Roanoke (CL 145) - Naval Cruise Book

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Rear Admiral Carson receives local dignitaries aboard in Salonilea, Greece fifty miles an hour over narrow, clillfhanging roads riding on the horn. Frequently Popolopus would turn his head around, smiling proudly, to see if we were duly impressed with his power over his rasping horn. Entering into the spirit of the countryside, we pleaded earnestly with the local god Zeus to deliver us from this hotfrod Greek. Being outfofftowners, our prayers were answered considerably sooner than Popolopus would have liked, when finally the steam' ing bus coasted a few blocks past the ship to a miraculous Halt. It was then that Popo removed his hand reluctantly from the groaning horn. And .Q wx .M-rtsif QYQXQ ssft.Nzby.s . . zssgi, sg N-Nagel: as we filed wearily out of the death comet, he said, still smiling proudly, You lika', no? He would have been jailed long ago for reckless driving had he been a driver on the Indianapolis Speedway. Salonika, the ancient home of Phillip of Mace' donia, is located near the northern border of Greece, where Greece joins Yugoslavia, Albania and Bul' garia, and it was our next port of call. All was quiet when the Roanolee arrived there, although guerrilla warfare had ceased in the surrounding hills only a few months before. We were unable to visit the nearby Voice of America relay station, but we learned that it is the nearest transmitter of the Voice to Moscow, and transmits daily through the Iron Curtain to the Balkan countries and Russia. Here at Salonika we had to be content with the knowledge that we were making a diplomatic call, for there was little entertainment other than a few highfpriced pseudofnightclubs, and little sightseeing. An interesting sight that some of us saw was the remarkable American Farm School, founded a number of years ago by a Presbyterian mission' ary, which trains young Greeks in modern farm methods and itself maintains a model farin. It was the one place in all Europe where we were able to get a drink of fresh, cold, pasteurized milk. After tlie trip from Salonilca, our fleet landing in Naples-witli a battalion of guides waiting lieliind column at left Q46

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Greek thiltlrzn wait for their itcftraam .intl :aka ui Roanoke niesslialls came a male choir singing with deep religious fervor, their voices echoing through the quiet streets as they poured forth the traditional funeral music of the Church. During all this in the streets of Athens, a con' stant procession of Christians was wending its way with lighted candles up the Hill of Likkabettos, highest spot in Athens, to the church that sits high upon its pinnacle. Up the winding path they climbed, making a snaky line of hre visible to the entire city below. Thus we were privileged to view a Greek ob' servance that, strange to most of us, left us with the feeling that we had witnessed something extremely worthwhile, It gave us a good feeling. We liked the Greeks after that night, as we had perhaps not liked them before. A phenomenon of all Europe is the driver who depends on a wild use of his horn to get him through any and all tight spots, and no where was a better demonstration of this fast, hornfblowing technique provided for us than on our trip to Corinth. Never have we had such a ride, and never do we hope to have another like it. The driver of our bus either didn't trust his brakes or didn't know where they were located. He did trust his horn. There was nothing, he felt, that his horn couldn't move or scare, so we made the harrowing sixtyfmile trip at 45ir fd P- ,fp- ss p A, ,ei JI? I Playing Santa Clausn to the Grcclc war orphans was fun

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