Remember that time we went to Paros? Yeah, neither do I...

Thursday was probably one of the strangest days of my life. Not necessarily in a good way...or in a bad way, I suppose. Just in a strange way. We left the site early, so that we could get on the train and go to Pareis, which is where a lot of the ferries to the Greek islands leave from. Our plan was to go to Paros, a small island in the Cyclades, for our free weekend adventure. We had our hotel all booked and ready to go for the next three days, and were getting excited about the island life. The hour and a half train ride to the port went surprisingly well considering our recent bad luck with traveling. However, when we arrived at the port, we found out that all of the tickets to Paros were sold out. Apparently you have to buy tickets for the ferry more than 2 hours ahead of time. Who knew? So we waited around for another hour and a half to see if there were any cancellations (there weren't) at which point we decided to abandon our Paros plans and head back to Corinth.

This is where there would be beautiful island pics but instead there is an image of our boat leaving without us...

Unfortunately, the next train from Pareis didn't leave for another 2 hours, so we went and got little cheese pastries from a café and waited it out. Eventually, we made it on the train, where we had a semi-unfortunate run-in with the Greek mob and stopped once because there was a man sleeping in the tracks. We are convinced that we are cursed with bad travel vibes. Anastasia must have felt bad for us because she made us a tasty dinner to try and make us feel better. And it was so good that it truly did.

Cliff jumping and Cookouts

At the site Wednesday, I did a bit of work with object photography. It was an interesting experience; there are a lot of different rules and things to take into consideration when photographing artifacts. You want to have as accurate a photo as possible, so you need to use a very long depth of field and play with lighting and shadows in order to represent all of the small details of the piece. I actually found it quite enjoyable. After work, we went to an area along the coast where we could jump off of the small cliffs into the sea. Knowing me, I was pretty nervous about it, but I eventually stopped over thinking and just jumped. It was fun, but I was done after two jumps. Especially when the wind and waves picked up. 

Brittany and I on top of the cliff we jumped from

After risking our lives for the thrill of it, we got all cleaned up and headed over to the home of Tim and Lita, our dig director and his wife, for a small cookout. The food was delicious, and everyone who had been at the site the past few weeks was there. There was also a Greek Archaeologist there who showed us pictures of his work excavating graves along the highways. He showed us some very interesting things, many of which we would've never had access to. We were pretty lucky to get the chance to see them.

The Most Important Meal of the Day

Tuesday. Was. HOT. Like too hot for the beach hot. At least for me, a few of the others decided to go fry at the beach...it was a pretty uneventful day at the site, I did some more scanning and worked on researching and writing up some content for the tour. We ran into some software issues, so we are looking at other platforms, and have pretty much decided I won't be able to finish building it this summer. Which is kind of a bummer, but that's life, I suppose. After working in the hot all day, the only thing I wanted to do was go back to the hotel and sit in the ac. So that is precisely what I did. It was my turn to make dinner for the group, so I made (what else) breakfast for dinner! We had fresh melon, cheesy eggs with green peppers, sausages, and pancakes. The pancakes really were Jon's masterpieces, to give credit where it's due. All of this deliciousness was topped off by a 7 euro bottle of authentic "Vertmont" syrup. No, that's not a typo, in case you were wondering. It was a quite good meal, if I do say so myself. And for only 20 euro total!

my beautiful brinner

Out Here in the Field

Monday was a very exciting day at work because...we actually got to go do work in the field! Unfortunately, Isthmia doesn't have any dig permits this year, so we unfortunately didn't get to do any excavating. But we did get to go out and catalog and draw old pieces of recycled architecture so that Jon can study them more closely. It was pretty neat to kick around and see the different pieces of architecture and try to figure out where they may have come from and what they may have been used for. We even found a few that matched each other, which was kind of exciting. Even though it was super hot out, I appreciated the chance to get out and do a little bit of fieldwork. 

working out in the field

Brittany even found a tiny puppy friend who hung out with us for a little while. She wanted to take her home to the States, but Jon turned that down pretty quickly. We were all hot and cranky after work, so Jon took us to the beach and we cooled off in the sea. It felt incredible. For dinner, we went to this little food stand just down the road from the hotel and got souvlaki, which is basically like delicious Greek shish kabobs. 

Oracles, Mountains, and Monks

Sunday was a very full day. We started it off right with a nutella-laden breakfast at the hotel, and then headed back up the mountains to the site of Delphi. Oh Delphi, what an interesting place. It has a very interesting history; the Greeks believed that it was the center of the entire world, it was one of the four original sites of the Panhellenic games, and people came from everywhere to ask the Oracle their questions. Because of the importance of the site, many interesting archaeological finds have been made there. 

the gang at Delphi

temple to Apollo

The interesting thing is that even though the French have been digging at Delphi for years and years now, and they still have no clue where the Oracle did her thing. Strange, huh? There are a ton of really interesting treasuries and dedications at the site, and the theater and stadium were really neat to see as well. We also met a cat whom we believed to be Apollo. He was laying in the sun outside the temple, so who else could he be?

Apollo in cat form

ancient inscription reads "No drinking wine beyond this point"

theater at Delphi

It was kind of strange to actually see the site and realize that it's REALLY on a mountain. People must have been crazy/really wanted an Oracle in order to climb up that baby. It was a hike. Not to mention that it was HOT. Of course all of us left our water bottles in the van, too, so we were suffering pretty hard for a while. At the bottom of the mountain, in front of the museum was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen: a slushy stand. Best slushy I had ever tasted. Worth every penny of the ridiculously high 4 euro price. Every penny. Inside the museum were a number of very cool artifacts, including a huge sphinx, and the famous bronze statue of the charioteer. The museum was very nicely done, too. 

the charioteer

Jon is not licensed...oops

After we had seen all there was to see, we headed to the little mountain village of Arachova for lunch and some shopping. Oh, and the taverna we ate at had out food delivered via tiny elevator. It was vey exciting. On our way back to Corinth, we stopped at a monastery called Hosios Loukas. We had to change in the parking lot in order to make ourselves monastery-friendly. It was a beautiful place; the inside of the church had tons of beautiful icons and stonework. Not to mention a dead saint or two...

inside the church

candle I lit in the church

I filled up my water bottle at this spring with a mix of the water from Delphi and the Monastery. That water had to have had some sort of magic...

spring at the monastery

After the monastery, we continued on our journey back to Loutra Elenis, and were all absolutely exhausted by the time we returned.

On the Top of the World

On Saturday, I climbed a mountain. Now, let me be clear, in America when we say "I climbed a mountain," it usually means "I walked up a nicely cleared, marked trail to the summit." In Greece, it means something entirely different. For one, there are a lot fewer "trails." Actually, you're usually better off not taking the trails, as they are quite slippery. I have learned that Greece is a very slippery place. It's also very pokey; all of the plants here have either thorns or brambles. It's like the country wants you to be uncomfortable. The number of times I actually thought I was going to die was way too high. But...the view and sense of accomplishment I felt at the top made it all worth it. 

view from the cave

Jon took us up to an old cave, where soldiers used to be posted for lookout. There were inscriptions (basically ancient graffiti) there from the 1600's and earlier. It was amazing. We even found some more bones, which I'm beginning to accept happens with alarming frequency here. Katie identified them as goats. Bones are her thing. 

inscriptions in the cave

Katie and her bones

After the beyond treacherous descent, we sat with Aristides at a small café, and then headed back to the hotel. About an hour later, we all reunited to begin our trip to Itea, where we were staying the night before we visited Delphi on Sunday. It was an extremely long and nervewracking but beautiful drive up through the mountains and back down to the coast. The Greeks don't believe in guardrails, even in the mountains (which is not surprising in the least). Our little hotel was pretty nice and was very near to the water. We spent the night relaxing and enjoying the little town of Itea. 

town of Itea

We all ate together at a place called Pizza House (I'm not kidding), which had a very interesting owner who spoke perfect English. We had a good time chatting with him about all sorts of things.

Adventure and Cheese

Friday was a rather high thrills day at the site. Personally, I was just geeked that I finally put all of the stops of the tour onto the software we are using, so even though we don't have full content, we at least have all the stops. One step at a time, I guess. However, Jon made the day even more exciting when he pulled out a key to the locked door behind the dig house, and told us to go explore some ancient underground reservoirs. 

The doorway to adventure

Naturally, we scurried off, eager to escape scanning for a while in lieu of (semi)epic adventure. Down some creepy stairs, there was a chamber and some more tunnels. Slugs (or "naked snails" as they're called here in Greece) bigger than I've ever seen slugged their slug slime all over the walls, and spindly-legged spiders covered the ceiling. 

Looking out from the tunnels

Over and over in my Intro to Archaeology class, they kept telling us "Archaeology is not like Indiana Jones." They must be doing something very very wrong, because this place was straight out of the Last Crusade...there was even a snake (dead, thankfully). In the evening, we went out to dinner with Jon's friend Aristides, whom we are coming to believe is possibly the most interesting man in the world, to this delicious restaurant by the sea. We had probably some of the best food I've ever eaten in my life. Including this feta in phyllo covered in honey in sesame seeds which made me rethink everything I ever thought about life.