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Athens Greece by ship, ferry or boat.
Arriving in Greece by Ship or Boat
Since first impressions tend to influence one's appreciation of a country, it is just as well to select the method of transport with due consideration. For instance, the right way to arrive in Venice is by sea, or by gondola from Mestre, for trains or cars make their entry into this most beautiful of cities in a district which has been really spoilt by materialistic-minded administrators in the nineteenth century. On the other hand, liners pass slowly through a channel between two lidos, and then suddenly a wonderful spectacle opens up before the traveller's eyes : the tall Campanile of St. Mark's Square, the snowy white Palace of the Doges, the pencil steeple of San Giorgio on its islet, the bright golden ball on the summit of the Dogana, the Dome of the Salute. On a sunny day, prefer ably in the late afternoon or the early morning, there is a riot of light, of changing colour, and imaginative architecture. Athens by Ship, Ferry and Boat Now the approach to Athens needs perhaps even more discernment, for if the works of man add little to the beauty of the scene, the first impact of the Bay is one of the greatest experiences of a lifetime, but it must be seen from the sea, or from the coastal road that passes Glifadha and Phaleron. So my choice would be to arrive by boat or by plane, and my preference would be to sail in from the east catching sight perhaps of the marble columns of the temple of Poseidon on Cape Sunion, for this promontory lunges right out into the blue Aegean, with a promise of still greater wonders to come. In the background, the violet grey Pentelikon fills the skyline, for it is nearly four thousand feet high, and seen from this angle, it just tops Mount Hymettus, whose bare slopes are covered with the scented flowers that produce such good honey. Below and much nearer, the grey coast is dotted with white villas half buried among sombre trees, for Athens, alas, is spreading as fast as any other capital and perhaps even faster, but the town planning authorities are usually vigilant. To the left of the slowly steaming ship, the island of Aegina's outline is blurred by a slight mist that adds to the magic of the scene. In fact, the clear white light lends enchant ment to a landscape that looks as if it had been planned by the Great Architect of the Universe to be the setting of the noblest and most intelligent of nations. If the hills and the coastal features are usually distinct, the haze of the sea evokes all sorts of visions of the past, of the ships that ventured out into the unknown without charts, without compasses to wander through the Mediterranean in the face of frightful dangers. Now according to Plutarch, it was Theseus who selected the site of Athens to be the capital of Attica, and it was he who led the people to make their home at the foot of the Acropolis on which he built the first Senate House and Council Chamber. Nevertheless, the Delphic Oracle whom he consulted, foretold that the city's prosperity and survival could only be found on the water. This prophecy, as we know, proved to be absolutely true, for more than once Athens was saved by her fleet, and she has risen again like the Phoenix, after the most overwhelming threats of destruction. So in the present day, one of the mainstay's of Greek economy is the merchant navy, based at Piraeus which is one of the largest ports of the Mediterranean. It was also the harbour of ancient Athens, but now there are no outward remains of the glorious past but only the signs of a very active present. As ships glide nearer to their destination, a tangled mass of rigging, derricks, and masts reveals the dock area, and behind it, the smoke of the chimneys of factories hangs like a pall over Piraeus and the eastern suburbs of Athens. The harbour is crammed with shipping from, all parts of the world, but in particular from Egypt, Turkey, and Israel, as well as from the great maritime countries like Britain, Germany and the United States. Before landing, the new arrival is made to buy a ticket for the transport of his luggage, but only too often the porters extract a sizeable tip from the tongue-tied foreigner. The country Greeks are singularly hospitable, generous and tin grasping, but in Piraeus, and in the centre of Athens, the taxi drivers tend to try out the well-worn trick of forgetting to put down their flags, and of asking for twice the recognized fare, or even more if they can get it.
For those who are lightly loaded, the Larissa and the Peloponnesus stations are near at hand. The first is the terminus for trains going to northern Greece, the second for the south side of the Corinth Canal and to all accessible parts of the Peloponnesus. This mountainous peninsula was known as the Morea in the Middle Ages, but the name is still used by some writers. To go cheaply to Athens, there is the underground railway to Omonias Square, one of the hubs of the city, but about a mile away from the hotels of Constitution Square, which is called Plateia Syntagmatos in Greek, but will answer to its cosmopolitan name. As a rule, I have found it cheaper, quicker, and more practical to charter a taxi from the docks, after finding out the exact amount of the usual tariff, a tariff which grows with each successive year, so I will refrain from quoting a figure which may soon be out of date. If the approach by sea is a dream, the drive into the centre from Piraeus is disappointing, for the road passes through a hideous industrial district whose ugliness is relieved by an occasional glimpse of the marble columns of the Parthenon high up on its till. At night, this spectacle can be enchanting, for the Acropolis is floodlit, and rises like a phantom out of the darkness. In 1933, there were still fields and meadows in the area that lies between Piraeus and Athens, but ten years previously the two cities were separated by three or four miles of open country. This rapid increase in size is due largely to the exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey in 1953 after a disastrous war. The refugees came for the most part from Asia Minor and the Turkish islands, but others were ejected from the remote shores of the Black Sea, where they had lived for centuries in places like Trebizond. Until then, there had still been a number of Turks in Greece particularly in the northern provinces which had only been liberated in 1912, and in Crete, that had been a sort of Mandated Territory for nearly twenty years. Well over a million newcomers had to be accommodated in the mid-nineteen-twenties, and this at a time when there were no more than six: million inhabitants in the country. Some authorities put the figure of immigrants at one and a half million, which was precisely 35 per cent, of the population. Somehow or another these unfortunates were assimilated, but in spite of this, there has also been a steady flow of countrymen coming to the capital in search of work. Then, more recently, during the Civil War that broke out in 1948, 700,000 refugees arrived from the north, and though most of them were eventually repatriated, a certain number remained. Later on, when Nasser began to pursue a nationalistic policy, still more Greeks arrived from Egypt, and many of these had been away from their fatherland for several generations. Of those who had come from Turkey, the great majority were descended from the Greek settlements of Homeric times, and most of them had never even visited the land where they were taking refuge. Their dialects, their customs and the traditions were very different, but like all Greeks they were intensely proud of their race, and the fact that they were of the same religion facilitated matters greatly. So Athens has spread, and her streets are usually incredibly crowded, even for the Mediterranean region where the people spend most of their lives out of doors.
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