The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1946-08-29
Rigors OF Travelling In Postwar
Europe Described By Bluffton Woman

box of % Milky Way bars-quite
valuable in Lebanon, and unobtain-
able on the Continent and here IN
England, which | have had occasion
to appreciate.
Ny luck was running strong when
| found | was bunked as the fourth
in with Mrs. Koch and her two
daughters. Alice Magarin, on her
way to Bluffton College was on the
same boat, and she was put as a
fourth in a cabin with "Genuwine
Bedowine Arab" and her eight
year-old daughter who had bugs in
her hair, on their way to Dakar
via Marseilles.
You never saw such conglomera-
ton of people-and the way they
packed them in. The boat had
s. Arted at Alexandria and there
.yere many on board going home to
Greece after years away in Egypt.
At Piraeus hundreds more got on to
go to France.
We had 300 below deck and 300
more sleeping on the decks-no one
was allowed on the top deck.
Tuesday was uneventful, but We'd
nesday was passed by numerous
Greek Islands on our way to Pira-
Gus where we landed just at dusk
Wednesday afternoon we had got
ten passes in our passports to &C
ashore at Pireaus-then the money
problem raised its ugly head again
Mrs. Koch had a few dollar bills
three of which she changed into
Greek money-she was afraid to dc
more for fear she wouldn't have
enough money in France if forced
to stay over in Marseilles-I haC
nothing at all for | was in the same
fix and was afraid to cash Trav
eller's check for / didn't want $2(
in Greek money. Pireaus was quite
badly bombed and looked decided the
worse for wear-and the heat! I've
never been so hot!
A Piraeus Armenian family me-
one of the Armenian girls on oul
boat going to Yale School of Music
and the young man took us under
his wing into Athens via the elec
trio train-there we were nearl!
run down by UNRRA trucks. Th'
store windows were filled with food
stuffs and other commodities but The
prices were such that only the ricf
could buy.
The unit of exchange is the drach
ma and it takes 5000 drachmas t.
make a dollar. In the heat We
wanted to take a taxi back to the
ship, but the taximan would have
charged $4,000 drachmas-fnally go'
down to 10000 and we still coulo
not afford it! Before the war the
drachma was worth more than q
cent-you can ask Alice about il
when she gets to Bluffton-she
speaks Greek as she is an Armenian
from Cyrus.
In Athens we took a street car tc
the base of Acropolis and walked up
to the top. 1t is just exactly like
had it pictured in my minds eye
from studying History of Art at O.
S. u. However, the mountains sur
rounding the city are as barren as
the mountains of Moab near the
Dead Sea. That part was a sur
prise.
We all would have enjoyed the ex-
petitions in the late morning if the
heat hadn't been so unbearable. On
our way back to the ship our train
broke down for 45 minutes, and we
didn't get back until too late for
lunch.
The next days after pulling out
of Piraeus, at sunset Thursday,
were uneventful until Saturday
morning when we passed thru the
Straits of Messina and alongside of
real for sure island volcano puff
ing out smoke. Sunday morning we
skirted along the eastern and north
ern sides of Corsica where the
mountains were quite high-a sur
prise to me.
About $3.50 Monday morning we
docked at Marseilles and then the
fun began! Fortunately Mrs. Koch
and | got in line early to pass thru
the French passport control, officers
who came aboard ship and checked
our passports and stamped out
money declaration slips.
Finally we found Cooks man
who took charge of getting US thru