When we first arrived at Athens International Airport, we made for the train station to take us to Kiato which was the seaside town near our site. The night before, we hadn't slept at all and for me, I went on a field trip in the morning. So imagine, after 30+ hours of no sleep and little food, you land in a new country and all of a sudden find yourself staring at a sign like this:
Strange thoughts begin to go through your mind.
And on the train, we were mostly like this:
Except for me, who was running around annoying people by photographing their sleepy faces.
When we arrived at Kiato, we were told that the school in Vasilico (small village up on the plateau where the site is located) was not yet ready for us to move in. So we had to wait it out at the beachside restaurant. By that time, we were too tire to be more tired and so became hyper instead.
The beach was very nice. And after we had rested well, we could enjoy it properly. Here is Jess, being swamped by a Greek wave.
The Sikyon Survey Project is a very international one. This season, we had people like me from York, some Irish, some Canadians and Americans and some Greeks. From York, there was me, the Singaporean, Pedro, the Portuguese brought up in Aussieland, Marieke the Belgian and Michael the American who were not English.
When the Greeks arrived, we were taken on a tour of the part of Ancient Sikyon that had already been excavated.
Here, you can see the ancient theatre. We field walked the plateau just above this place during the first 2 weeks or so. Once, I threw an orange from the plateau edge and it bounced all the way downhill to land here.
At the Apothiki (storage place) we were given a talk on different types of pottery. This place was across the road from the school and we usual spent 3 hours in the evening washing the little pieces of pottery found that day. Of course, I had to do stupid things like using the handle of a big pot as a telephone.
This is the Kiato pebble beach:
First day of work, sorting pottery.
The most dangerous thing in Greece are the thorny plants. You have to walk into them because you aren't supposed to go off the line when surveying. So, for the sake of accurate archaeology, we had to. These evil mother***kers poke right through any kind of trousers. Pat (the geophysics guy from York, gets blood poisoning every year because he has to walk through more of these than anyone else)
The only good thing about being out in the field by 6am every morning was that we got to see the spectacular sunrises. Simply magnificient.
This is Michael. He is the King of Fashion, Guru of Good Taste.
The height of my career as a Japanese tourist/Papparazzi was when I made a wildy succesful video of Dan and Mike rubbing suncream on each other's naked backs.
When traveling in Pat's car between Kiato and Vasillico, the tiny 4-seater car usually transported 6 people, usually with me in the boot.
Yanni is a funny guy from Cyprus. He worships everything. One day, he made a mosquito from an olive and started worshipping it. He also liked to worship me when I sat on the window sill to read.
Sunset by the sea.
One day, a kitten hid under the wooden platform in the courtyard and mewed the whole night. The next morning, the Kitten Catchers were called in. Here're Pat and Gary who eventually managed to get the kitten into the box and release it somewhere near where we thought its mother was.
This is the windy road up from the village to the plateau. We went up this every morning in the back of a lorry.
We visited Corinth. On this mountain, you can see the Acropolis.
Ruins.
There is this place in the village, if you walk right to the end of the plateau, where you have a fantastic view of the plain and right to the sea.
Another sunrise.
My moment of fame. I found a Doric column that got the supervisors extremely excited because it confirmed the presence of a temple.
On the 5 of July, the sea was rough.
They were crazy about the Hookah pipe. Tobacco smoke filtered through the water at the bottom of the glass thing.
This was how we did our laundry.
This is the love triangle. Girl on my left is a Greek babe, girl on my right is Jess from York. I'm sorry, XY!
Me, pretending to be Jess
Dinner was like this every night.
Work was like that. This was the very last day. They made us work right to the end. I'm the one in blue.
When they had too much to drink and too much cheesy music on the airwaves, they danced with tools.
Seems like this is as many pictures as Blogger allows me to upload in one entry. So I guess this is all you're getting! Haha hope they were entertaining.
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