Steinaker (DD 863) - Naval Cruise Book

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THE BULGARIAN TRIP Mined roads, tank traps and Greek soldiers every half-mile greeted us as we approached the Bulgarian border on a tour sponsored by the American Consulate at Salonika and under the auspices of the Greek Army. Bouncing over the roughest roads imagineable for the last 15 miles of our journey we saw, for the first time, what the Greek countryside was really like. Most of the land was poor by American standards, the people managing to exist mostly by sheep herding and by farming the 'rocky soil. Almost every small town had it barracks and soldiers, and as we ap- proached the border, the road became rougher. We passed over a railroad bridge, hoping that a train wouldn't choose that particular moment to come charging down the tracks. On the last ten miles, barbed wire, tank traps and barricades were everywhere. Upon our arrival we were' greeted by two Greek majorsrand some other oflicers who showed us the Greek-Bulgarian border. We had a chance to inspect the cclron Curtainn, in this case, merely a wooden fence designed to keep the Bulgarians from looking out into Greek territory. SALONIKA GREECE Salonika, known as Thessaloniki in Greece, with a population of 350,000 was founded by Carsander, king of Macedonia, in 315 B.C. and was named for his wife Thessalonika, the sister of Alexander the Great. Its location on the Via Egnatia, the main line of communication from Rome to the Near East, gave it considerable importance as a commercial and intellectual center in Bome and Macedonia. St. Paul preached here and founded the church to which his Epistles of the Thessalonians are addressed. The history of Salonika is a repetition of siege and occupation by all the great powers that dominated the Eastern Mediterranean at various times for the last two thousand years. During World War 1, Salonika was a center of ope- rations against Bulgaria and the central powers by the Allies, and in 1917, some 600,000 men were stationed in the district. The city was the scene of northeastern Greece's resistance to guerrilla warfare after the close of World War II. Points of interest in the city include the White Tower constructed in the 15th century by the Venetians and used by the Turks as a prison. It stands as a prominent landmark of the harbor. The Citadel or Acropolis, is of Byzantine age, 6th century, and occupies the highest point of the city. It is now used as a military prison. Remains of the ancient city walls which were built in the 6th century extend for several miles through the northern and eastern portion of the city. Greek soldiers still maintain a lookout from the .fortifications along the walls. The Church of St. Sophia resembles the celebrated church

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