A marve*law*s week and a half in Labraunda by Lidya ERCAN

Hello dear reader, this is Lidya! 

I stayed in the ancient siteof Labraunda for almost two weeks in July 2019. It was not easy for me to work, eat, sleep, basically live alongside the bugs, crickets, spiders, and many more but it was one of the best decisions I have ever made (others, having studied law, spent a whole year in Hamburg as Erasmus students and learnt Latin, so you do the comparison!). Oh by the way, I am a recent law graduate from Bilkent University. And no worries, at the end of this post you will have seen how and why I am here. 

Figure 1: The Restoration Team!!

For the first week I was a part of the restoration team and after that I helped our recently graduated architect and my lovely friend Eda while measuring and drawing some of the constructions. My first week was amazing, I tried something new and exciting every day, such as cleaning the walls of the Oikoi, the floor of the Doric House and some marbles from anything biological that have been ruining and might still ruin the whole structure, and I washed some ceramics (which they call Archeology 101 around here). 

Figure 2: Me, washing ceramics

My second week was even better although Eda and I worked under the sun –no tent- from 8am-5pm (minus the coffee break, lunch break, and a regular break). So once again, it is up to you to imagine the time here: waking up to the delicious filtered coffee made by our Olivier Hoca, the tasty food made by Gülsüm Abla, most importantly enjoying the drinks, food, sight, work, hot weather, camping with the nicest, best, most friendly people and aaaall in the beautiful site of Labraunda, Labranda, Lambraunda, Labraynda (which one do you prefer?). Before having come here, I had thought that I was only going to help with documentation and signs, obviously because I am a law major and it was also written on the schedule that was sent to us. But boy, could the reality have been any more different? During my first week I had the best time with the restoration team. (Go team!) On my first day working here, they took me into the most fun and friendly group I have ever encountered and taught me how to clean moss and lichen from ancient walls: with a scalpel and lots and lots of soapy water (actually with grön sapa, a natural soap from Sweden).Basically, I just needed to be really careful with the stones. Moreover, I was advised to be really patient. 

	Figure 3: While I was removing moss and lichens from stones with scalpel! And listening my podcast

First, although there are tents above you, you are still under the sun and it is always between 30-40 degrees centigrade. Second, possibly because of the stones (huge granite ones), the cell service is relatively fine but the internet connection is awful. So, after I had listened to all of my songs on the cell phone, I was left with (yes, you guessed it correctly) silence! But as every cloud has a silver lining, I met podcasts. You might ask whether I am really a 20 year-old or I was actually born in 1918 and then, *spoilers* crashed into the arctic and spent sixty-six years in ice and was eventually found in the early 21^stcentury. If you asked, the answer would be yes and no. I just never found any podcasts interesting enough to continue listening after a minute. Yet, desperate times call for desperate measures.

I just searched the first thing that came to my mind (myths, that is and again, obviously?!) and started listening to a podcast. It was –with just one word- amazing. The podcast was about Greek Mythology (If anyone wants to check it out, its full name is “Let’s talk about myths, baby!”). There I was, cleaning the great walls of Oikoi from 4^thcentury B.C., which is across the Temple of Zeus Labraundos, listening to a podcast about Greek Mythology. I have always loved mythology, ancient civilizations but I would have never guessed in my life that one day I would be so lucky that I can actually stand in the middle of an ancient city, which I helped –even if it is just a liiiittle bit- come to light, and do something in this scale, therefore make an impact on the history of the humanity. Aaaaand kids, that is how I ended up here. 

Figure 4: Me, Sena and İrem (my team members!) were cleaning the mosaic floor in Doric House! YEEESSS we were using vacuum cleaner!!

P.S.: at night watch the stars from the Temple of Zeus Labraundos, you are most likely to see a shooting star, and believe it or not your wish will be to come back here either to relive everything or make more and more memories here in Labraunda, Labranda, Lambraunda, Labraynda (I cannot choose).