Greece to roman road

Chapter 173 Kemal’s Trip to Athens

Hans saw Kemal staring intently at the working tractor outside the car window. Kemal was obviously very interested in tractors: "According to the planning process, after I reported to the University of Athens and completed the handover work, the next day We will visit the tractor factory on site. If you are interested, you can come and visit together.”

Firstly, they were both strangers and met in a foreign country; secondly, they were both young people, in their twenties, and Hans had a very good impression of Kemal.

Moreover, whether in Germany or the Ottomans, out of interests of both sides, diplomatic relations have continued to develop in recent years, and domestic public opinion is also enthusiastic.

"Tractor factory? Greece can already produce its own tractors?" Kemal lost his voice.

"Yes, I heard that it is near the largest industrial area in Greece, Piraeus Port, not far from here," Hans explained.

The carriage was getting closer to the city center, and there were more and more pedestrians and vehicles on the streets.

As Greece's finances improve, Athens, the current capital of Greece, must have a new look.

Under the active supervision of Prime Minister Alexandros, the city of Athens began to carry out the reconstruction and expansion of the old city with great fanfare.

During the preparation process, the new urban construction plan fully absorbed the advanced experience and lessons from the development of Western European large cities and conducted full demonstrations. The designers specially traveled to a number of large and medium-sized European cities such as Paris, Hamburg, and London to Conduct on-site inspections.

After several years of hard work, Athens, the largest city in Greece, is no longer a dilapidated small city. With the construction of infrastructure in recent years, spacious and flat asphalt roads and complete underground pipelines have been built in Athens. Facilities, tap water supply systems, etc., and a large number of public lighting systems on both sides of the road.

Just as for the public lighting system, what kind of form should be adopted has caused a lot of controversy.

Conservatives believe that we should learn from London and use the already very mature gas lighting street lamps. After all, big cities like London have done preliminary exploration. As long as we follow the rules, there will definitely be no outrageous mistakes in large-scale lighting applications. Stability is better than .

There are also outstanding people who are keenly aware that electric lighting is the best choice for the future. Moreover, Athens also has considerable advantages in adopting electric lighting systems. That is, Greece is a trend-setter in the AC wave, and the development of electric power systems has always been advanced. level.

Moreover, this can also promote the application of alternating current and further promote it in Greece.

Up to now, the main users of electricity in Greece are still factories. In terms of personal electricity use by residents, it still takes time to popularize it on a large scale. After all, the inertia of society is also great. As a trendy application, light bulb lighting suddenly The people still cannot accept it.

Of course, this may also be caused by Greece's current lack of energy in other aspects except electric energy.

After learning about the public lighting plan being prepared by the city government, I was keenly aware that this was an opportunity to further promote electricity into thousands of households in Greece. The street lights standing on the streets of Athens are advertisements, showing the world that electric lighting of infinite light.

In order to persuade and win over the domestic capital, Crown Prince Constantine built a small amount of street lights, which caused the citizens of Athens, and even people near Athens to come to Athens to watch the street lights at night. The sensational effect inspired the lighting manager of the power plant, Karl .

Karl personally stepped in and lobbied the City Hall and the Prime Minister's Office in person, and finally got a commitment. For insurance reasons, developed factories could be allowed to build the first phase of the lighting project first and apply it on a small scale.

If the feasibility of bulb lighting for public lighting is proven, Tesla Electric will get more contracts.

At the same time, many parks were built in the city. Around these parks, many hospitals, markets, and supporting schools sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

The emergence of a large number of these public facilities has given the whole of Greece a completely new look.

So, in the hazy night, the public carriage carrying Kemal and Hans entered the center of Athens, just as the lights were on, which greatly amazed the two people who came to Athens for the first time.

Hans looked at the scene in front of him and exclaimed, "It's completely different from the backward Greece I imagined. It's not inferior to the cities in Western Europe at all!"

Athens gave Hans a good first impression. It was not like the desolate and dilapidated appearance of Central and Eastern Europe in the Western European people's inherent perception. The place where he would work in the future still looked very good.

The vibrant city of Athens gave Kemal a much more complicated impression.

Think about a prestigious city like Constantinople. When you walk on the streets, you can see stinking sewage everywhere. The Ottoman Empire's finances were sluggish, and it was impossible to spend too much money on a sewage drainage system that was not critical.

For a long time in history, Constantinople was the most magnificent city in Europe. In the Middle Ages, almost all of the Western European business travelers who passed through Constantinople felt ashamed of themselves when passing by this city. .

When there were only tens of thousands of people in London and Paris, Constantinople was a city with a population of over one million.

Just from the nickname "Istanbul" of Constantinople, which means "entering the city", you can understand the surging joy in the hearts of those who are about to enter this great city.

At some point, the glory of Constantinople was surpassed by the latecomers such as Paris, London, and even Berlin.

Although Constantinople has many historical architectural monuments, the impression it brings to tourists has gradually become negative: sewage is rampant on the streets, so that everywhere is smelly, and it has not been expanded for many years and looks narrow. Tight roads and dilapidated houses.

It is difficult to connect the Constantinople in the history books with the sleepy city today.

Since it was already late, the two got off the carriage and headed to the hotel together.

Just in time for the busy period in the evening, dozens of dining guests were bustling in the small hotel's not-so-large front hall.

Seeing two well-dressed guests, Hans and Kemal, walking in, the boss who was standing behind the counter brightened up, knowing that they were distinguished guests, he hurriedly stepped forward, took the boxes from their hands, and said eagerly : "Two guests are welcome, but our hotel only has one room."

Seeing the two people's embarrassment, he continued: "The recent period has been the peak period for guests, and other hotels are also crowded. You two can just stay in our hotel for one night. If you are not satisfied, you will be invited tomorrow." You can find a pleasant hotel again”

Hans was not proficient in Greek and could not converse casually, so Kemal was responsible for all negotiations with the boss.

After all, Kemal came from Salonika, a city known as “where even the shoeshine boy speaks six languages.”

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