Newest Adventure....

The day after tomorrow I will begin my journey to Romania.  After a bus ride to Chicago, my flight lands in London on Tuesday morning.  I will be spending all of Tuesday day and night in Heathrow before boarding a flight for Cluj, Romania, at 6am Wednesday morning.  I will go from London to Vienna to Cluj, and be spending the night in none other than the Hotel Transilvania before meeting the rest of the excavation crew on Thursday, June 23 at another hotel, which is odd but oh well.  On the way back, it'll be a pit stop in Munich.  I'm hoping I get stamps from these places because..how cool is that?

I'm not entirely sure how much internet access I will have after I leave, but I'll do my best to post fairly regularly.  It will be a fantastic adventure, and I'm just ready to get there.  I'm not so excited for the flights.  I don't mind flying, but the 8 hour + overnight flight to London just drags on.  Oh well.  I'm going.  It's not like I have a TARDIS or Vortex Manipulator. 

S'pose I should give a refresher on the excavation in Romania.  It is a Roman fort, and it was one of the last outposts of Romanized civilization before the "land of the barbarians."  It was about the size of Pompeii, around 20,000 people, including soldiers.  Wood has been preserved there, as well as clay tablets and other inscriptions.  There is an amphitheater.  It looks gorgeous from the pictures, and I cannot wait to get there and snoop. 

The area had been occupied by the Dacians and Celts prior to the Romans, but the fort was not built on a previous settlement.  The site flourished during the Roman period, kinda fell a little bit after the Romans left, but a Roman lifestyle prevailed after the fall of the Empire.  There were some problems in the early medieval period, and then the site was gradually abandoned after the 7th century CE, as the village beneath the fort grew.  This village exists today and the villages often help with the excavations.  We're about 10 miles or so from the nearest city, so we aren't too far in the boondocks but just far enough. 

I cannot wait.  I have a trowel, and there is a hole in the backyard to prove it.  I cannot wait to play in the dirt, in the sun, with the bugs, the heat, native food, culture, langauge, and even ancient culture.  I get to participate in Roman Days, a festival celebrating the Roman occupation.  I just cannot wait to see Romania. 

(I can't resist this....)  Allons-y!!