My Diary in Serbia: April 1, 1915-Nov. 1, 1915Stanley, Monica M.
History
My Diary in Serbia: April 1, 1915-Nov. 1, 1915
Stanley, Monica M.
World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
Lemnos is a barren-looking place, mountainous all round, no trees, and
it is covered with the English and French camps. There is a new
hospital being built at the water's edge. There is no fresh water, and
experts have been sent from England to sink artesian wells. The water
had to be taken out in tanks. One lady at Marseilles sent out
ship-loads of soda water for the soldiers. The harbour is full of
battleships, chiefly French, and there are several hospital ships,
also many transports. The largest ship is the _Aquitania_ from
Liverpool, with four large funnels. Mines and nets are all round us;
at several points of the island guns are fixed; we could hear firing
this afternoon, and we were told that at Imbros one could see the
shells bursting at the Dardanelles. We stayed at Lemnos eight hours;
it is a lovely day and very calm.
Thursday, _October 21, 1915._
We arrived at Piraeus at 6 a.m., landed at 8, then took the train to
Athens, and went straight to Cook's office and wrote letters to
friends staying here, arranging to return for any answers. We then
took a carriage and went to the museum; the statuary is very fine and
beautiful. We returned to Cook's and found a letter from our Greek
friends, inviting us to luncheon at 1 o'clock. We had an hour and a
half more to spare, so took a carriage and went to the Acropolis. It
is indeed wonderful the view of Athens from the top, most beautiful.
We thoroughly enjoyed this sight; the trees all along are most
interesting--avenues of pepper trees, date palms, aloes and cactus; we
also saw a few orange trees. We then went to our friend's house at 1
o'clock. There were three married sisters and their children, and an
English girl, governess to the children. After luncheon they took us
sight-seeing, first to the Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1837 by
some wealthy Greek, and containing memoirs of the Greek War of
Independence, portraits and native costumes, and the clothes of the
Greek King who was shot at Salonika. A tomb has been erected on the
pavement there where he was shot, and a chapel is to be built near.
The pistol that shot him was in the case with the clothes. We also saw
many flags that the Greeks had captured in many different wars, a
sword of Lord Byron's, and his portrait and visiting card.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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