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Tountas Bakery in Batsi

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by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer

Woman waiting to serve customers at the Tountas Bakery
Ready to serve customers with delicious treats at the Tountas Bakery; © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek

Quite early on in our stay in Batsi, we started sussing out the food options nearby – both for dinner on Saturday nights and breakfast and lunch on Sundays (the Kantouni Pensione/Cafe prepares our other meals) and also to buy treats to bring back to the pensione for snacks after a hard day in the field.

One of our early discoveries was the Tountas Bakery, and we haven’t looked back. Their spanakopita (cheese and spinach pie) has become particularly popular with our team.

I took the following photos to give you an idea of the kinds of things the bakery offers.

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Moseying around Mykonos

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by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer

Mykonos pelican
Mykonos pelican © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
I was in two minds about writing a post on Mykonos…. I’ve heard from several sources that it seemed from this blog as if we are all holidaying and partying and having the time of our lives on the Zagora Archaeological Project.

Well, we are having the time of our lives, that is true. But most of the time, we are working very very hard. Sometimes we feel so exhausted, it is difficult to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Last weekend we had the only full weekend we will have off during the six weeks of this field season. All the other weeks, we work all day Monday to Friday and a half day on Saturday.

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Divine Delos

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by Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer

The temple of Isis
The temple of Isis at Delos © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
Last weekend we had the only full weekend off – all day Saturday and all day Sunday – we will have during this six-week archaeological season (other weeks, we work at least a half-day on Saturdays).

Most team members decided to stay on Andros and explore the island further. A few of us decided to take advantage of the two full days off and journeyed to nearby islands. Three went to Tinos, and three of us went to Delos and Mykonos.

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Corrugated, rendered, white-washed walls of Andros

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by Paul Donnelly
Powerhouse Museum Curator and Archaeologist

An Andriote corrugated and white-wash rendered wall
An Andriote corrugated and white-wash rendered wall © PHM; photo by Paul Donnelly
While driving along the twenty minute winding drive between the Zagora site and the dig HQ at Batsi the team convoy enjoys the twice-daily morning and evening sight of the distant sparkling sea patterned by fingers of sunlight silvering patches of blue and only broken by the peaks of neighbouring islands and far-off mainland. The proximity of these neighbours demonstrates the commonality of Greek island life while at the same time emphasising their independence from each other. Our daily scene makes it easy to understand the development of the small city-state or Polis that is so distinctive to ancient Greek political and social development.

It also explains how it is possible to have distinctive island-by-island design features that are the result of local responses to the availability of materials as well as the demands of the landscape and local climate. My previous post on the schist field walls of Andros is one example and another is the distinctive corrugated and white-washed rendering covering the exterior walls of many buildings right across Andros.

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Batsi Beach views

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Batsi is a small seaside village, on the west coast of Andros, where we are staying in the lovely Kantouni Pensione while we are working on the Zagora Archaeological Project. There is a map which shows the location of Batsi on Andros in my Intro to Andros post.

Andros is generally less ‘touristy’ than other Greek islands. Those tourists who come tend to be Greek rather than international tourists. And now (November) that the weather is getting cooler, there seem to be few tourists of any kind around. The winter population of Batsi is 600-700 people – but this swells to some 3000 during summer. So our experience here feels authentically Greek.

Here are some views of Batsi Beach shot along the waterfront.

Panorama of Batsi Beach
Panorama of Batsi Beach; &copy AAIA; photo by Andrew Wilson

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Picturesque Chora

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Our team having lunch at Chora
Our team having lunch at Chora on Sunday 4 November 2012 © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek
On Sunday 4 November 2012, after our drive from Batsi to Korthi, we continued north to Andros (Chora) for lunch.

After lunch, we explored for an hour or so, which gave me the opportunity to take a few more photos, so I can show you further glimpses of this charming town.

It is planned for me to spend a day soon at the Andros Museum in Chora, where our finds from the Zagora field survey are washed and then sorted and researched by our fineware expert, Dr Stavros Paspalas, and our coarseware expert, Beatrice McLoughlin. I look forward to that, as another stage of this archaeological experience, and also for another opportunity to spend some time in Chora.

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A visit to Korthi

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Last Sunday 4 November 2012, we visited Korthi, and then drove in our two vans across the fertile Korthi Valley to Andros (Chora), where we had lunch. Following are some photos to give you a glimpse of the town of Korthi.

White-washed houses and narrow streets in Korthi
White-washed houses and narrow streets in Korthi © PHM; photo by Irma Havlicek

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An intro to Andros

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Map of Andros showing where we've visited in our first three weeks here
Map of Andros showing where we’ve visited in our first three weeks here
We haven’t had much time to tour the island because of our heavy work schedule so I don’t have many photos to show you. There are a few of the main town of Andros, Chora here, showing the Venetian influence on this town. In future posts, I’ll show you some more images of our travels around the island.

The map at right shows the places we have been in our three weeks here so far: Gavrio, the port at which we arrived on the island; Batsi, where we are staying; Stavropeda, where we usually park the vans and from where we walk down to Zagora; Zagora; the capital, Andros (Chora – meaning ‘centre’), Ano Aprovato (where we attended the Tsipouro Feast), Paleopolis (we visited the Paleopolis Archaeological Museum at Paleopolis, a specially arranged excursion, on our way to work last Saturday 3 November). On Sunday 4 November, most of us went on an excursion in our two vans to Korthi, where we had coffee, and then drove west across the fertile valley of Korthi to Andros (Chora) for lunch (some photos coming in future posts).

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About Chora and cats

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by Lydia Beaumont-Cankaya
nine-year-old explorer

Lydia at Chora
Here I am sitting next to the sea at Chora. The weather was pretty bad but we still walked around and discovered things © and photo by Archondia Thanos
Hi everyone, my name is Lydia, I am nine years old, and I am going to be part of an archaeological excavation. The excavation is taking place on the island of Andros which is in Greece.

To get to Andros from Australia, you will have to set aside a couple of days because you have to catch the plane, a boat and drive to your destination.

The reason why I am here is because my mum* is an archaeologist and I am going to be one of the helpers. There are many archaeologists here (about 25 of them).

They have to work very hard and visit different types of sites. They don’t always dig; they also put pieces of pottery and sculpture together and sometimes they do a lot of research in one place.

They also work in museums and some of them teach the subject of Archaeology. My mum came to my school once and taught us about the ancient Olympics.

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Ochi (or No) Day Parade

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By Irma Havlicek
Powerhouse Museum Online Producer

Yesterday morning (Sunday 28 October 2012) I was sitting with some of my colleagues in a cafe having breakfast when, around 9am, Steve Vassilakis said to me, “Oh look, the people are lining up for the Ochi Parade”.

I explained that I didn’t know what the Ochi Parade was, so Steve explained that it commemorates the Greeks saying ‘Ochi’ or ‘No’ to the Nazis and Fascists who wanted to occupy Greece in World War II. The Nazis and Fascists occupied anyway – but this parade celebrates the Greek stance of independence and courage.

With my trusty camera in hand, I dashed out onto the street in front of the cafe, and within a couple of minutes, the parade of mostly drummer boys and young marching girls was passing by. I found the parade surprisingly moving – seeing the innocents marching up the street, commemorating the courage of Greeks standing up to tyrants.

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