Month 3 - Northern Morocco (Sorry this is late)
Hello friends!
This post is about two weeks late because August has got me all over the place. While my original plan was to stay in each place for about a month at a time at least, volunteer/work, meet people, and get my own space... August was quite difficult to do so since it is holiday month throughout the region. Organizations shut down for the month and a lot of businesses close. For this month, I am just traveling and moving around a lot through the Balkans and on my way to Turkey and Jordan. While I'm enjoying getting to see so many new places, often times it can be pretty exhausting and has definitely kept me busy and always on the go.
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July recap:
If you read my previous post, you'd know I was still in Morocco but moved from Marrakech to up north working on an archaeological survey project. We spent the week days hiking through valleys and hills in the region in predetermined transects we assigned for this project based on previous archaeological findings and our research questions. The days were hot and long, but so rewarding. While we hardly ever found whole objects of cultural material (this is normal in survey since what is left on the surface is broken shattered pieces of remains. Excavation is typically where whole artifacts are uncovered), we found loads of ceramics, lithics, and other various cultural material that are useful to analyze and identify different cultural occupations. We definitely got a work out every day, made a lot of new friends from around the world, and learned about the different occupations in Northern Morocco. Below are some photos of different landscapes that we surveyed throughout the region.
On weekends we had free time to explore the town we were based out of (Larache, a port town), or we visited other archaeological sites throughout Morocco. In our free time we often wandered around the old town/Medina of Larache, shopped, ate a lot, of went to the beach and took boat rides since we were in a coastal port/small beach town. As a group we made weekend excursions to visit Chellah in Rabat, a Roman tomb site in Tangier, and Volubilis a Roman city near Meknes. From these excursions as a group and with the project director/professor, we were able to learn a lot about the history of the region and other occupations.
After leaving the project near the end of the month, I headed back to Italy where I visited my host family again for six days. I returned to my host village just outside of Milan and spent a couple days there, relaxing, doing a lotttt of laundry (after a month of hand washing all my field clothes, none of my clothes were ever actually clean lol), and hanging out with my host family by our pool. The next three days we went east towards Trento where we spent time hiking in the Dolomiti Italian Alps and ate a lotttt. It was a good time and I'm always so happy and so lucky to have such an amazing host family that I get to return to so often.
After these days with my host family we left each other in Trento. It was already pretty east of Italy, and I was off for Eastern Europe in the Balkans next. My host family had to return to their lives at home and for their own holiday plans, and I took the first bus to Slovenia.
Since I was unable to find work during August (damn holiday month for everyone and everything), August is a travel month for me. I am spending August making my way to Turkey. I'm really excited as this is a region I've never been to before and I'm really interested to learn about it's people, history, and languages. It's already only been two weeks traveling through part of the Balkans, and I really feel upset and saddened by how ignorant I am and how much I never knew about this region.
Thus far I have made my way through Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. I just arrived in Macedonia a few days ago and I'm staying here for a couple weeks. I'm finally having a moment to myself after a restless couple weeks, so I'll elaborate more on my experiences through the Balkans later in my August/month 4 post.
Currently, I am in Macedonia and will be here for a bit. I have family friends here who have a small business running a hostel/guest house and I'm helping out a bit and having some down time. Today I'm spending my Sunday sitting under an apple tree in a hammock in the houses' super aromatic garden (full of flowers, basil, rosemary, apples, grapes, peppers, arugula, and figs), updating this blog post, having some local Macedonian white wine (by the way it's only 1.5 euros for a bottle here. I've finally found a place better than Italy to support my wine habits haha), and I am starting a new book. I'm really excited to finally have some down time after non-stop moving the past two weeks.
I'm off to read in my hammock, ciao
Oh and before I forget, below is an updated map of my route. Ignore the Spain part, I skipped going through Spain and just flew between Morocco and Italy. It just looks like I'm going through there because Google Maps only gave me the land/car route option in order to include my other destinations. Also, ignore the route through Turkey to Lebanon, I'm flying.
This post is about two weeks late because August has got me all over the place. While my original plan was to stay in each place for about a month at a time at least, volunteer/work, meet people, and get my own space... August was quite difficult to do so since it is holiday month throughout the region. Organizations shut down for the month and a lot of businesses close. For this month, I am just traveling and moving around a lot through the Balkans and on my way to Turkey and Jordan. While I'm enjoying getting to see so many new places, often times it can be pretty exhausting and has definitely kept me busy and always on the go.
___________________________________________________________________________
July recap:
If you read my previous post, you'd know I was still in Morocco but moved from Marrakech to up north working on an archaeological survey project. We spent the week days hiking through valleys and hills in the region in predetermined transects we assigned for this project based on previous archaeological findings and our research questions. The days were hot and long, but so rewarding. While we hardly ever found whole objects of cultural material (this is normal in survey since what is left on the surface is broken shattered pieces of remains. Excavation is typically where whole artifacts are uncovered), we found loads of ceramics, lithics, and other various cultural material that are useful to analyze and identify different cultural occupations. We definitely got a work out every day, made a lot of new friends from around the world, and learned about the different occupations in Northern Morocco. Below are some photos of different landscapes that we surveyed throughout the region.
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| Some lithic debitage we found -evidence of stone tool use |
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| Some of the group at the Roman site, Lixus, which was the site of which our research questions revolved around. |
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| A weekend site visit to some ancient tombs with a great view in Tangier |
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| Getting to explore Larache and its port via row boat |
After these days with my host family we left each other in Trento. It was already pretty east of Italy, and I was off for Eastern Europe in the Balkans next. My host family had to return to their lives at home and for their own holiday plans, and I took the first bus to Slovenia.
Since I was unable to find work during August (damn holiday month for everyone and everything), August is a travel month for me. I am spending August making my way to Turkey. I'm really excited as this is a region I've never been to before and I'm really interested to learn about it's people, history, and languages. It's already only been two weeks traveling through part of the Balkans, and I really feel upset and saddened by how ignorant I am and how much I never knew about this region.
Thus far I have made my way through Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. I just arrived in Macedonia a few days ago and I'm staying here for a couple weeks. I'm finally having a moment to myself after a restless couple weeks, so I'll elaborate more on my experiences through the Balkans later in my August/month 4 post.
Currently, I am in Macedonia and will be here for a bit. I have family friends here who have a small business running a hostel/guest house and I'm helping out a bit and having some down time. Today I'm spending my Sunday sitting under an apple tree in a hammock in the houses' super aromatic garden (full of flowers, basil, rosemary, apples, grapes, peppers, arugula, and figs), updating this blog post, having some local Macedonian white wine (by the way it's only 1.5 euros for a bottle here. I've finally found a place better than Italy to support my wine habits haha), and I am starting a new book. I'm really excited to finally have some down time after non-stop moving the past two weeks.
I'm off to read in my hammock, ciao
Oh and before I forget, below is an updated map of my route. Ignore the Spain part, I skipped going through Spain and just flew between Morocco and Italy. It just looks like I'm going through there because Google Maps only gave me the land/car route option in order to include my other destinations. Also, ignore the route through Turkey to Lebanon, I'm flying.
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