Once again, sorry for the delay in posting! I'll get right to it.
Work week for Monday, July 18th:
The trench keeps exploding with contexts and features (meaning interesting areas and various walls uncovered) so there's been a lot of flurry and discussion (mostly in Greek) happening around us. Katie got made a secondary trench master so she could help Adrianos with the paperwork since there's a lot happening here. That's left me with hand-sifting, bagging and drawing. The drawing started on Friday the 22nd and didn't really stop - more on that later. I did get accidentally jabbed in the lower calf with a shovel, which left a nice bruise. Memmo, the Greek workman who did it, was very apologetic about it.
Saturday, July 23rd:
The last field trip! This one took place at Olympia, the first site of the Olympic Games in 776 BCE. There were lots of things to see, like a big gymnasium, a few temples, treasuries, a workshop and a large stadium. It was here that boys and girls split into separate groups and each ran a race (around 200m long, I think); I'm pleased to note I came in third place.
Afterward, we were taken to a nearby small town with a nice beach. We had lunch here (shrimp for me!) and then had a nice little dip in the sea. Not as warm as Karathona, but still pleasant and far less crowded.
Sunday, July 24th:
Lazy day! I slept in until about 10:00 (though I never seem to be able to get a full night's sleep when overseas - I almost always wake up at 5:00 or 7:00 or some such silly time.) After having breakfast at one of the restaurants in town, I went up to Petite Planete to chat with Vasiliki and go swimming in their pool, which is so nice to do on a hot day.
Work week (final) for Monday, July 25th:
So, that drawing from Friday, I continued this week. That drawing is built on top of previous plans. But over the course of the week, they would continue digging, so a couple parts of the plan changed and had to be drawn again. The entire week I did nothing but draw, and it's a large, complex trench. It's about 7 by 4 metres and contains an unimaginable number of rocks. So for six straight work days, about seven hours a day, my eyes were on those rocks or the paper in front of me. It kind of made me go loopy - there were moments I'd have to look up at something - anything - else, or take a small walk, or listen really attentively whenever someone came by and talked about the trench in English. Andy had to come join our trench and become a third trench master so he could provide extra help.
But lots of other interesting things occurred over this week. Monday night was free of activity but there was something every night otherwise.
Tuesday, July 26th:
There was a special village party called Panegyrie, a celebration for the patron saint of Mycenae. We had tables reserved for us at Jimmy's Restaurant (a popular eating spot for the team) and there was live music, some dancing (a strange variation of the Hora dance done at mitzvahs and weddings; the steps were similar but there were an extra few thrown in there.) We had Greek salad, pork, cheese, bread and wine for the table. It was a really good time, and I was glad everyone would be eating together instead of at different places at different times like the usual - I feel it makes for more enjoyment. There was no curfew for that night and everyone but the trench masters could go down to site at 7:00am instead of 6:00am, which was pretty nice. I definitely took advantage of that.
Wednesday, July 27th:
I had to move rooms this day for some reason - I think a girl moved out of room 1, and I was sharing a room with Amanda and Patricia by that time (yes, Patricia was moved into there the previous week! Lots of moving about), so I guess for reasons of space, I was told to take the new spot in room 1.
Talent show night! This is an annual occurrence for the dig, and was the third year doing it. I didn't take part but several others did. Songs (including one short opera piece) and dances (tap and bellydancing) were performed, poetry (The Highwayman) was read, and one martial arts performance was thrown in there as well. They were all very good and I enjoyed it very much.
Thursday, July 28th:
Soccer game! Or rather, football, if you're in Europe. Apparently, most years it's the Greeks vs. the Excavators, and most years we lose terribly. But this year, it was the Workmen vs. the Archaeologists, which meant we had Adrianos and his younger brother on our team and gave us a fighting chance. We took cars to a nearby town with a fenced astroturf field (far more fancy than the small dirt patch used in Romania and sadly less dirty gameplay-wise.)
The game started at 8:00 and would last for about two hours. It was quite entertaining to see the back-and-forth going on. There were a fair amount of tackles and slides and falls, which are always funny to see. The Workmen were up by a few points most of the time, and I think we almost caught up. I'm not entirely sure of the final result since I keep hearing that we either won or lost 21-24. Whatever the case, the Archaeologists team came out battered, bruised and happy.
Friday, July 29th:
At the end of our last workday, we had a small field trip directly across the road from our path to site to the Treasury of Atreus, the largest tholos (beehive-shaped) tomb in Mycenae. We entered this huge construction and took pictures inside. There was a small side room, and on the side of that path was a sign saying "WARNING, BE CAUTIOUS" or something similar and everyone took it to mean that maybe it was slippery or there were loose rocks inside. So we went in and took pictures there. When I came out, an angry woman employee came yelling "WHY YOU GO INSIDE? SEE THE SIGN?" and she moved it back to its apparent original position, blocking the path inside. So we weren't supposed to go in at all, oops.
Later that night, most people went to Jimmy's for a final dinner together. I sat with Ella and Katie M. and we split a pizza together. I had several drinks but they were all well-deserved for the ridiculous amount of drawing I had to do. Heidi (the supervisor for Katie and I) came by and bought us drinks as gratitude for our hard work, which was really nice of her. All in all, another fun night was had.
Saturday, July 30th:
There was a chartered bus due to leave for Athens at 7:00am, so I got up at 6:30am to say goodbye to people. I had to be up at that time anyway since that's when the hotel people wanted to clean out all the rooms and give fresh towels/sheets. I was to move again, to room 10 with Elly, the other student who would be remaining behind for another week. However, I don't think anyone was prepared for the length of time it took for this cleaning to happen. George, the manager, kept coming around and giving updates on progress. Most people were allowed to move back in at 11:00am, but Elly and I had to wait a whole other hour for ours to be specially cleaned. I did not think that was okay. I was really tired from the night before and tried to sleep on the couch in the lobby. I did get to finish my book, Deja Dead, by Kathy Reichs (the inspiration for the TV show "Bones".) I'd read A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood before that. And then I started Thank You For Smoking by Christopher Buckley. All books were borrowed from the hotel's bookshelf.
Once it was finally time to move into the new room, I had to nap for a little while. I went for lunch with Elly and after that I decided to do some work. There was so much of the plan still to do, that I couldn't possibly finish it before I left if I tried to do it all on Monday. I went down to the site and did another square metre of drawing.
Sunday, July 31st:
Elly and I went to Petite Planete to use their pool, since Vasiliki gave me the okay to invite people now and Elly was really excited about the idea. It was another hot day so again the pool felt like an excellent place to be. In the evening, I did more drawing and made progress on the plan.
That night, we had an official dinner at Kolizeras (the place we ate lunch at during the workweek) with several workmen and the remaining team in attendance. It was a very good meal of meatballs, sausages, cheese pastries, moussaka, pork and watermelon for dessert. We had music and good conversation, so it was another nice night.
Monday, August 1st:
Adrianos came by at 7:30 so we could head to site and finish the work. He had a profile to do (a sketch of the stratigraphy in the trench) and I had to complete my plan. I finally managed to do so by noon. It's been a maddening time in that trench, but I was glad to be done. Or almost done. In the evening, I still had to fit together the sketches I'd done on two different pages and make it a coherent whole. I started on that and it took me several hours to get it going.
Tuesday, August 2nd (today's date):
I woke at 7:30 for breakfast and then returned to my work. I finally managed to get the whole thing together, but I still had to ink it! I only finished the whole thing at 2:30pm. I was deliriously happy to be able to put down that pen and walk away.
At 3:00 I said my goodbyes before Adrianos and his father gave me a lift to Fichti (the next town over, really close by) so I could catch the 3:30 bus to Athens. By 5:15 I was at the metro stop and was able to hop on for the two stops to the one near my hostel and at 6:00 I was settled into my hotel room. I'm in the lobby now typing this up and I'll be heading out soon for a quite bite to eat.
Tomorrow, I fly to Toronto and will be home by the evening (Canada time). It'll be great to see everyone again!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Two Weeks In
Sorry for the long delay since my last post! The work day in Mycenae is so long that it's hard to get the motivation to get on the Internet and type up a post.
This is a general outline of each workday:
5:00 - Wake up, get dressed
5:30 - small breakfast with team (orange juice, bread, nutella/butter, hard-boiled egg/ham and cheese)
6:00 - drive short way up hill, get dropped off and walk a small path down to site
10:30 - half-hour break to eat whatever you brought
1:30 - day ends, start packing up and walking to pick-up point, back at hotel by 2:00
2:15 - rinse off whatever dirt you can, change clothes
2:30 - lunch at Kolizeras restaurant
4:00 - back at hotel, shower and/or nap
5:00 - do work for trench masters (write reports, label photos, e-mail them); this can take up to two or three hours; may also include washing of artifacts found that day
8:00 - or therabouts, do dinner
9:30 - or therabouts, sleep.
So the day here is pretty full.
I'm in Trench 38/39. I'm working with Adrianos (trench master), Heidi (sector supervisor) and fellow team members Lizzie and Katie M., though Lizzie was moved to a second trench in the second week. We also have two Greek workers.
The first day went very slowly, because the staff were still kind of working out what to do and how to get started. We put down metre markers and made measurements for the trench. We started with Trench 39, and the workers started levelling it down. The objective of this trench was to find the corner of a wall that has already been uncovered - we need to know where it ends. Lizzie, Katie and I hand-sifted what the workers were digging up. It was slow-going and a bit tedious, since that's all we did that day. That evening, there were a couple of meetings between staff and team about the hotel, excavation and general expectations and standards for the month.
The two days after that were more of the same: hand-sifting, or going to the actual sift. The sift is an area with six sifts (grates with smaller holes) suspended by ropes - you empty out a bucket, shake out the excess dirt, go through what's left behind, deposit what's been found into bags and dump the rest into a wheelbarrow. I did get to help with the drawing of the extra wall that was found so far.
Thursday July 7th was a bit more productive, with shovelling, trowelling and taking buckets to the main sift, which I also worked that day.
Friday, the workers were extending the trench southward so that we could see if the wall was turning in that direction. On the west side of the trench was a rock pile, and it became apparent that we may need or want to excavate there, so Katie and I helped one of the workers toss part of the pile further west - after so much sifting, I don't think I was ever so excited to move rocks. After that, I sorted the Lithics pile with Heidi. Lithics means unusual-looking rocks that come up during the sifting process - those rocks can turn out to have been used for something, like a tool or blade. So Heidi told me what to look for: particular shapes, or worked edges. I successfully picked out seven likely possibilities, and the rest were discarded.
Saturday, July 9th:
Beach day! A popular destination for the program folks is to go to the beach in Karathona, which is near Nafplio. We took the 11:00 bus from Mycenae to Nafplio and from there a taxi to Karathona. We met up with people who were already there - they had gone to a club in Nafplio and slept on the beach in Karathona, so they had been there for a very long time already when we'd arrived. Some of them left at that point too, freeing up seats for us. We had lunch and drinks on the beach. The water's pretty nice, much warmer than Santorini. I got out to sunbathe and read, went back into the water one more time. A bit later we returned to Nafplio for dinner and gelato from the one certified gelaterie outside Italy. We returned to Mycenae by taxi.
Sunday, July 10th:
The first field trip day. We went to Gla, which is an ancient Mycenaean fortification and also the location of the other excavation overseen by the same college that controls the one in Mycenae. After the tour of Gla, we went to Delphi, the site of the famous Oracle of Apollo and the centre of the Greek world. It had a theatre, temple, and stadium. The bus left at 7:00am and we returned at 8:30 - it was a very long ride there and back, but it was a good day.
Monday July 10th, I spent three hours sifting and then I added on to the plan we'd begun the previous week, with further bits of the wall having been uncovered. Later that evening, I inked the plan so it looks nice and neat. Tuesday July 11th was the worst day yet since I did nothing but sift; Katie was there almost the entire time as well. It was pretty atrocious and I'm hoping it doesn't happen again. Later that evening, at 5:30, we had a tour of the citadel, the main attraction of Mycenae. I saw it last summer but it was nice to see it again, especially with a couple of the staff acting as tour guides. We also got to see parts of it that were closed to the public.
Wednesday July 12th, Heidi took pity on me and Katie, because we'd done nothing but sift the previous day, and said we could wash the artifacts that hadn't been done the previous day because of the citadel tour. We were only too happy to comply. Katie did get sucked into the sift later on, but I was able to finish the rest by the 10:30 break. After the break, I helped measure out the westward extension of the trench, (which will be Trench 38), and we started clearing it out. We'll be working on levelling that down for a few days. Thursday and Friday, no sifting was done! Well, technically, a lot of hand-sifting was done, but this is where someone shovels dirt into a wheelbarrow, we do a quick look-see and repeat until the wheelbarrow is full. It goes by a lot faster, and there's so much dirt that sending our eight buckets of it to the sift would slow things down. After work on Friday, I went to Petite Planete, since I was invited by Vasiliki (who runs it and to whom I gave maple syrup to since she was so helpful to me and Ashley last year - I've visited a few times since I arrived this year.) It was lovely to end the week that way.
Saturday, July 16th:
Another field trip day, this time to Mistras (Byzantine fortification), Sparta (Sparta! One of the powerhouse city-states of ancient Greece) and Monemvasia. We didn't spend much time in Sparta, just saw the small archaeological museum, and on the return to Mycenae we stopped there again to take photos of the statue of Leonidas (famed leader of the expedition to Thermopylae and battle against the vast Persian army, subject of the movie 300). Monemvasia was the place to stroll and relax in - some people shopped, others visited the nearby island which has another Byzantine ruin on top, and I went with Allison, Lizzie, Amanda and Katie H. to the pebble beach. We spent a nice afternoon in the water and resting in the sun.
Sunday, July 17th:
Today's date - I took my chance to sleep in, and made sure to get up at 11:00am, even though I woke several times at 5:00am, 9:00 and 10:00. I had brunch by myself, which involved a book, fresh orange juice and a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. After wrapping up this post, I'll probably find a few others and hang out with them. It's really the first day off we've had with nothing planned to do, and I hope to enjoy it.
As for books, I'm on my fifth. I've read Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two Birds, Albert Camus' A Happy Death, Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals, and Michael Ondaatje's Divisadero. I am now working on F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night, which I'm enjoying so far.
This is a general outline of each workday:
5:00 - Wake up, get dressed
5:30 - small breakfast with team (orange juice, bread, nutella/butter, hard-boiled egg/ham and cheese)
6:00 - drive short way up hill, get dropped off and walk a small path down to site
10:30 - half-hour break to eat whatever you brought
1:30 - day ends, start packing up and walking to pick-up point, back at hotel by 2:00
2:15 - rinse off whatever dirt you can, change clothes
2:30 - lunch at Kolizeras restaurant
4:00 - back at hotel, shower and/or nap
5:00 - do work for trench masters (write reports, label photos, e-mail them); this can take up to two or three hours; may also include washing of artifacts found that day
8:00 - or therabouts, do dinner
9:30 - or therabouts, sleep.
So the day here is pretty full.
I'm in Trench 38/39. I'm working with Adrianos (trench master), Heidi (sector supervisor) and fellow team members Lizzie and Katie M., though Lizzie was moved to a second trench in the second week. We also have two Greek workers.
The first day went very slowly, because the staff were still kind of working out what to do and how to get started. We put down metre markers and made measurements for the trench. We started with Trench 39, and the workers started levelling it down. The objective of this trench was to find the corner of a wall that has already been uncovered - we need to know where it ends. Lizzie, Katie and I hand-sifted what the workers were digging up. It was slow-going and a bit tedious, since that's all we did that day. That evening, there were a couple of meetings between staff and team about the hotel, excavation and general expectations and standards for the month.
The two days after that were more of the same: hand-sifting, or going to the actual sift. The sift is an area with six sifts (grates with smaller holes) suspended by ropes - you empty out a bucket, shake out the excess dirt, go through what's left behind, deposit what's been found into bags and dump the rest into a wheelbarrow. I did get to help with the drawing of the extra wall that was found so far.
Thursday July 7th was a bit more productive, with shovelling, trowelling and taking buckets to the main sift, which I also worked that day.
Friday, the workers were extending the trench southward so that we could see if the wall was turning in that direction. On the west side of the trench was a rock pile, and it became apparent that we may need or want to excavate there, so Katie and I helped one of the workers toss part of the pile further west - after so much sifting, I don't think I was ever so excited to move rocks. After that, I sorted the Lithics pile with Heidi. Lithics means unusual-looking rocks that come up during the sifting process - those rocks can turn out to have been used for something, like a tool or blade. So Heidi told me what to look for: particular shapes, or worked edges. I successfully picked out seven likely possibilities, and the rest were discarded.
Saturday, July 9th:
Beach day! A popular destination for the program folks is to go to the beach in Karathona, which is near Nafplio. We took the 11:00 bus from Mycenae to Nafplio and from there a taxi to Karathona. We met up with people who were already there - they had gone to a club in Nafplio and slept on the beach in Karathona, so they had been there for a very long time already when we'd arrived. Some of them left at that point too, freeing up seats for us. We had lunch and drinks on the beach. The water's pretty nice, much warmer than Santorini. I got out to sunbathe and read, went back into the water one more time. A bit later we returned to Nafplio for dinner and gelato from the one certified gelaterie outside Italy. We returned to Mycenae by taxi.
Sunday, July 10th:
The first field trip day. We went to Gla, which is an ancient Mycenaean fortification and also the location of the other excavation overseen by the same college that controls the one in Mycenae. After the tour of Gla, we went to Delphi, the site of the famous Oracle of Apollo and the centre of the Greek world. It had a theatre, temple, and stadium. The bus left at 7:00am and we returned at 8:30 - it was a very long ride there and back, but it was a good day.
Monday July 10th, I spent three hours sifting and then I added on to the plan we'd begun the previous week, with further bits of the wall having been uncovered. Later that evening, I inked the plan so it looks nice and neat. Tuesday July 11th was the worst day yet since I did nothing but sift; Katie was there almost the entire time as well. It was pretty atrocious and I'm hoping it doesn't happen again. Later that evening, at 5:30, we had a tour of the citadel, the main attraction of Mycenae. I saw it last summer but it was nice to see it again, especially with a couple of the staff acting as tour guides. We also got to see parts of it that were closed to the public.
Wednesday July 12th, Heidi took pity on me and Katie, because we'd done nothing but sift the previous day, and said we could wash the artifacts that hadn't been done the previous day because of the citadel tour. We were only too happy to comply. Katie did get sucked into the sift later on, but I was able to finish the rest by the 10:30 break. After the break, I helped measure out the westward extension of the trench, (which will be Trench 38), and we started clearing it out. We'll be working on levelling that down for a few days. Thursday and Friday, no sifting was done! Well, technically, a lot of hand-sifting was done, but this is where someone shovels dirt into a wheelbarrow, we do a quick look-see and repeat until the wheelbarrow is full. It goes by a lot faster, and there's so much dirt that sending our eight buckets of it to the sift would slow things down. After work on Friday, I went to Petite Planete, since I was invited by Vasiliki (who runs it and to whom I gave maple syrup to since she was so helpful to me and Ashley last year - I've visited a few times since I arrived this year.) It was lovely to end the week that way.
Saturday, July 16th:
Another field trip day, this time to Mistras (Byzantine fortification), Sparta (Sparta! One of the powerhouse city-states of ancient Greece) and Monemvasia. We didn't spend much time in Sparta, just saw the small archaeological museum, and on the return to Mycenae we stopped there again to take photos of the statue of Leonidas (famed leader of the expedition to Thermopylae and battle against the vast Persian army, subject of the movie 300). Monemvasia was the place to stroll and relax in - some people shopped, others visited the nearby island which has another Byzantine ruin on top, and I went with Allison, Lizzie, Amanda and Katie H. to the pebble beach. We spent a nice afternoon in the water and resting in the sun.
Sunday, July 17th:
Today's date - I took my chance to sleep in, and made sure to get up at 11:00am, even though I woke several times at 5:00am, 9:00 and 10:00. I had brunch by myself, which involved a book, fresh orange juice and a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. After wrapping up this post, I'll probably find a few others and hang out with them. It's really the first day off we've had with nothing planned to do, and I hope to enjoy it.
As for books, I'm on my fifth. I've read Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two Birds, Albert Camus' A Happy Death, Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals, and Michael Ondaatje's Divisadero. I am now working on F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night, which I'm enjoying so far.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
CANADA DAY!
Friday, July 1:
Canadian pride! I wake up and put on a Canadian swimsuit, a CANADA shirt and maple leaf necklace - I am prepared to show my colours.
Our second full day on Santorini was to begin at the restaurant by the beach, called WAVES. We saw that they had crepes and would go well with the maple syrup I brought. Our instinct was correct. The crepes were tasty, and I had fresh orange juice to go with it. I left the remainder of the maple syrup with the owner of the restaurant, and he was pleasantly surprised. Afterward, we found free beach chairs on the black sand beach (free in both senses of the words - that they were empty and also did not cost anything to rent. There were more comfortable chairs nearby and those were also closer to the water that would've cost some euros.) We waded into the cold sea, and worked up the courage to take the dip. I did it first and Ashley took a while longer to immerse herself while I kept goading her. The beach is interesting because the floor isn't sand; it's, I presumed, some kind of solid lava, so it was smooth and sometimes slippery to walk on.
After the dip we rested and read in our beach chairs. It was a nice, relaxing way to spend the morning. At about 2:00 we returned to our hotel room and thought of what to do next. We kept the lazy theme going with a bit of computer usage and card games. Then we decided to go to Fera City and browse there a while. One guy wished me a Happy Canada Day, which was greatly pleasing. After dinner and sunset (marginally nicer than the one in Oia) we returned to Perissa. The Beach Bar advertised karaoke and free shots for Canadians. That turned out to be a free shot with purchase, so I decided to get a beer. I didn't volunteer myself for any singing but Ashley is a lover of karaoke. So she sang, with a group of others, Bohemian Rhapsody, and by herself sang Build Me Up Buttercup. Most of the other singers worked at the bar but there was a couple who would each sing a few songs and they were pretty decent.
Then back to the hotel and bed.
Friday, July 2:
Our boat was scheduled to leave at 11:40am, so taking into account embarkation time, the ride to the port and packing, there wouldn't be much time to do anything worthwhile. So we slept in until 9:30am. Our ride (provided for by one of the hotel owners) was to leave at 10:30 so we packed and waited until then. Once at the port, we had a quick bite to eat and waited for the boat.
It was about a four-hour ride back to Piraeus. We passed the time with cards, napping, and reading. At Piraeus, we returned to our first hotel and picked up our luggage, and from there went to the metro. Ashley got off at a different stop than I, so we said our goodbyes and promised to keep in touch while in Greece. I exited at Kato Patissia and walked to Hotel Xenophon. It's a nicer hotel than anything we stayed in during our time, and I bought a temporary Internet card there. I managed a Skype conversation with my father, which was very nice to have. After that I finished reading Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two Birds (bizarre novel but enjoyaqble) and went to bed.
Sunday, July 3:
The next morning I showered, packed and took my luggage down to meet with the rest of the group, who all seem pretty nice so far. A lot of them seem to know each other, but there are a few new ones like myself as well.
At about 2:00 we packed our stuff into a rented bus and were taken to Mycenae. The bus came from a different direction than I had when Ashley and I went last year, but once in town I recognized it. I'll be sharing a hotel room with two girls: Patricia and Amanda (who gets in later today.)
It's 4:15pm now, and I don't know yet what the plan is for the day, so I'm typing up this blog post and I guess I'll wait and see.
Canadian pride! I wake up and put on a Canadian swimsuit, a CANADA shirt and maple leaf necklace - I am prepared to show my colours.
Our second full day on Santorini was to begin at the restaurant by the beach, called WAVES. We saw that they had crepes and would go well with the maple syrup I brought. Our instinct was correct. The crepes were tasty, and I had fresh orange juice to go with it. I left the remainder of the maple syrup with the owner of the restaurant, and he was pleasantly surprised. Afterward, we found free beach chairs on the black sand beach (free in both senses of the words - that they were empty and also did not cost anything to rent. There were more comfortable chairs nearby and those were also closer to the water that would've cost some euros.) We waded into the cold sea, and worked up the courage to take the dip. I did it first and Ashley took a while longer to immerse herself while I kept goading her. The beach is interesting because the floor isn't sand; it's, I presumed, some kind of solid lava, so it was smooth and sometimes slippery to walk on.
After the dip we rested and read in our beach chairs. It was a nice, relaxing way to spend the morning. At about 2:00 we returned to our hotel room and thought of what to do next. We kept the lazy theme going with a bit of computer usage and card games. Then we decided to go to Fera City and browse there a while. One guy wished me a Happy Canada Day, which was greatly pleasing. After dinner and sunset (marginally nicer than the one in Oia) we returned to Perissa. The Beach Bar advertised karaoke and free shots for Canadians. That turned out to be a free shot with purchase, so I decided to get a beer. I didn't volunteer myself for any singing but Ashley is a lover of karaoke. So she sang, with a group of others, Bohemian Rhapsody, and by herself sang Build Me Up Buttercup. Most of the other singers worked at the bar but there was a couple who would each sing a few songs and they were pretty decent.
Then back to the hotel and bed.
Friday, July 2:
Our boat was scheduled to leave at 11:40am, so taking into account embarkation time, the ride to the port and packing, there wouldn't be much time to do anything worthwhile. So we slept in until 9:30am. Our ride (provided for by one of the hotel owners) was to leave at 10:30 so we packed and waited until then. Once at the port, we had a quick bite to eat and waited for the boat.
It was about a four-hour ride back to Piraeus. We passed the time with cards, napping, and reading. At Piraeus, we returned to our first hotel and picked up our luggage, and from there went to the metro. Ashley got off at a different stop than I, so we said our goodbyes and promised to keep in touch while in Greece. I exited at Kato Patissia and walked to Hotel Xenophon. It's a nicer hotel than anything we stayed in during our time, and I bought a temporary Internet card there. I managed a Skype conversation with my father, which was very nice to have. After that I finished reading Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two Birds (bizarre novel but enjoyaqble) and went to bed.
Sunday, July 3:
The next morning I showered, packed and took my luggage down to meet with the rest of the group, who all seem pretty nice so far. A lot of them seem to know each other, but there are a few new ones like myself as well.
At about 2:00 we packed our stuff into a rented bus and were taken to Mycenae. The bus came from a different direction than I had when Ashley and I went last year, but once in town I recognized it. I'll be sharing a hotel room with two girls: Patricia and Amanda (who gets in later today.)
It's 4:15pm now, and I don't know yet what the plan is for the day, so I'm typing up this blog post and I guess I'll wait and see.
Santorini!
Thursday, July 30:
We decided this would be our full sightseeing day. The first stop was to be ancient Thera. We had to take a bus from Perissa to the main hub in Fera and then another one to Kamari (which is actually right next to Perissa but, due to the mountain in between, isn't so easy to get to). At Kamari, there was another mini-bus to the top of the mountain. Walking was an option but one that we didn't take.
It's always interesting to see old sites preserved, and this is a very large, well-conserved place. It had an agora, a theatre, several temples and some animal engravings. There was also a great view, from the top, of the sea and cities below. At 2:15 the last mini-bus down came by and we lunched at the bottom.
We didn't really have a plan for after ancient Thera, but we figured Oia would be nice to see, so two more buses later we're there. When we got to the main road (with all the shops and restaurants) we saw the amazing little bookstore, Atlantis Books, and we were set to go in but when we saw the little kitty sleeping in a trunk of books, we were really excited to see some books! That's probably one of my favourite moments of this trip, just a small cat in books. Both Ashley and I came away with books, so already the trip to Oia was successful.
Most of the time there was spent walking up and down the road, looking in and out of the stores there. About half an hour before sunset, we staked out our spots on a low wall. We were soon glad that we'd waited early because the space filled up fast, as did all the spaces below that afforded a view of the sunset. The sunset in Oia is supposed to be excellent, and ideal because it's really the one place where the sun sets in the water instead of behind the volcano. When the sunset came... we weren't impressed. We'd seen far better ones at Porolissum. So perhaps the sun was just having an off day. It's funny though, people were clapping when it was over.
We were chatting with a girl there, who was sightseeing with her parents. We found out her parents were Romanian, and had an excited little talk with them about Romania. It was nice to have that small connection when neither of us would be seeing Romania this year.
We ate dinner in Oia and then caught the bus back to Fera and Perissa, thence to bed.
More later on Santorini.
We decided this would be our full sightseeing day. The first stop was to be ancient Thera. We had to take a bus from Perissa to the main hub in Fera and then another one to Kamari (which is actually right next to Perissa but, due to the mountain in between, isn't so easy to get to). At Kamari, there was another mini-bus to the top of the mountain. Walking was an option but one that we didn't take.
It's always interesting to see old sites preserved, and this is a very large, well-conserved place. It had an agora, a theatre, several temples and some animal engravings. There was also a great view, from the top, of the sea and cities below. At 2:15 the last mini-bus down came by and we lunched at the bottom.
We didn't really have a plan for after ancient Thera, but we figured Oia would be nice to see, so two more buses later we're there. When we got to the main road (with all the shops and restaurants) we saw the amazing little bookstore, Atlantis Books, and we were set to go in but when we saw the little kitty sleeping in a trunk of books, we were really excited to see some books! That's probably one of my favourite moments of this trip, just a small cat in books. Both Ashley and I came away with books, so already the trip to Oia was successful.
Most of the time there was spent walking up and down the road, looking in and out of the stores there. About half an hour before sunset, we staked out our spots on a low wall. We were soon glad that we'd waited early because the space filled up fast, as did all the spaces below that afforded a view of the sunset. The sunset in Oia is supposed to be excellent, and ideal because it's really the one place where the sun sets in the water instead of behind the volcano. When the sunset came... we weren't impressed. We'd seen far better ones at Porolissum. So perhaps the sun was just having an off day. It's funny though, people were clapping when it was over.
We were chatting with a girl there, who was sightseeing with her parents. We found out her parents were Romanian, and had an excited little talk with them about Romania. It was nice to have that small connection when neither of us would be seeing Romania this year.
We ate dinner in Oia and then caught the bus back to Fera and Perissa, thence to bed.
More later on Santorini.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Greece!
I realized that I never did finish the final post of last year's Romania trip, but all you really need to know is that Bucharest is not that great, but the trip itself was enjoyable.
What's important now is I am in Greece once more but for an excavation in Mycenae. However, before that excavation begins, I've met with my friend Ashley (she of the previous two years' Porolissum adventures) for a few days of travel in Greece before our separate programs begin.
My tale begins on Sunday, June 26th, which is when I left Toronto for Athens. My flight was at 2:35pm and was non-stop to Athens, landing at 7:10am. It was a pretty good flight, except I happened to be seated near a very chatty group of people and it included one woman with the most penetrating voice. I had an aisle seat on the left side of the plane, and shared those three seats with one other guy, so at least it was nice to not have an extra person there.
Upon landing in Athens, and after going through customs, I boarded a bus for Pireaeus. I think normally it's not a long trip but because I was there in the morning, it was probably rush hour, so there was a lot of traffic, and it took an hour to get to the port city. Once at the Hotel Argo Anita, I was able to check in directly to the room and all I had to do was hang out for a while and wait for Ashley to arrive. Her flight was scheduled to get in at 2:00pm, so I really was only supposed to have a few hours.
However, that would be too easy, of course. Her flight ended up being an hour late and it caused her to miss her connecting flight in Rome, so she had to wait another nine hours for her next flight to Athens. At the same time, I was concerned because I was just hearing about a potential (and likely) transit strike in Greece, which means buses, metro, trains, and ferries would be stopped. Ashley and I had already booked all our tickets and hotels for our two-island trip, so I wasn't sure what to do. At the time, I didn't know Ashley was having her flight difficulties, so I was considering switching the first ferry trip from the following day to making it the current day instead. But once I learned she would have to arrive the day of the strike, that was no longer a question. She ended up getting in at 3:00am. So we got to sleep in until 8:30 (instead of waking earlier for the original 7:30am ferry) and try to figure out what to do.
The original itinerary was one night on Mykonos and three nights on Santorini. We were unsure as to whether we could make Mykonos at all, and were then concerned with cancellations and refund policies. I'd spent a lot of time talking to the manager of our hotel, who was very helpful and had suggestions as to alternative plans. On the 27th, I talked to him again and explained that my friend had arrived much later than planned. He told me of a woman who came in and said that when she called her hotel on Mykonos to cancel it, that hotel told her the Rafina boats were still running. Rafina is one of the other ports in Greece, and it meant a glimmer of hope for us. Ashley and I went to the ferry offices to inquire as to our options between a few of the boat companies. We booked a ticket for later that evening in Rafina. On the one hand, it was great because we didn't have to miss out on Mykonos or cancel our reservations, but it did mean a lot less time there than was planned.
We left our large suitcases at the Piraeus hotel, so all we'd need to carry was a regular bag for the islands. It was an hour's taxi ride to Rafina (remember, neither the bus nor metro is running) and we had a little time to kill before the boat came. It happened to be a rather nice little place, with a cafe right by the port. We sat there, talked a while and played card games. Upon boarding the boat, we immediately made for the couch seats, so we would have room to stretch out and nap a little if we wanted to do so.
We got to Mykonos at about 10:30 and were picked up by the employees at Villa Vasilis. They were very nice people and let us know how to get around the town. Because of the strike, a lot of the people staying there had elected to extend their stay, so we couldn't get a normal two-bed room like we'd reserved, but we got a house instead! It was great, there were couches, a balcony, a little kitchen, five beds and a full bathroom. We decided it'd be great to just stay there for a month, but alas, we only had a night. Ashley had brought a small bottle of Italian wine that she'd picked up during her stopover in Rome, so we had that, and then went to bed.
Early the next morning, we woke and repacked our bags. It was decided that we would just check out right away so we wouldn't need to return to the room again, and would instead just gather them from reception storage before we needed to get to our 2:55pm boat ride. Maria, who works there and had picked us up the night before, said she would bring our bags to the port so we wouldn't waste time riding back for the bags.
Since we only had a few hours, we made it to the main attractions in the city centre, which were the windmills, Little Venice, and the various churches in that area. By pure chance, we found the archaeological museum; it was quite small, having only three rooms of artifacts, but still a nice little visit. There were lots of cafes, restaurants and shops there too, so we mostly meandered around and looked at the stuff for sale. What items we wanted to buy happened to be far too expensive. In fact, there was one necklace that I'd been looking at for a long time and I saw several of that kind here, but the cheapest (and nicest, in my opinion) was 300 euros, and that was the discount price! I was super sad to have to pass that up. The salesman said, "What, you don't have a credit card?" I replied, "I do, I just wouldn't be able to pay it off." Sad, but true. There was a large, golden variation of that necklace at other shops, but their discount price was something like 7000 euros. We wondered who really could afford shopping on Mykonos.
At 2:15 we went to the Old Port and waited for Maria to come with our things. When the time came and went, we started to get a little concerned. Ashley called Maria and asked what was happening, and Maria apparently was rather flustered and wondered why we weren't at the new port, where she'd sent her father with our things. Now we got really concerned, and asked whether we needed to make a quick walk to the new port to meet with her father. But Maria said she'd tell him to go to the Old Port. There were some communication issues but finally, about 2:45 her father showed up with our bags and we could then get in line for the boat. Maria later showed up and apologized for the confusion, stating that all the strikes and reservations were getting her a bit frazzled. We said it was understandable and parted ways there.
It was a three-hour ride to Santorini, and we also had a ride from our hostel manager there. We would be staying at Villa Dimitris in Perissa for three nights; it's a really pretty spot, and it's right near the black sand beach. We're certainly looking forward to trying out the beach. All we had time for this night though, was dinner and a couple of drinks. For once, it was wonderful to not have to worry about rushing someplace else the next day. On Santorini, we can take a little more time for travelling around.
And that's where we are right now. I'm about to go to sleep and I will hopefully update again soon.
What's important now is I am in Greece once more but for an excavation in Mycenae. However, before that excavation begins, I've met with my friend Ashley (she of the previous two years' Porolissum adventures) for a few days of travel in Greece before our separate programs begin.
My tale begins on Sunday, June 26th, which is when I left Toronto for Athens. My flight was at 2:35pm and was non-stop to Athens, landing at 7:10am. It was a pretty good flight, except I happened to be seated near a very chatty group of people and it included one woman with the most penetrating voice. I had an aisle seat on the left side of the plane, and shared those three seats with one other guy, so at least it was nice to not have an extra person there.
Upon landing in Athens, and after going through customs, I boarded a bus for Pireaeus. I think normally it's not a long trip but because I was there in the morning, it was probably rush hour, so there was a lot of traffic, and it took an hour to get to the port city. Once at the Hotel Argo Anita, I was able to check in directly to the room and all I had to do was hang out for a while and wait for Ashley to arrive. Her flight was scheduled to get in at 2:00pm, so I really was only supposed to have a few hours.
However, that would be too easy, of course. Her flight ended up being an hour late and it caused her to miss her connecting flight in Rome, so she had to wait another nine hours for her next flight to Athens. At the same time, I was concerned because I was just hearing about a potential (and likely) transit strike in Greece, which means buses, metro, trains, and ferries would be stopped. Ashley and I had already booked all our tickets and hotels for our two-island trip, so I wasn't sure what to do. At the time, I didn't know Ashley was having her flight difficulties, so I was considering switching the first ferry trip from the following day to making it the current day instead. But once I learned she would have to arrive the day of the strike, that was no longer a question. She ended up getting in at 3:00am. So we got to sleep in until 8:30 (instead of waking earlier for the original 7:30am ferry) and try to figure out what to do.
The original itinerary was one night on Mykonos and three nights on Santorini. We were unsure as to whether we could make Mykonos at all, and were then concerned with cancellations and refund policies. I'd spent a lot of time talking to the manager of our hotel, who was very helpful and had suggestions as to alternative plans. On the 27th, I talked to him again and explained that my friend had arrived much later than planned. He told me of a woman who came in and said that when she called her hotel on Mykonos to cancel it, that hotel told her the Rafina boats were still running. Rafina is one of the other ports in Greece, and it meant a glimmer of hope for us. Ashley and I went to the ferry offices to inquire as to our options between a few of the boat companies. We booked a ticket for later that evening in Rafina. On the one hand, it was great because we didn't have to miss out on Mykonos or cancel our reservations, but it did mean a lot less time there than was planned.
We left our large suitcases at the Piraeus hotel, so all we'd need to carry was a regular bag for the islands. It was an hour's taxi ride to Rafina (remember, neither the bus nor metro is running) and we had a little time to kill before the boat came. It happened to be a rather nice little place, with a cafe right by the port. We sat there, talked a while and played card games. Upon boarding the boat, we immediately made for the couch seats, so we would have room to stretch out and nap a little if we wanted to do so.
We got to Mykonos at about 10:30 and were picked up by the employees at Villa Vasilis. They were very nice people and let us know how to get around the town. Because of the strike, a lot of the people staying there had elected to extend their stay, so we couldn't get a normal two-bed room like we'd reserved, but we got a house instead! It was great, there were couches, a balcony, a little kitchen, five beds and a full bathroom. We decided it'd be great to just stay there for a month, but alas, we only had a night. Ashley had brought a small bottle of Italian wine that she'd picked up during her stopover in Rome, so we had that, and then went to bed.
Early the next morning, we woke and repacked our bags. It was decided that we would just check out right away so we wouldn't need to return to the room again, and would instead just gather them from reception storage before we needed to get to our 2:55pm boat ride. Maria, who works there and had picked us up the night before, said she would bring our bags to the port so we wouldn't waste time riding back for the bags.
Since we only had a few hours, we made it to the main attractions in the city centre, which were the windmills, Little Venice, and the various churches in that area. By pure chance, we found the archaeological museum; it was quite small, having only three rooms of artifacts, but still a nice little visit. There were lots of cafes, restaurants and shops there too, so we mostly meandered around and looked at the stuff for sale. What items we wanted to buy happened to be far too expensive. In fact, there was one necklace that I'd been looking at for a long time and I saw several of that kind here, but the cheapest (and nicest, in my opinion) was 300 euros, and that was the discount price! I was super sad to have to pass that up. The salesman said, "What, you don't have a credit card?" I replied, "I do, I just wouldn't be able to pay it off." Sad, but true. There was a large, golden variation of that necklace at other shops, but their discount price was something like 7000 euros. We wondered who really could afford shopping on Mykonos.
At 2:15 we went to the Old Port and waited for Maria to come with our things. When the time came and went, we started to get a little concerned. Ashley called Maria and asked what was happening, and Maria apparently was rather flustered and wondered why we weren't at the new port, where she'd sent her father with our things. Now we got really concerned, and asked whether we needed to make a quick walk to the new port to meet with her father. But Maria said she'd tell him to go to the Old Port. There were some communication issues but finally, about 2:45 her father showed up with our bags and we could then get in line for the boat. Maria later showed up and apologized for the confusion, stating that all the strikes and reservations were getting her a bit frazzled. We said it was understandable and parted ways there.
It was a three-hour ride to Santorini, and we also had a ride from our hostel manager there. We would be staying at Villa Dimitris in Perissa for three nights; it's a really pretty spot, and it's right near the black sand beach. We're certainly looking forward to trying out the beach. All we had time for this night though, was dinner and a couple of drinks. For once, it was wonderful to not have to worry about rushing someplace else the next day. On Santorini, we can take a little more time for travelling around.
And that's where we are right now. I'm about to go to sleep and I will hopefully update again soon.
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