USS Cambria (LPA 36) - Naval Cruise Book

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GREECE VJf - hen we lf.ft Cbete we were still shivering from our drenching or shuddering from the hours spent in replenishing our fleet brethren. The type exercise period that followed our swan song to Soudha built us back some, but now our morale, not our reefers and holds, needed replenishing. That ' s why when we dropped the hook 12 fathoms down in the unprotected ' summer ' anchorage of Phaleron Bay, our spirits headed straight for the summit of Mt. Olympus. Long before the Special Sea Detail had been secured we had our liberty shoes shined and resting on the main deck — with us in them. From our pigtail-pulling, two-a-cat days we had heard about Athens. As the home of wisdom and beauty, as the olive-growing rootbed of modern-day democracy. We went off in search of clear-eyed, noble-browed Minervas. Off to see the meeting places of the boule and epistatoi. Off to see the slanted columns of the Parthenon that by architectural genius were to appear vertical from any angle. And we were not disappointed. We saw temples to Zeus and Apollo and Dionysius. We stood on the hill called the Areopagus and sum- moned up images of grape chewing sages passing through the business of the day with reason and justice. We took in the tiny Agora, remembering it had once been the cross roads of world trade. About the size of one super- market, yet the world ' s finest had been displayed here. We were told of the ancient Dionysian rite of changing water to wine. We discovered the secret tunnel and door where a temple priest could hide and upon signal dis- charge wine into a pool. We realized more than the Phidian pediment and Triglyph walls had originated in the Athens area. Apparently ' cut ' liquor had too. A lot of modern-day Greece intrigued as well. The floor shows of the Argentina and Femina beckoned some. After the rock-n-roll of shipboard life the rock bottom prices at the American Club called others. Then there was the Sixth Fleet Canteen. Good music, handsome Hellenic hostesses, free food . . . and no Shore PatroL From Ouzo to the Acropolis we liked Greece. Expen- sive but nice. About the hardest thing to get used to was standing on the street corner you were looking for unable to read the sign that said you were there. The Gnekl may have a word for it. But they certainly keep it a secret!