to stay in for two nights. From reading Val's Lonely Planet Romania guide, it sounds like a beautiful city with lots to see, so I'm looking forward to it. Still a little sad that so much fuss was made over trying to get to Poenari Castle, but I'll make it there someday!
Last night's evening out was really nice. It was great to hang out with Cristina for a time, and we'll probably do it again next week. The night at the bar with the rest of the team was also good. It was very casual, just a few drinks and lots of conversation (and singing along to the music).
That's all for now. May write again in Sighisoara! Ciao.
Right now, I'm in Zalau with Val, Lauren and Ashley. Val and I need to prepare for the trip to Sighisoara this weekend. We'll probably leave Saturday morning and come back Monday afternoon. We need to find a hostel to stay in for two nights. From reading Val's Lonely Planet Romania guide, it sounds like a beautiful city with lots to see, so I'm looking forward to it. Still a little sad that so much fuss was made over trying to get to Poenari Castle, but I'll make it there someday!
Last night's evening out was really nice. It was great to hang out with Cristina for a time, and we'll probably do it again next week. The night at the bar with the rest of the team was also good. It was very casual, just a few drinks and lots of conversation (and singing along to the music).
That's all for now. May write again in Sighisoara! Ciao.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
And the coundown begins...
So the weekend was highly enjoyable, and I had nothing to worry about. We went to wooden churches, the Barsana Monastery, Elie Wiesel's house (now a museum of his life), the Communist Prison museum in Sighet and took a trip to the Merry Cemetary but our time there got a bit rained out. But it's okay, because we all took the opportunity to shop in the souvenir markets there.
The night in the inn was nowhere near as wild as last year's, as the night only ended at midnight and fewer bottles of beer and wine were consumed. I had about four and a half cups (let's round it up to five for good measure, oh-ho!) and 1.5 shots of tuica. It was an evening of fun conversation, laughter and much merriment.
I finished The Picture of Dorian Gray in the car ride, and also started and finished The Road (by Cormac McCarthy) by Sunday evening.
The work week so far's been slightly frustrating, as a lot of it was spent detailing walls. For the last two hours today, I got to use the pick, trowel and my bare hands to get the rocks out of a rubble layer; it was great to expend some physical energy.
Right now we're (Val, Annie, Erin, Rob and myself) in Zalau and about to meet for dinner with a Romanian friend of ours, Cristina. Then the rest of the team's going to come down for drinks at a bar here. It ought to be a nice night.
I'm going to be late for that dinner meeting, so I must go!
The night in the inn was nowhere near as wild as last year's, as the night only ended at midnight and fewer bottles of beer and wine were consumed. I had about four and a half cups (let's round it up to five for good measure, oh-ho!) and 1.5 shots of tuica. It was an evening of fun conversation, laughter and much merriment.
I finished The Picture of Dorian Gray in the car ride, and also started and finished The Road (by Cormac McCarthy) by Sunday evening.
The work week so far's been slightly frustrating, as a lot of it was spent detailing walls. For the last two hours today, I got to use the pick, trowel and my bare hands to get the rocks out of a rubble layer; it was great to expend some physical energy.
Right now we're (Val, Annie, Erin, Rob and myself) in Zalau and about to meet for dinner with a Romanian friend of ours, Cristina. Then the rest of the team's going to come down for drinks at a bar here. It ought to be a nice night.
I'm going to be late for that dinner meeting, so I must go!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Rain, rain, go away.
This week's been a bit maddening. There's been a lot of rain in the evenings and a little during the day, including two days with serious downpours. Yesterday we worked on washing pottery instead working in the wet, rainy fields.
Still haven't found much of anything of interest, but there's time yet, I suppose. Today I worked all day with Shawn just cleaning walls and edges, which is the worst work to do. But it has to be done, so we just had to grin and bear it. The wall seems to have a curved foundation of mortar coming out of it and it's a bit puzzling, so at least there was something to the work. But in the last hour I got to work on the Total Station with Rob, and that was my favourite job last year. I was rather pleased, and I got Shawn to help us out too. We were both glad to be out of that trench.
We went to the bar yesterday. I had a bit of wine, a bit of tuica, a bit of beer and a lot of conversation. I paced myself, naturally. This time we went after dinner, so nobody got as drunk as they did last week (though a couple girls did get pretty sloshed. So it goes.)
Maramures weekend is coming up; last year's visit was a lot of fun, so we'll see how this trip measures up. I really shouldn't compare, but it can't be helped, sometimes.
I've read a couple books so far: The Truth by Terry Pratchett, and Union Station by Joe Fiorito. Both books were very good, and right now I'm working on The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Hopefully I can finish that one by the end of the week.
I have to get going, so we can grab some tasty ice cream and snag a taxi back up to camp in time for dinner.
As it's almost evening, buna seara! (And later, noapte buna!)
Still haven't found much of anything of interest, but there's time yet, I suppose. Today I worked all day with Shawn just cleaning walls and edges, which is the worst work to do. But it has to be done, so we just had to grin and bear it. The wall seems to have a curved foundation of mortar coming out of it and it's a bit puzzling, so at least there was something to the work. But in the last hour I got to work on the Total Station with Rob, and that was my favourite job last year. I was rather pleased, and I got Shawn to help us out too. We were both glad to be out of that trench.
We went to the bar yesterday. I had a bit of wine, a bit of tuica, a bit of beer and a lot of conversation. I paced myself, naturally. This time we went after dinner, so nobody got as drunk as they did last week (though a couple girls did get pretty sloshed. So it goes.)
Maramures weekend is coming up; last year's visit was a lot of fun, so we'll see how this trip measures up. I really shouldn't compare, but it can't be helped, sometimes.
I've read a couple books so far: The Truth by Terry Pratchett, and Union Station by Joe Fiorito. Both books were very good, and right now I'm working on The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Hopefully I can finish that one by the end of the week.
I have to get going, so we can grab some tasty ice cream and snag a taxi back up to camp in time for dinner.
As it's almost evening, buna seara! (And later, noapte buna!)
Can't stop the raaaaain!
Hello dear blog readers. Well it's been a slow work week at Porolissum...nothing major has been found really, which is kind of lame. Most of us are just scraping rocks, defining walls and trying to make ourselves usefull. Most days have been nice...but it seems to rain a lot a night and this week we had daytime showers too. So we have been muddy and wet this week.
The partying continued this week at Porolissum too. Lots of beer and even another trip to the bar. The cool thing is, a kid came by to Porolissum for his birthday and invited us to his party after...which turned out to be at the bar. There was lots of food and the kids were are super smart. They were all sons and daughters of lawyers and doctors. The birthday boy has to deal with the partial paralysis of his left side...but it doesnt stop him. Those kids were hillarious and I had more fun chatting with them then I did with the group this week
Also, I am realizing that I do not like every kind of Romanian food. There are 2 dishes...the sourkraut and eggs(which I think we are having tonight) and the polenta(corn mush) that I truly cannot eat....ah well the gogosh make up for it :P
Well this is short, but Ive been talking on msn with Ricky this entire time.
This weekend is Maramures weekend...so we get to get away which will be nice.
More soon,
Val
The partying continued this week at Porolissum too. Lots of beer and even another trip to the bar. The cool thing is, a kid came by to Porolissum for his birthday and invited us to his party after...which turned out to be at the bar. There was lots of food and the kids were are super smart. They were all sons and daughters of lawyers and doctors. The birthday boy has to deal with the partial paralysis of his left side...but it doesnt stop him. Those kids were hillarious and I had more fun chatting with them then I did with the group this week
Also, I am realizing that I do not like every kind of Romanian food. There are 2 dishes...the sourkraut and eggs(which I think we are having tonight) and the polenta(corn mush) that I truly cannot eat....ah well the gogosh make up for it :P
Well this is short, but Ive been talking on msn with Ricky this entire time.
This weekend is Maramures weekend...so we get to get away which will be nice.
More soon,
Val
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Inchis
So Dara and I decided to join a couple of girls to go back to Zalau to do some shopping. Unfortunately EVERYTHING is closed exept the internet cafe and the grocery store, so thats a bummer. I was just going to buy new shirts,instead of washing mine..but I guess I will have to wash a few things this afternoon. Yesterday was the Salaj County tour. The girls and I from last summer had already done this tour...so we decided to bum along, but ditch it on occasion to go hang out. So basically we were able to hit the internet yesterday(obviously) and instead of going to the botanical gardens in Jibou, we went for ice-cream, which was amazing and really cheap. We also picknicked outside of this US journalists country house. We had bread, salami, cheese, fresh tomatoes, apricots, juice, coffee. A nice light meal for once haha. Turns out this journalist has lived all over the states,has written, edited, you name it, he did it basically. He even was an actor in California at one point, one of his big roles was a part in the Blues Brothers movie. Anyways he ended up marrying a Romanian lady and splits his time between Zalau and the countryside. You meet cool people here.
The 2008 girls and I went back to the amphitheater before supper too. It really was a great hour, the view is amazing and we have all been having trouble adapting to the new group and dealing with certain new personnalities. It can be like Survivor sometimes, because you're always with each other...exept that the losers don't get voted out unfornately. All this to say , is that sitting on the ruins of the theater, staring into the valleys and the hills, reminded us why we came back to Romania this year. We just kind of chilled and theorized about the Romans impact on the geography of the area(nerdy, true...but compared to the others, this is nothing). On our way up, we ran into some Buffalo, like literally a few feet away from us and a ton of goats. We are pretty much as far away from North American civilization as we can get.
All seriousness aside. Last night I did shots of chocolate tuica. Yes, they combined chocolate with tuica...and its kind of disgusting..but kind of better..I dunno...anyways the evening broke out into a dance party in the main building. Everybody was dancing...even Eric who shaked his booty on a picknick table.
I forgot to add that everybody else in the group thought it would be fun to hike up Magura hill...which is like an almost like 90 degree walk...I like nature and all...but screw hiking on a Sunday morning.
Oh and do check out the link that was posted by Dara...you can see me in one of the pictures, I am wearing a shirt with a skull on it.
La revedere!
Val
The 2008 girls and I went back to the amphitheater before supper too. It really was a great hour, the view is amazing and we have all been having trouble adapting to the new group and dealing with certain new personnalities. It can be like Survivor sometimes, because you're always with each other...exept that the losers don't get voted out unfornately. All this to say , is that sitting on the ruins of the theater, staring into the valleys and the hills, reminded us why we came back to Romania this year. We just kind of chilled and theorized about the Romans impact on the geography of the area(nerdy, true...but compared to the others, this is nothing). On our way up, we ran into some Buffalo, like literally a few feet away from us and a ton of goats. We are pretty much as far away from North American civilization as we can get.
All seriousness aside. Last night I did shots of chocolate tuica. Yes, they combined chocolate with tuica...and its kind of disgusting..but kind of better..I dunno...anyways the evening broke out into a dance party in the main building. Everybody was dancing...even Eric who shaked his booty on a picknick table.
I forgot to add that everybody else in the group thought it would be fun to hike up Magura hill...which is like an almost like 90 degree walk...I like nature and all...but screw hiking on a Sunday morning.
Oh and do check out the link that was posted by Dara...you can see me in one of the pictures, I am wearing a shirt with a skull on it.
La revedere!
Val
Ahh, the weekend.
So far, it's been good times here at Porolissum. Yesterday the team did the usual Salaj County tour, but Val, Annie, Erin and myself all did it last year so we kind of hung back. During the visit to Jibou, we elected to skip it and have tasty ice cream instead. It was good to chat and reminisce
When we got back, we went down to the amphitheatre, sat out on a ledge and took in the amazing view of the countryside. We talked about how free and unspoiled it was there, how nice it was not to see constant construction. And that led to a conversation about how the Romans would have constructed their cities, especially at Porolissum. Annie pointed out how great it would be to have access to a time-lapse of the area of the last 2000 years.
After dinner (sarmales!) we went up to the castrum for the sunset. And partied some more back at the camp. Lots of good music, dancing and company. It was a good night (though some did party too hard, which always seems to be the case here. People need to know their limits!)
Right now I'm in Zalau with Val, Lauren and Ashley. We were hoping to look for some clothes, like cheap t-shirts to work in, but it seems all the stores are closed (though their signs say they ought to be open.) At least the Internet cafe's still open, and so is the supermarket, so the trip won't be a loss. Maybe we'll find some nice place to eat lunch down here too.
Work begins again tomorrow, and I'm glad to have the weekend to recuperate a little since I've gotten a bit sunburnt. Next weekend I think we're going to Maramures, and the weekend after that may be free, so we'll figure out something for that time.
That's all for now. Cheers!
When we got back, we went down to the amphitheatre, sat out on a ledge and took in the amazing view of the countryside. We talked about how free and unspoiled it was there, how nice it was not to see constant construction. And that led to a conversation about how the Romans would have constructed their cities, especially at Porolissum. Annie pointed out how great it would be to have access to a time-lapse of the area of the last 2000 years.
After dinner (sarmales!) we went up to the castrum for the sunset. And partied some more back at the camp. Lots of good music, dancing and company. It was a good night (though some did party too hard, which always seems to be the case here. People need to know their limits!)
Right now I'm in Zalau with Val, Lauren and Ashley. We were hoping to look for some clothes, like cheap t-shirts to work in, but it seems all the stores are closed (though their signs say they ought to be open.) At least the Internet cafe's still open, and so is the supermarket, so the trip won't be a loss. Maybe we'll find some nice place to eat lunch down here too.
Work begins again tomorrow, and I'm glad to have the weekend to recuperate a little since I've gotten a bit sunburnt. Next weekend I think we're going to Maramures, and the weekend after that may be free, so we'll figure out something for that time.
That's all for now. Cheers!
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Getting some serious workout now, and I find it's already getting easier to go up and down the hills of Porolissum. By the end of the trip I'll have much more endurance. I've been digging in various trenche; digging the dirt in one, defining the walls in another and defining a rubble patch in the third. The third trench is most interesting because the Romanian workers found two limestone columns and that was quite neat to work with. Hopefully on Monday, I'll be able to get back in there and work on it more.
In addition to work, there's been some partying. On Annie's orders we went down to Otilia's bar on Wednesday (and got caught in a downpour, it's been raining a lot here in the evenings; luckily the days have been mostly clear). A couple of people got pretty trashed, and another two were just very drunk. The rest of us managed to stay on our feet (and I got lots of good pictures!)
Last night was the Independence Day/Canada Day feast. We ate mici, hamburgers, corn and potatoes. Best of all, we also got gogosi, these delicious little donut-type pastries. Val was happy to break out her bottle of maple syrup and it was enjoyed by all. There was plenty of beer to go around too. Ursus is okay, but Timisoreana is best.
A reporter came down to write a piece about the site, and Eric says it's the best article that Porolissum has gotten. It's also the best because my name is in there, the only one of all the students! You can check out the article here. It's in Romanian, but you can probably find a website translator on the web somewhere. My name is misspelled, but nonetheless, it's in there.
I've got to get going now, but I'll try to write again soon.
In addition to work, there's been some partying. On Annie's orders we went down to Otilia's bar on Wednesday (and got caught in a downpour, it's been raining a lot here in the evenings; luckily the days have been mostly clear). A couple of people got pretty trashed, and another two were just very drunk. The rest of us managed to stay on our feet (and I got lots of good pictures!)
Last night was the Independence Day/Canada Day feast. We ate mici, hamburgers, corn and potatoes. Best of all, we also got gogosi, these delicious little donut-type pastries. Val was happy to break out her bottle of maple syrup and it was enjoyed by all. There was plenty of beer to go around too. Ursus is okay, but Timisoreana is best.
A reporter came down to write a piece about the site, and Eric says it's the best article that Porolissum has gotten. It's also the best because my name is in there, the only one of all the students! You can check out the article here. It's in Romanian, but you can probably find a website translator on the web somewhere. My name is misspelled, but nonetheless, it's in there.
I've got to get going now, but I'll try to write again soon.
Hot days and rainy nights
So we've been digging for a week now and have gotten to know the new students at this point and alll is going well. It's not the same as last year, its not as fun I admit, I think we were much closer as a group..but I think it will be fine, my expectations were set high. Most days have been hot and humid with rainy evenings. We went to Otilias bar....and on our way, got soaked from a thunder storm...then everybody got piss drunk...and I had to help take care of drunk people. Its tough working with a pick and shovel for 8 hours strait and then party all night. At around 9pm Im usually ready for bed haha.
Archeology wise..Ive been working in trench 21 for a few days doing various things. I got paired up with a girl named Lauren and we got stuck in the "pit of death"...which is basically a deep hole. It started out rough, but then we started finding things...so it became the pit of "awesomeness". We found a nice handle, a coupla' nails, lots of nice pot rims...goood stuff. Other trenches have uncovered some nice walls and 2 fallen columns, probly one of the best finds in 2 years. Oh and I had some mici or mititei.....yummmy. We had a feast for Canada day and USA day last night...lots of good food. Too much food and too much beer.
I am getting really tan and sunburnt...but aside from that, I am enjoying myself. The people are just as generous and fabulous as last year and the scenery is breathtaking. It really is nice to be away from it all.
Thats all for now, my dear friends and family. Thanks for the comments, it's really nice to hear from you all.
Archeology wise..Ive been working in trench 21 for a few days doing various things. I got paired up with a girl named Lauren and we got stuck in the "pit of death"...which is basically a deep hole. It started out rough, but then we started finding things...so it became the pit of "awesomeness". We found a nice handle, a coupla' nails, lots of nice pot rims...goood stuff. Other trenches have uncovered some nice walls and 2 fallen columns, probly one of the best finds in 2 years. Oh and I had some mici or mititei.....yummmy. We had a feast for Canada day and USA day last night...lots of good food. Too much food and too much beer.
I am getting really tan and sunburnt...but aside from that, I am enjoying myself. The people are just as generous and fabulous as last year and the scenery is breathtaking. It really is nice to be away from it all.
Thats all for now, my dear friends and family. Thanks for the comments, it's really nice to hear from you all.
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