Postscript

Two classic moments:

"Is that Linear B?" A question asked by a seeming stranger who happened to glance at my open computer screen as I whiled away an idle moment looking through an old lecture. Who on earth would recognize the squiggles on my screen as Linear B! Not a stranger at all, but Michael Galaty, a colleague who also took the path from Bronze Age studies to Albanian archaeology. We had met once before, years ago, and neither of us recognized the other this second time until Linear B prompted the question. We went on to dinner and shared stories.


On the ferry ride home a man from Corfu who introduced himself as Alky (short for Alkinoos) struck up a conversation. The time passed quickly in interesting conversation and when we landed, he gave me a ride from the port to my hotel -- a gesture for which I was grateful because it made things so much easier for me. The hotel was posh by comparison to my rooms in Sarande and the general atmosphere in Corfu is far more sophisticated and European than the city I had just left. I went to the rooftop restaurant for dinner, watched the sun set, and thought through my Albanian experiences. In my mind's wanderings, it came to me that in Homer's telling, the true beginning of Odysseus' return home is when he reaches the island of Phaeacia, ruled by king Alkinoos, famous for his hospitality.