So, Saturday night Bill and I headed out to our favorite Polis restaurant (The Old Town Restaurant). They have a meze there that is fantastic. Unfortunately, since it was raining off and on all day, they had moved all their tables from outside into the smaller interior space – as a resullt……no available tables for us. This was……soul crushing. The owner said maybe in an hour we could check back, but she did not look hopeful. Very disappointed.
Anyway, on Sunday, for the first time since we arrived, the day dawned bright and sunny with temperatures in the low 70s, an absolutely gorgeous day. We had a quiet breakfast in the platea and headed out of town towards Larnaca. On the way we stopped at two sites that were suggested to us as possible sites for further work, but neither panned out. We stopped at the Kourion Beach Restaurant for a light lunch and the chance to watch the waves crashing on the shore – it was a bit windy down there.
Once we arrived in Larnaca, we checked into our hotel and unpacked. We decided to eat at our favorite Lebanese restaurant along the waterfront, Maqam Al-Sultan, whch also has a fantastic meze – 19 different dishes were listed, but there were several more included, plis bread and baklava. I was too full from dinner to even think about having some loukoumades – some tents are already set up for the Kataklysmos, which will happen next weekend. And I love loukoumades, so that says something. The 
muhammarah was amazing as usual, and I also had a chickpea and yoghurt dip that I did not catch the name of and cannot find on their menu. I guess the only solution is to go back there and eat again, and pay closer attention.
This morning we went to the museum and retrieved the keys for Terra Ombra, the satellite storage location where our artifacts are stored. The site had changed a bit, they had filled up the empty spaces with trays and trays of pottery, the site really looks like the warehouse scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. As is our usual, it took a bit of time to sort out our material 
and get started. Usually we are the only people out there working, but todat there were people from two other archaeological projects, conservators, and technicians from the museum – in all 11 people. Tomorrow Dave will be there with his nine students – so it will be an absolute madhouse – on the plus side, there is better than a 50/50 chance Bill’s head will explode. About the time we started working, it started to rain and since the warehouse has a metal roof, it was a bit noisy for a while. [It has rained more this season than all the rest of my tris to Cyprus combined – and that is 19 summer trips]. We skipped lunch since we had picked up a large snack or second breakfast from the bakery and worked straight through to 2:30 when we had to 
leave. I wa a little worried about Bill, I looked over at 2:00 and he had his head on the table – I was worried he was burned out on day one. He was also bummed out because we wouldn’t let him use the XRF on one of the pastries. After we cleaned up we went to lunch at my favorite souvlaki restaurant near the museum. We then ran to the store, where I found 4 chip varieties to try in the next few days. Now we are back at the hotel, waiting on David to show up with his students from Messiah.
RSM
Ancient History Ramblings 