If you lived in London in 1348-50, you’d hear that call a lot. All of Europe was swept with the Black Death, a virulent plague that killed an estimated one-third of the population. London, like other congested urban areas, got hit hard.
Now archaeologists working in London have uncovered a mass grave of Black Death victims, a Crossrail press release reports. Digging ahead of the planned London Crossrail transportation project, the team discovered a mass grave of 13 bodies at Charterhouse Square, an area known as a burial ground during the plague. Pottery from the mid-14th century found at the site helps confirm the identification.
The bodies were laid out neatly in rows, hinting that the burial ground was from the early stages of the Black Death. When the plague was going full force, bodies were simply dumped into giant pits.
Now archaeologists are examining the bones to learn more about how the people lived, including diet, physical health and work-related wear and tear on the body. They also hope to find surviving DNA from the plague to give scientists a better idea of how it developed. Researchers stress that the plague bacteria cannot live for long in the soil and the excavation poses no health risk.
This is only the latest in a series of finds by the Crossrail workers. Earlier we reported on their discovery of a 3,500-year-old Bronze Age trackway. The Crossrail project is a high-speed train system that will link 37 stations along 73 miles of track through London. It’s due to open in 2018.
Sadly, the 14th century plague was only the first wave of a persistent contagion. The Black Death returned to London several times, the worst being in 1665-6, when it killed 100,000 Londoners.
It’s the conversation starter you sometimes hear several times per day when you travel. On this occasion, the question was posed by a friendly, bearded waiter from Barcelona at the Amici Ristorante in the small beach town of Santa Teresa, on Costa Rica’s lovely Nicoya Peninsula. I told him I was from Buffalo and lived in Chicago and he said, “Chicago? You have to meet Giovanni, our pizza maker, he lived in Chicago.”
Giovanni was standing near the wood fire oven, tending to a slew of pizzas and I almost didn’t bother to go over to meet him. At home in Chicago, I probably wouldn’t be curious enough to greet the guy making our pizza, but when I travel I’m almost a different person. I am more outgoing, friendlier, more willing to take chances. And when I’m on the road, I always meet the most interesting people. So I walked over to Giovanni and introduced myself.He was originally from Sardinia but had lived all over. Just prior to moving to Costa Rica to work at Amici – which is owned by one of his friends – he lived in Chicago.
“I’m a gypsy,” he said. “I don’t stay anywhere too long.”
We compared notes about Chicago and it turned out that he lived in Evanston, which is the suburb I live in. I asked him what street he lived on and it was the street right next to mine. I asked what his exact address was and then looked it up on Google maps. He lived in an apartment 2-1/2 blocks from ours. It’s quite possible that our paths had crossed before – maybe we walked past each other on the street but had never stopped to chat.
Giovanni told me that I had to try a restaurant called Trattoria DOC, where he used to work, and it took me a minute to register the absurdity of the conversation. I was getting a recommendation for a restaurant five minutes away from my house from a guy who lived two blocks from me in a remote Costa Rican beach town. Our paths probably never would have crossed in Chicago.
Conventional wisdom dictates that travelers ought to focus on meeting locals when they’re on the road. And I agree that in order to understand the place you’re visiting, you have to get to know some people who live there. But as a traveler, you probably have more in common with your fellow travelers than with the person selling tomatoes in the market, or driving your cab, or many of the other people you will encounter while away from home. It would be a shame to travel to another country and not meet any locals but it’s just as big a mistake to avoid your fellow travelers.
Over the years, I’ve made friends with French people in Mexico, Mexicans in Spain, Dutch in Costa Rica, Scandinavians in Greece, Germans in Italy and just about every other international combination imaginable. The stories and the times I’ve shared with these people are just as memorable as the places where our paths crossed.
On a recent 15-day trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua, I met some wonderful locals, but the people I met who I am most likely to stay in touch with are from all around the world. While hiking in Rincon de la Vieja National Park, for example, I met a Dutch couple, Marion Bloem and Ivan Wolffers who, as I found out, are both bestselling authors in The Netherlands (see top photo). They regaled me with stories about a six-month trip they took through the Americas and while Marion, who is 60 but looks and hikes like she is 35, blazed a path ahead of us, Ivan told me stories about traditional healers he has studied in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh and other exotic places.
Costa Rica’s magnificent beaches draw surfers, sun-worshippers and dreamers from around the world and after meeting three North Americans who moved to Santa Teresa and now work at Florblanca, the magnificent eco-resort I stayed in while in town, I couldn’t help but fantasize about moving there myself.
Trish, a native of British Columbia, visited the town 13 years ago when the area around Florblanca didn’t even have electricity and there was little tourism to speak of. She slept in a tent on the beach and fell in love with the place. Five years later she moved to Santa Teresa and hasn’t looked back since. Her colleague Billy, a 40-year-old American with a Peruvian wife, came to surf and started a business that didn’t pan out but still lives in a house on the beach just down the road from the resort. And the general manager of the place, Cody, A Missouri native, studied journalism in Boulder but fell in love with Santa Teresa and decided to put down roots in the community.
In Nicaragua, I met Robert Kruijthoff, a 30-something Dutchman who quit his job as an investment banker to operate a bed and breakfast in Costa Rica; Luis Rolando Casamalhuapa, a Salvadoran singer with an amazing voice; and a Canadian couple that left the rat race in Vancouver to open El Garaje, one of the best restaurants in Granada, among others.
Every time I travel abroad and meet a slew of interesting fellow travelers and expats, it reaffirms my belief that travelers are the most interesting people you can meet.
I love to meet nomads who spent months each year on the road and expats who visit a place, fall in love with it and decide to relocate there. As a compulsive traveler who is miserable when forced to stay put for too long, meeting fellow vagabonds on the road is like joining an Alcoholics Anonymous chapter. There is comfort in getting to know people that are even more adventurous and restless than I am.
So in your zeal to understand the place you are visiting, don’t ignore your fellow wanderers, because you have more in common with them than you might realize. And you never know, the people you meet might actually be neighbors you’d never known unless you traveled far from home.
By claiming victory in the 2013 Iditarod earlier this week, 53-year-old musher Mitch Seavey managed to cement his place in the annals of Alaskan lore. Not only did he secure the second Iditarod win of his 20-year career, he also became the oldest person to win the event in its 41-year history. This is in sharp contrast to last year’s race in which Mitch’s son Dallas became the youngest Iditarod winner at the age of 25.
In order to win the 1000-mile sled dog race, Seavey had to hold off a late charge from Aliy Zirkle. She made a bid to become the first female winner of the race in 23 years and was in good form as the lead teams turned toward the finish line in Nome. She ended up finishing 23 minutes behind the winner, making this the closest Iditarod in history. Zirkle finished second to Dallas Seavey last year as well.
The Iditarod is Alaska’s premiere sporting event, drawing in competitors and spectators from around the world. Each year the race begins in Anchorage where the mushers and their dogs set out on the historic Iditarod trail. Over the course of the thousand-mile race, the skill, endurance and strategy of each of the competitors is pushed to the limits as they endure unpredictable weather, harsh temperatures and sometimes dangerous trail conditions.
To earn the win in this year’s edition of the race, Seavey completed the entire course in 9 days, 7 hours and 39 minutes. Considering the fact that each racer must take a couple of mandatory 8-hour breaks – as well as a 24-hour rest – along the way, that is one impressive time.
As of this writing more than half the field has now reached Nome but racing continues for the teams who are still out on the course. Most should wander across the finish line in the next day or two, with the final racer earning the traditional Red Lantern in recognition of their efforts.
Congratulations to Mitch Seavey on the win and to all the racers who have completed the race.
Today is March 14, also known as Pi Day (in case it’s been awhile since you took math, pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, 3.14), a day to celebrate mathematics, or just eat some pie. If you are in Cambridge, Massachusetts, today and can remember a good portion of the many digits of pi, you might get to eat some free pie. Today’s Photo of the Day by Flickr user autisticglobetrotting2010 is a bit math-inspired: the cross at the ceiling of Rio de Janeiro‘s San Sebastian Cathedral hints at a plus sign. The modernist cone-shaped church is highlighted by four enormous stained glass windows that form at the top with a cross. Designed to echo the Mayan pyramids, the distinctive structure is hard to miss in the Rio skyline.
Back in January we showed this amazing video of a man wrestling a shark on a beach in Queensland, Australia.
Paul Marshallsea, 62, became an Internet sensation when he pulled the 2-meter-long dusky shark away from swimmers. Unfortunately for him, fame came at a price.
Marshallsea has been fired from his job as a project coordinator at the Pant and Dowlais Boys and Girls Club in Wales. In a letter quoted by the BBC, the club trustees said that although he was on sick leave during the incident he had apparently been healthy enough to wrestle a shark. The hint being, of course, that he was faking his illness.
Marshallsea objects that he wasn’t on sick leave for a physical ailment, but for work-related stress.
In a statement on their website, the club states that he was dismissed for a “variety of issues” unrelated to his holiday in Australia.
It’s a case of he-said, they-said and it’s difficult to see who’s right since the club is refusing to make any further statement to the press. You think they could have cut the guy some slack, though. If he can wrestle sharks, he can probably handle a bunch of Welsh kids.
[Photo courtesy SeaWorld, Queensland. The shark-wrestling incident did not involve a SeaWorld shark]
