LTL (Ed.2) - I ordered WHAT?

Today was the first "official" day of field school. We were up at 7am for the monster uphill climb to the lab which is right underneath the castle. I thought the big hill was bad... was I ever wrong! The streets of Chora are incredibly steep - and the "big hill" is a piece of cake compared to the hill in town leading up to the lab!

The building on the top right is our lab... its the second highest building after the castle and looks over the sea!

After a delicious breakfast consisting of greek yogurt and honey we had a quick lesson on how to make a frappe - the cold coffee the Greeks drink. Afterwards we headed off on a tour around Chora. I have never walked as much as I have today... up and down and up and down and up and up and down and more stairs that I have done in the rest of my life combined!

One of the many steep, narrow, twisty streets of Chora

First we headed to the city's cathedral, which is where all of the weddings, baptisms, and funerals occur for the entire island. We learned a lot about the local belief system and superstition, and some neat facts about the building itself. Then we headed over to the site we are working on, called Kylindra (which means cylinder) which contains over 2,000 children's burials. The site was used primarily from 600-400BC by people from as local as the island and as far away as egypt and pakistan. Next we headed up to the castle to explore the ruins.

Staircase leading to the rooms used to look out over the ocean for pirates!

The castle is gorgeous. It was built in the 1400's overtop of an existing fortress (I think). It was mainly used by the residents of the island for protection against pirates. Some of the castle has been restored; I climbed up into the watch posts and could barely fit through the door and I am not even that tall! 

Field School Team Picture out by the ruins overlooking the sea

Next we headed down into the harbor to visit the small local Greek antiquity museum, and then had some free time to look in the shops along the harbor front before headed back for lunch and afternoon lectures.

The castle from Chora's harbor

After all of that, class ended for the day so Em, Gen, and I went for a quick swim before dinner. 

Now for a slightly embarrassing story. Last night for the welcome dinner we all headed up the giant hill to Virginia's restaurant where we had a giant potluck style traditional greek meal. Em and I have been trying to speak as much greek as possible, so here comes "Learning the Lingo - Edition 2.0."

One of the traditional meals here is a large, flash-fried fish. They are pronounced "Kee-lee-owse," and when my table ran out I volunteered to order some more. I asked for some "Keel-owse" since that was what I remembered, and the greek speakers at the table burst into giggles. Turns out that without the extra syllable, I had just asked for a plate of fried rear-end for the table. Yup, deep fried butt cheeks for all! ...Oops!

Mileage Remaining: 5, 452
Days Remaining in Trip: 47