Excavations - Day 1

Today we were at Stóra-Seyla, a Viking-era farmstead a few miles outside of Sauðárkrókur. SASS has worked it for several years in a row, so the site was under a layer of "geotextile," which was under a thick layer of turf. Also, we want to do ground-penetrating radar on another part of the site, so another huge area needed to be cleared of turf and smoothed before we can start that.

( click here for pictures and stuff )

Tomorrow we're going to finish shovel scraping and probably also finish shoveling off the previously excavated walls. And for a big chunk of the day we're going on a Turf Tour, to learn how to recognize various types of turf houses in varying states of decay. I'm looking forward to the tour!

Iceland - First Day

Backing up a little ...

After mom and melannen dropped me off, it wasn't long before everyone else showed up and we got checked in. My second suitcase counted as a carry-on, so that was good. Then we went through security, and some of us sat around and chatted and watched the luggage while others got dinner. There were TSA agents everywhere. But eventually we boarded.

The flight was only about 5 hours. The plane had touch-screens in the back of the seats, so I played with that for an hour or so, and then spent the rest of the flight reading books on my iPod. After landing, we went through security again, gathered the rental cars (Skodas!) and drove the five hours or so from Rekjavik to Sauðárkrókur, stopping a couple of times on the way. The second stop was for lunch at an N1, which seems to have a monopoly here on gas and food for travelers! I spent the drive finally getting a bit of sleep, finishing my book, and chatting with my car-mates.

When we finally got to Sauðárkrókur, everyone was exhausted. We got room assignments and unpacked and moved furniture, and then we had dinner and went to the computer lab and slept. It's all a bit of a blur; I was definitely dropping by that point.

( Click for more, plus pictures. )