Blogs from Thessaly, Greece, Europe - page 2

We are at least three weeks into this lab season... Three weeks has equated to quite a number of things. A full human analysis from a grave at our main site. An informal lecture on the findings of this analysis for our crew. A formal lecture on these findings to the students. And then a very formal lecture on the findings, in Greek, at a public engagement event in Farsala (http://www.farsala.gr/2012-04-09-13-35-43/anakoinwseis/item/2286-kastro-kallitheas-etisia-ekdilosi-parousiasis-tou-arxaiologikou-ergou). I have reviewed over 1200 bags of previously-analysed animal bone: recording basic findings, comparing spatial diagnostics, and removing tooth samples for my study. I have started conducting my own analysis on over 1000 animal bone fragments (to date) from the second site, half of which required duplicate analyses when my hard-drive crashed (lesson learned on backing up fi... read more

As I sit at the local Ouzerie, I am reminded of how powerful the actions of humans can be, regardless of the language... We are a rather large group of foreigners in a very small village. When we move to Narthaki, we become over 6% of the population (on estimate). Sitting at the Ouzerie we are scattered, but very clearly take over half the restaurant as the students work on their field/lab journals and the volunteers catch up on home and our research projects. A family came in just after siesta, including older women, men, and even some younger children. The amount of women struck me as odd, as the Ouzerie is mostly populated by middle- to late-aged men (minus our group, and the women who work here, as it is a family run establishment). As ... read more

Woolly says – Our train from Athens departed exactly on time although finding our seats proved a tad more bothersome, being British we just plonked ourselves down in the first two we came to only to be told that we were sat in someone else’s seat at which point it dawned on us that it was allocated seating. Slight hitch, we were in wagon 4 and our seats were in wagon 2, I raced down the train and seemed to leave my backpacking pair way behind me........ Bearing in mind the size of our backpacks we had to wait for people to sit down rather than knock them down! Woolly says - ........I sped into the correct part of the train and quickly located our seat numbers, it seemed to take an age for the other’s ... read more

After a few days enjoying the wonderful hospitality of Atsuko's old friends in Bulgaria doing nothing more than drinking too much home-made wine and rakia, and overeating delicious local food it was time to move on again. First stop in Greece was Thessaloniki. Our first impression from the walk between the bus station and hotel was that the economy was in better shape than we'd expected, sure there were a lot of empty shops – like almost everywhere these days, but the streets weren't lined with homeless children, nurses turned hookers, or abandoned Porsche's. Our only full day here turned out to be a public holiday, surely one of the strangest. October 28 is 'Οχι Day (όχι translates to no) which celebrates the refusal of the Greek government on October 28 1940 to allow Italian and ... read more

Up to get the 9am coach (Meteora Thrones, highly recommended) - & they were on time! A glorious Merc mini bus, leather seats, cherry trim, a driver called Carlos & our guide, Dimitri who spoke good English, Italian & Romanian having lived in both countries before & doubtless smatterings of other languages too. (He also had 2 degrees – botany & International Banking) We shared this 20 seater with just 2 Italians, also from the site. The trip was just fantastic – just the right length in 4 ½ hours. We visited 2 monasteries & 1 nunnery all of which are right on the top of the sandstone mountains, 400 metres high. Apparently it is the second most visited area in Greece after the Parthenon. Dimitri was very knowledgeable & knew the place inside out having ... read more