Lil Bieb goes digging in the Mediterranean

What was supposed to be a 2 day hiking trip all on top and around Mt. Olympus ended up being a 1 day hike to the summit and back down to base. Here's how it happened. We all wake up at 5:30 and are on the road at 6am. We drop Cris off at the train station, he's going to meet his family in Athens, and we drive to the refuge that is above the base city. We arrive there at 6:40 and begin our hike. The hike to the summit is split into three portions: first one is from parking lot to refuge A, refuge A to Zeus' Throne, Zeus' Throne to the summit. The ETA for the first section was 3h and the ETA for the next two were a total of 3h as well. We nailed the first section. Crushed it in 2h on the dot. Path was beautiful and the forest gave splendid sights to enjoy. We took a rest at refuge A, the day before we managed to secure a reservation at this refuge to stay the night. The plan was to summit today, by taking the quick path up, stay the night, then hike up a different path a

We took it easy Wednesday morning by leaving the beautiful town around 11 am. Thanks to the breakfast owner we are going to go visit a monastery that's at the edge of the gorge. Small drive there and we arrive rather quickly, Connor is getting more and more iritated with the switchbacks in these mountains, he might just not take the turn one time... The monastery itself was small but the view was nice. We saw a path that lead further into the gorge cliffside. Naturally we followed that path. And we were greeted with a gorgeous view of the gorge. A sign at the beginning mentioned it was 490 meters tall, supposedly taller than the Grand Canyon. I haven't fact checked it yet but I'd believe it. Further along the path there's a wooden door blocking the way. Just a really old wooden door, with support beams placed above it and surrounded in stone, on the pathway. We went through it and it seemed as though the gorge opened up. Several pics were taken as well as a video or two

    Monday We left the Kokino house around 7am, arrived at the airport around 9, Connor signed the documents for our rented vehicle and off we went.  Cris, Connor, and I. In an attempt to save money we had our GPS set to avoid tolls, so leaving Athens... It decided the best route was through it. Athenian traffic is like Bogota traffic. Motorcycles to your left, motorcycles to your right, no respect between cars, and cops just watching the disaster happen. Connor, as he is the driver, got desperately angry with his navigator, me. I quickly chose to go toll roads at least for a little bit, until we leave the high traffic zone. We drove through the country roads, through the higways, and once or twice through some unpaved roads. It took us about 6.5h to reach our destination. The town is called Kalambaka, located in the Meteora province. Here the hanging monasteries are visible. They are 12 monasteries which are built at the edge off and on the cliff of incredibly high stone pillars. It

The U.S.S Myneko (name of the dig location) woke up at 5:30 and departed at 6 towards the mountain. One soul was left behind to secure home base. The boarding party landed nearby a monastery, several hundred meters above the mountain baseline. For them to summit and walk back in one day, necessary shortcuts were taken. They arrived at 7 and shortly began their ascent. Many pauses were made, several for scenic photographic pleasures, though mostly they were to recuperate lost oxegen and hydrate themselves. The climb was long and arduous. 5 hours later they had reached a point where snow had become an obstacle in their way. This obstacle served as another purpose. That their destination was within view. Sacrifices are essential in all explorations and this one was no different. The crew split in half, one journeyed up to the summit the mountain, while the other stayed behind and secured the surrounding area. Luke Bieber was a part of the summiting crew. It took him and his accomplice 30m

Sunday, the 16th, was the worst lazy day ever. It started off like last week, woke up late, did nothing, did my laundry, did some more nothing. It was great, however, throughout the day vehicles were bringing in chairs and tables and wood and posters and stuff. I could hear the townspeople building something, moving chairs here and there, general loud conversations happening all about. And then it occured to me. Lane told us the day before that the 16th was festival day. Oh no. I walked outside to peak what was happening and they were building a wooden stage a block away from the house I was staying in! The chairs and tables were all set up as if it were party time. Imagine "Día de los Reyes" in San Martín but in another obscure random town in mainland Greece. Dr. Lane told us he's had one to many parties here and was going to spend the night in Athens without us. Great, he knows it's bad and he's gonna make us suffer. By nightfall it seemed as though all the town

Dr. Lane informed us that Delfi doesn't open until 8am so we decided to leaves round then. On our way there he showed us from a distance the Monastery of Hosios Lukas. A man not yet holy to be a saint but did a good enough deed to deserve himself a monastery. We all took a vote and detored to check the place out. Typical monastery, spectacular view, dead dude in a glass case, all typical things you'd find in a monastery. We set off and arrived at Delfi around 11. We parked far away to prevent all the expected parking traffic and coincidentally parked nearby the entrance to the Athenean Temples remains. Took photos, walked around, got a not-so-legal tour from Dr. Lane and we started walking up to the Delfi entrance. I was happy to see remains and structures that I recognized from previous classes and personal research. With my student card from UMBC I was able to get 50% entry price and we entered the Delfic sanctuary. Again with our all-super-legal tour guide. I was in Elysium

It's been a rather dull week compared to that of week 1. On Monday we woke up early, left around 6:30, and headed to a sugar hill top where a radio tower was located. Around there Dr. Lane wanted us to get soil samples. That process required navigating ourself using a compass and a 100 meter long measuring tape. He gave those of us who didn't know how to navigate by compass how to do so and then assigned us our positions. One was to use the compass, another was to be the achor point for the 100 meter tape while another had to walk with the tape 100m out, the last one was to assist the front man in making sure the tape was not being ensnared in bushes or trees. What started off decent only got worse once the 100m tape somehow broke. No need to fret our professor had a 50m back up...which only worked for a good 3 uses before that one broke as well. Fortune favors the prepared as Lane once again had more measuring tape with him, however, his remaining spare tape was a 20m tape. Th

Today was the big day, no more work and all play. The night before we agreed to leave around 7 to avoid heavy traffic. It was about a 3.5h drive so what better way to spend it than nodding in and out of sleep in uncomfortable positions? Right before we entered the Peloponnesian, we stopped to take a look at the Isthmus of Corinth created by the Turkish during the Ottoman Empire. We didn't stay long because 2 tour busses showed up at the same time as we did, we took a photo or two then headed out once again. However, it was enormous, it was made to allow small ships through, and it remains big enough to do bungee jumping. They had a pop up tent and the zone was right below the pedestrian walkway. Still haven't done that or gone skydiving... Isthmus of Corinth After another long drive we stopped at Mycenae. There we had Dr. Lane as our personal tour guide and walked around the remains of the palace. We quickly went to the back end of the remains as two school tour busses s

Waking up at 6am had become the norm this semester so it felt natural when Lane rapped the door. One things the Europeans do that nobody else does is work early and close shop by 2 or 3. Today we went to Thebes, where Lane works his technical aspects of archeological in conjunction with the city's museum. It took a while for the appropriate person to guide us through the maze of the underground as this was the first time Lane had returned since the year before. We were given some space in a rather large storage area, and Lane took out several boxes of broken pottery, building pieces, human remains, etc. He showed us what previous years had excavated and directed us in what we were going to be doing for that day. We split into two groups. One group inputted data into a system, while the other played a jigsaw puzzle and attempted to unite broken pottery pieces together. By the half way mark we switched, and by 3pm we left the museum to head back for a late lunch. The post-lunch nap w

Flight to Frankfurt with Condor Airlines went as comfortably as possible. Airline I went on had TV's on each chair and decent leg space. I took a night flight departing at 8pm Baltimore time and arriving at 9am Frankfurt time (8h of actual flight + time zone differences). The Frankfurt airport was humongous, me not knowing an ounce of German wasn't all that hindered. They had bilingual signs all over the place. Only problem that I encountered was the 9h layover I had. I spent a lot of time walking across the terminal and finding the niche spots. Airport had several relaxation zones, a couple smoking cubes, a gaming station, and a movie station. I opted to relax and try to get some sleep. Flight to Athens was uneventful. I got placed on a middle seat and 2h later I landed. My professor and three classmates where waiting for me at the exit and we drove towards the house we'd be staying at for the next three weeks. On our way there, my professor, Dr. Lane, gave us the scenic r

It's been a few years since I last updated this blog... Anyway I'm currently in the airport awaiting the plane to arrive. I'm heading off to Greece and Jordan for a total of 3 months. Figured this could be a trip that restarts my blog. I stopped writing while I was still in The Citadel. I didn't last long in there. After my knob year (freshman) I left. Mom moved to California so I tagged along not really knowing where to go in life. I found a part-time job as a gymnastics coach which was a lot of fun and educational for myself. I went to a community college in Glendale and I loved it. College is so much different than High School and I enjoyed the experience. I was in California for 2 years. By the time the 2 years passed, the community college expected me to transfer to another college. I realized my love for Greek/Roman mythology could be a major and I ran to the first college that I found with that major. In the fall of 2018 I transferred to UMBC in Maryland as a