A POCKET GUIDE TO GREECE

INTRODUCTION

"Greece appears to me to be a fountain of knowledge." -Samuel Johnson

The Greece you are going to see is a fantastic collection of islands and mountains. They straddle the blue waters of the Aegean and Ionian Seas. Greece has a glorious history and a friendly people. Its climate and geography offer unbelievable variations.

Greece is not a large country, nor does she have many people. The distance from east to west is 350 miles and from north to south it is the same. But in Greece travel is measured by the time it takes and not by miles or kilometers. Often you go by small boat (caique, pronounced kah-EEK) or on rough and winding roads. The main rail line connects Athens and Salonika, the two largest cities. The fastest train takes all day-or all night. Only by air do you appreciate how really small the country is. Commercial planes can go to the farthest point in one or two hours. A jet bomber could fly from the Bulgarian border to Athens, in southern Greece, in 20 minutes.

How many Greeks are there today? Latest figures indicate about 8,000,000. That is about the same as

New York City.

You may be familiar from school days with Greek mythology and history-the stories about Ulysses, Circe, and the wooden horse of Troy, and the lives of Socrates, Plato, Demosthenes, Pericles and the other great men of Greece's past. But for that very reason you probably have preconceived ideas of whom and what you will find. Or maybe your judgment is based on knowing the Greek restaurant man back in your home town. In any case, you will do well to discard any ideas you already have and start afresh in forming opinions about the Greece and the Greeks of today.

A FEW FACTS

"It was Greek to me."

-Shakespeare

There are a number of facts and figures you should know about Greece- -or at least you should know where to find them.

You'll find the Greek alphabet so different from our own that you won't be able to read street signs or store names. You won't even be able to guess at newspaper headlines. And to confuse you further, printed capital and small letters and written script all have different alphabets.

Greek money won't make it any easier for you. There is only paper money-there are no coins-and prices are in the "thousands." It takes 30,000 drachmas to buy one dollar. The largest bill is 50,000 drachmas, so when you pay cash for six months' or one year's advance rent for a house, you will need a briefcase to carry the money. If you go to the horse races at Phaleron Bay near Athens, you will find that the smallest ticket is for 20,000 drachmas and, if you are lucky, you may leave the track with a million drachmas in your pocket. The drachma's value was cut in half in terms of dollars in April 1953, and prices may fluctuate, so you would do weil to consult some fellow American immediately upon your arrival to get the latest on prices.