Reasons to celebrate: protien, day off, hello's, goodbye's, and birthdays!

BBQ Festivities outside the Yali!

Just because I’m staying at a hotel on a beach, swimming in the black sea and eating unnatural amounts of halva and baklava doesn’t mean I am not working hard. We are all working extremely hard, waking at five thirty, leaving at six thirty and not coming home until three pm, and then just taking a short shower break and then beginning various office, artefact cleaning, drawing and database work until supper at 7:30. I’m in bed most days by 10. This is why these blog posts are so delayed. The work is so physical that we are exhausted, and although we all love it, we were desperate for a day off. Generally we get one day a week, however this week we switched our off day to Wednesday meaning we have now worked for nine days in a row. However, it was well worth the wait!

There were lots of things to celebrate, namely the ability to sleep in, but also my roommate Fiona’s birthday, and the new arrival, Michele’s birthday. It was also a farewell celebration to Toby, Emre, and the other Turkish students who were leaving, and also a welcoming celebration for the arrival of some new temporary team members. Michele is an archaeologist living in Ankara from Italy, Hugh (pronounced basically like a grunt) is a geophysicist from the Netherlands, Morad is a classical archaeologist from nearby Kastamonu, and another guy whose name I won’t even bother to butcher is a Palaeolithic specialist from Greece. It’s great to have new people on our ever changing team, but sad to see the rest leave. I have plans to visit Emre in Kilise Teppe where he is excavating on my travels, but for the rest, including two of my roommates and two of my survey team members, it was a final goodbye! Therefore we all decided it was fitting to have a hello/goodbye/birthday BBQ on Tuesday, and enjoy a quiet, well deserved, and hung-over day off on Wednesday!

The barbeque was a huge success, and it’s hard to describe how anticipated it was. At this point of the trip we had been at just over two weeks of a purely rice, beans, broth and bread diet. Literally. Protein seemed like a distant memory, making this barbeque even more epic. That being said, I think by any standards (not just the Cide malnourished) this barbeque was of epic proportions. Michele who is Italian made his famous bruschetta on the grill, and there was garden salad and potato salad made by our favourite Scot, Fiona. We also had roasted red peppers and grilled eggplant to kick things off. Next came the main courses, marinated chicken sis, lamb and lamb fat sis, kofte (small Turkish ground beef patties), and sausage… all grilled to perfection! This was all paired with beer, my ultra-classy eight lira red wine, and raki! Raki is the “official” Turkish beverage of sorts, it’s a 40 percent white liquor that tastes like a harsher version of Sambuca and it is normally mixed with water to dilute it, the interesting part is it turns from clear to cloudy when the water is added!

BBQ Heaven!

Raki!

Unfortunately my plans to sleep in the next morning were squashed by my internal clock, which will not let me sleep past six am, although even this is an extra hour for me now. However, this was a good thing because it meant that I was able to say a final farewell as the Turkish student’s left on the morning dolmus (shuttle bus) to Kastamonu.

The A-Team before the goodbyes! Sercan, Bleda, Bus, Gwen and myself! Two Turkish, two dutch, one Canadian!

Despite the early wake up, our day off was very relaxing. I really needed this. Myself, Fiona and Gwen headed straight to the beach and paid ten Lira to have our own beach beds and umbrellas, with ice-cream and some soda in hand we set up camp and spent the entire morning and afternoon reading in the sun and swimming in the black sea. Absolute perfection! It was nice to be able to be in the sun without wearing all my field gear, although, my original goal of coming back a bronzed goddess has failed miserably… I managed a lovely lobster red colour which has now peeled to look like I’m plagued with vitiligo. Sexy.

The remainder of the day was spent in town, where we had food in town and did some shopping. I had a great chicken sis marinating in a spicy tomato sauce. As for the shopping myself and Fiona went our separate ways, as I am not overly interested in the touristy shops which are all the same. Instead we headed straight to the bakeries. These are true Turkish gems, filled with amazing cookies, pasteries and sweets! I bought some baklava (words cannot fully express my love for authentic baklava), and some pistachio sweets (EVERYTHING here has pistachio in it… I’m never leaving!), and got some cherry and chocolate homemade ice-cream for the road. My one Cide souvenir was a dress in the traditional Cide fabric, everywhere you go in Cide you will see this yellow patterned fabric and most gift shops have babies and girls dresses made in the print. The beachside kiosk by our hotel had some of these girls dresses so I pointed to one and then pointed to myself, eventually he got the idea that I was asking if they came in my size, he laughed a bit but told me to come back the next day… the next day I came back to find a custom made dress in my size! It’s actually a great summer dress and I can’t wait to wear it, although I will wait until I leave Cide!

Marinated chicken sis for lunch in town! Yum!

We finished our day off with supper back at the base, where we had a suprise baklava and birthday cake for the birthday duo, topped with some specail birthday gifts!

...... Happy Birthday Fiona and Michele?

Birthday gifts! (Note: Fiona is wearing the Cide fabric head scarf I mentioned above!)

Alrighty, that’s all for now… my next post will be more of a photo essay, since I think pictures do the survey landscape more justice than my words ever could!

Wait, are we here voluntarily? Mayors visits and the end of intensive surveying

BABY TURTLE! So glad I didn't step on you (surveying has trained me to look at my feet at all times)

This has been a long time coming, but here I am with yet another mashup blog post! As I write this, the intensive part of our survey campaign has been completed, and the extensive survey work is well underway, but first let me catch you all up from where my last post left off.

After completing our survey work in the nearby village, we left for Senpazar, which was in the next province over, yet still under an hour drive away. The first day we were able to sleep an extra hour, having breakfast at 7:30, what a treat! This was because before taking to the field the project directors had to go speak to local officials, and perform various other formalities which include lots of hand shaking and cups of tea, just to let everyone know we were there, what we were doing, and why. During this time the other students and myself decided to wander into the town centre and have some tea at a local shop. This is when everything got a little bizarre. We were summoned to a table where a middle age man sat and he ordered us all tea, this is a very common gesture in Turkey, and through Selim, who is bilingual, he began to ask us questions: where are we from? How do we like Turkey? Just the usual tourist questions. The his questions became increasingly more detailed and he got out a notepad, taking each of our names, where we were born, and where we studied. He commented on the prestige of each of my colleagues’ universities, and when he came to Memorial University of Newfoundland he said “what’s this? This sounds like a hospital”. The whole scenerio seemed slightly fishy to me, and next thing I knew we were being taken across town to a small “Museum” of sorts. The man was very proud of this local museum which included a tredging sled (whose flakes seem to be the only lithics we ever find in the field) and some creepy white mannequins dressed up in the Cide yellow printed fabric, and some other various nic-nacks with little historical purpose. After this visit we were led to another building, which turned out to be the local government office. This is when things got very weird…

Mud on our boots, grass stains on our cargos, we were led into this fancy office with leather chairs and a board table, as well as an impressive desk well decorated with official photographs. This was when we found out the man we had been drinking tea with was actually a regional politician. At first we thought this was quite cool, he continued asking us questions and was very kind, offering us sweets, tea and coffee and showing us youtube videos of local traditional dancers. But after an hour we were feeling restless and wondering where the directors were. Not speaking any Turkish we were all a little confused, and began wondering when we could leave. In total we spent about three hours stuck in this office, finally the directors showed up, and after they also had tea, they collected up our residency booklets to show some officials and we were able to finally leave for the field. The sequence of events still does not entirely make sense to me.

Having some tea... before things got wierd!

In other news, the rest of the intensive survey has been excellent, it’s just amazing to wake up every morning at the crack of dawn, when the air is cool and crisp and set out on a new adventure, surveying the beach, modern and ancient cemeteries, coastal mountains, farmers’ fields, caves, forests, valleys and so much more. Our finds have been slightly frustrating, as the archaeological interest of the project is the areas prehistory, yet all we are finding are an abundance of Roman and Early Byzantine cooking vessels, amphorae fragments and roof tiles. This is equally frustrating for me, as I am the only one on the project dealing with the material from this time period, leaving me pretty overwhelmed. We meet a lot of interesting locals, many who bring us snacks and tell us stories, or offer to guide us to local caves and castles. I am continually impressed by the elderly in rural Turkey, and it makes me feel like old people in the Western world are just pathetically lazy. Such as the 70 men crossing fast current rivers to lead us to caves, 80 year old women appearing out of the bramble, cutting it with a sickle, and climbing over fences with wicker baskets of corn on their back, happy as can be and getting a huge chuckle out of us all stumbling through the field. Despite all the rain, we have had some beautiful days of surveying, and have seen some beautiful sites, highlights for me hiking under a beautiful waterfall, making some lovely animal friends including, cows, sheep, huge tortoises, baby turtles, huge snails, beautiful beetles, donkeys, horses, birds, and frogs! One of the last days of the intensive campaign we found some lithic, primarily flint bi-flakes, and other worked flint fragments. We set up a formal grid to survey the field, one of the few of the project, which mostly consists of basic field walking, in hopes of finding more and getting a better idea of its presence.

An epic seventy eight year old lady who could hike though bramble better than us, with a basket of corn on her back!

The end of intensive Survey has been bittersweet, as I really enjoyed pushing myself, and hiking every day, however I am looking forward to some of the sites that are to come, and also to have some rest and be able to work from the base on my database and ceramic drawing a few days a week. The extensive part of the project will be made up of specific site visits, such as caves and kales (Castles), and not everyone will be in the field each day as office work and research is piling up, and needs to be completed before the final leg, the study season, begins.

Beach/Graveyard Survey

Graveyard eroding away into the beach, yay human remains!

Beautiful view! I love my work!

That’s all for now folks, I apologise for the jumpy post, I promised my next one will be more focused… next up will be the first of our goodbyes, the arrival of new archaeologists, our day off in Cide and the fabulous celebration BBQ and Cide festival! So much excitement!

Aurora

Rain, rain, go away, I’d rather see Amasara on a sunny day!

Amasara from the road

My shoes never had the chance to dry after the survey trek through the river, as the rain began, and it didn’t stop. It rarely rains in this area during the summer (so I’ve been told), however, this season seems to be the exception as we have had plenty of stormy weather (so don’t be too jealous of me St. John’s). Luckily I brought my brand new, super attractive, lime green rain jacket and have my water resistant cargo pants, so I managed to stay at least partially dry, which was a nice contrast to the lake which had collected in my socks, shoes and gaiters. Unfortunately, with the rain came a change of plans, as the wind and rain was so strong it became clear that it was too dangerous to drive the already treacherous coastal roads. We had to abandon the village we were working in and instead surveyed in the low land area, hoping to find traces of the old Roman roads and bridge. We had no luck with this, and instead wandered into the nearby forest area, however we quickly left this area after seeing a wild boar and later hearing what could have been a boar den with babies, which would be quite dangerous to get in-between. We settled on exploring the village area, meeting lots of locals who let us into their gardens to photograph stone wash basins, or pillar bases from old churches which were used as garden décor. One family pointed us into the direction of what they called Soldier graves, likely Byzantine, and also showed us some of their own archaeological finds which included some pretty (yet completely useless) rocks, but also some interesting pipes, which I was able to date to the Turkish Venetian period thanks to my handy dandy Byzantine Artefacts Field Guide which Dr. Cassis gifted me before I left. The guide book is written by Joanita Vroom, who I will get to meet in a few weeks when I go to Istanbul for the Akvat Conference. We tried to go back to the original site the next day, but realised the roads had begun to erode away and we weren’t able to drive up the cliff. Otherwise surveying has gone on as usual, just with added wetness and mud. My brand spanken new merrell boots have now stretched out due to wearing them in the rain and are completely covered in mud, which makes me quite sad… but I guess that’s what hiking boots are for!

The plus side of terrible stormy weather is that the waters were equally as rough, and tons of fun. The normally calm aqua waters turned red with mud and the waves were crashing up over the roads in some places. So of course, myself and the other students made our way to the beach to frolic in the largest waves I have ever seen. I went out to my knees and waves were nearly crashing above my head. So much fun, but the novelty was lost quickly. We did manage to get some great pictures though.

Waves on our beach!

Unfortunately, our first day off (we get one a week) was also a miserable day. However, we still woke up early and drove to Amasara for a day trip. Amasara is two and a half hours outside of Cide, and is a beautiful Black Sea coastal down which is a hub for local tourism. In its history Amasara was called Seasmus by the Phoenician’s and spent time under both Persian and Macedonian sovereignty, later changing its name to Amasatris who was a Persian Princess who was married to Alexander The Greats comrade, Krateos. Amasara continued to have a turbulent history, changing hands many time between Arab groups, Byzantines, and Genoese who finally rebuilt the city in the 12^th century, realising its trading potential. Today the town is a picturesque vacation spot, with Roman and Byzantine fortifications, quiet cobblestone streets, beautiful quaint coastal homes, delicious fish restaurants and markets, as well a tourism driven bazaar. Even in the rain it was breathtaking, I would love to live here. It’s the Peggy’s Cove of Turkey.

Amasara

Our visit began with the local Amasara Museum, which we all really enjoyed. The Museum is small, only four rooms, but is immaculate inside and has a great garden with Roman and Greek stele, grave stones, sarcophagi, and various ancient statues. The museum itself had displays of Roman and Byzantine pottery, jewellery, ethnographic artefacts such as rugs and traditional dress, as well as large items like pithoi, amphorae, and statues of past emperors. It also had a small collection of historical items, including Turkish Venetian pipes similar to what we found during our Survey.

Outside the Amasara Museum

After the Museum visit, we walked through the town to find a place to eat lunch, settling on a place near the waterfront and fish market, which served us an array of salads and fried fish. Fish is a staple on the Black Sea, although we almost never are given fish at our base which seem to be jipping us in the meal department, so it was a great treat. The fish were lightly fried in a batter, the platters had four different types of fish including small anchovies which could be eaten whole, and medium sized fish which needed to be deboned and decapitated before eating. We were also given this fluffy pistachio cotton candy type sweet after dinner, which I have made my mission to hunt down again.

Black Sea Fishies!

After lunch we continued our walk through the town, which included a short visit to two Byzantine churches – turned mosques, as well as a Roman bridge fortification which was a beautiful contrast to the modern pastel coloured vacation homes, and cobblestone roads which surrounded it. We ended our walk with the local shops and Bazaar which was a street market for tourists. I bought some pastries but avoided the tourist trap shops, most of which didn’t sell anything remotely Turkish. I found flasks that said Kentucky Whiskey, statuettes of the Eiffel Tower, as well as first nation bows and head masks. It was a one stop shop for world travelers.

Amasara from the Roman fortification

Sorry for the long delay with blog posts, I seem to be in bed by 9:30 most nights… the 5am wake up calls and ten hour work days are getting to me! Next up will be another mashup of surveying and our impromptu mayor’s office visit!

Aurora vs Street Dog, Rabies needles, not so much a time.

Ice Cream times before dog scratching times.

One thing that always breaks my heart when I travel outside of Canada is the amount of stray cats and dogs (mostly dogs, because let’s face it, cats are evil anyways) there are in the cities. There are swarms of them on every corner, wandering alone, sleeping on the streets, and scavenging for food. It’s incredibly sad to see, and I feel so bad for the dogs, but it’s also a great health risk as well. Stray animals can spread many terrible diseases to each other, as well as humans and its curious to me why this problem isn’t controlled.

Although I love animals, I always leave strays alone when I travel for safety reasons. However, after being in Cide for only a few days I had an encounter with a street dog that caused some stress. After walking along the pier for some homemade gooey (yes, gooey) icecream with some of the students, we decided to go into the town centre to see if the shops were still open, although it was getting dark and was quite late. The street dogs are more prevalent and braver in the night time as the streets are quieter, and one began to follow us for a few blocks. Finally, when we thought it was gone, I felt something sharp on the back of my foot, sure enough the stray dog in an attempt to possibly get my flip flop or play with my long flowey skirt managed to scratch or nip the arch of my foot. We continued to walk and when we got into a shop where I could sit down to inspect I realised, that although almost unnoticeable, there was a scratch there. I decided to cab home to avoid any more canine encounters and so I could get a better look. The hotel owner has a brother who works at the local hospital, and they said they didn’t think it was a problem, but considering I have never had any rabies vaccines, and Turkey is considered a red zone for rabies, I decided it was not worth the risk.

It is common knowledge that I am a tad bit of a hypochondriac, but even still rabies is not pleasant and after much consideration I came to the conclusion that for peace of mind I would go to the hospital and ask for the rabies shots. So the following day after work I asked my team leader to accompany me to the local hospital in Cide, as I would need a translator. The hospital was close by, and in a very unassuming building with little signage. As soon as I walked in I was hit by the familiar hospital smell of rubbing alcohol, which was welcomingly reassuring. We walked to the front desk, and I gave them my passport and Bleda, my director, explained my situation. I didn’t have a health insurance card, so I paid up front for my consultation and drugs with the intentions of making a claim to my travel health insurance later. However, it was so inexpensive (under 20 lira total, which equals about 13 Canadian dollars) that it really isn’t worth the hassle. We spoke to the doctor and a nurse (there was four different hospital personel in the consult room, you can tell it’s a pretty slow paced place, likely with more staff than patients!) and they decided that the bite was not a high risk because it was shallow and gave me the option if I wanted shots or not. I definitely did, as something as terrible and incurable as rabies deserves no chance. He gave me a small booklet with three dates for each of the needles I will have to get over the next week, and led me into another room where a woman was getting a hand wound dressed. After she left they sat me down, and asked me to remove my shoe again to disinfect the scratch with iodine. Next he prepared the needle and my arm for the shot. I am always very attentive when I get needles, as I like to watch the package being opened to ensure it is new, but since I was distracted by getting my foot cleaned I wasn’t able to watch. I got slightly worried, and asked Bleda again if this was safe and if I could be assured that the needle was new. This seemed to have offended the doctors, while others had a chuckle about this strange Canadian asking such a silly question. After being assured it was disposable I had the shot. I thanked everyone, and went home to rest.

After I went back to the Yali Otel (our home base) I did a little internet research (yes, I googled health information… the number one thing any hypochondriac should avoid) and of course began to get a little nervous. I then received an email from my father who had been in touch with his travel doctor about the ordeal and she was also not happy with my treatment. Instead of three shots over a week, she (and every other source) said I should have five, plus a local RIG shot on my foot for full protection. When I went back for my second needle they told me that this was standard practice for rabies and assured me only three shots was needed. I’m not foaming at the mouth yet, so I am hoping they are correct. I have my third and final shot tomorrow, the last one made me quite sluggish and feverish.

Such a bizzare chain of events, certainly not something I was expecting to do while traveling.

That’s all for now, next post will be about our first day off from work and our day trip to the beautiful town of Amasara, as well as the accounts of the torrential downpours which have been plaguing the Black Sea coast the past few days.