Day 1
The whole traveling bit was exhausting and took up so much time that by the time we finally got to Bucharest, I was exhausted. After that it was a 3 - 4 hour drive to our final destination. We got in around 8/9pm local time, shoveled some food down, had a pint at the local village pub/convenience store and then hit the sack. Minus the exhaustion, it was cool knowing that we 'visited' three countries in a day (Frankurt -> Bucharest -> Ruse). I think i might attempt to travel into Frankfurt central when we return. Hopefully 5 hours would be enough.
Day 2
Got up at 8am. Breakfast was bread with ham, salami and cheese. Think it's the Bulgarian way here... but I'm honestly not too much of a fan. I miss my eggs and cereal. And FRUIT!! Can't help comparing with Spain.. our Spanish mama is such a good cook and always whipped up huge portions of Spanish delicacies and every meal was buffet style. There was a lot of fruit and vegetables as well. We would even have fruit bowls in the living room for us to snack on throughout the day. And biscuits and snacks in the cupboards. Man, that's something i miss.
Our Bulgarian mama is really sweet though! And also a good cook, but i just wish we had more vegetables and fruit. Can't believe she's actually doing our laundry and making our beds =____= I'm super grateful but i would really prefer if she didn't since she already has so much to do in addition to cooking our meals and cleaning the house. Really lovely lady though :) Wish my gran was like that.
Anyway, back on to day 2. It was about 20-30mins ride to Cherven and we got an introduction to the site. Really amazing and huge medieval town with lots of churches and a really cool fortress/castle bit. I know zilch about the medieval period (other than the Black Death..) and most people in our group specialize in this period so I'm just listening most of the time. Met the chief archaeologist, Stoyan, who's been working on the site since 1975. After that we went back to the house for lunch and Nikolai basically abandoned us (haha ok kidding) and we spent the afternoon lounging around the house.
Oh did i mention we have a paddling pool?! I'm like WTFFFFF. Seriously, are we on holiday or on a dig? We even have the privilege of having two people share one room! Back in Pintia, we had 14 people in a room with bunk beds. I really like it though :( Was very cosy and everyone got really close in that cramped room. I really miss Pintia :( Really can't help comparing even though this is just the beginning and I'm sure it'll get even better with time... but Pintia set the standard so high and everyone from the program is so amazing!
Day 3
So today was our first official work day. Got up bright and early and we got the 8am public bus to the town of Cherven. Had to walk the remaining distance to the site and climbed up multiple flights of stairs to the peak.... I'm gonna get toned thigh (HOPEFULLY HAHA) by the end of 4 weeks.
First thing on the list was clearing out the area we were gonna work on. Surprisingly, the day before, Stoyan said he hasn't even decided where we were gonna excavate. And today we were told we were gonna work on the same area that the team from last year worked on.. which was covered with overgrowth =_____= Y U NO TAKE GOOD CARE OF THE AREA?! Just covering the whole area with a sheet would help. So much unnecessary trouble.
Yup, so our first day was spent hacking and sweeping up huge piles of weed, grass, twigs, branches, bugs.... whatever. There's a lot of unstratified ceramic in the whole area and lots of bone as well. Everyone was diligently collecting bits and bobs but i think Stoyan has no intention of keeping any of them but was patronizing us lol. We worked till 11am and had a tea break... which was really long actually. (I miss the containers of sandwiches and fruit that Spanish mama would send to us for tea break!) Tea break was a packet of chocolate crossiant (Pintia, you pampered us so much!).
Worked for another 1 hour =____= AND WE HAD LUNCH! Yes, our working hours are weirdly short. Lunch lasted 1 freaking hour and then we worked for another hour and Stoyan sent us home. The public bus wasn't coming till 4:15PM and we ended up sitting around for 1.5 hours which could have been better spent. I understand that every region has their own work ethics but i wasn't expecting it to be so relaxed. Sure, when you are working it is hard work... but clocking less than 5 hours on site?! So slack!
Hopefully we'll get to do some digging tomorrow. The site is brimming with history and I'm looking forward to see what else is hidden beneath the ground :D
Right now, we are just chilling in the garden (plus feeding the local mosquitos). Loving the weather so far! Shall update again soon :)
