In China of old, it is said that “逐鹿中原”， “得中原者， 得天下”。
I guess in the classical Greco-Roman world, it would be "得地中海者， 得天下。"
What Mayday sings about really rings true: "水能載舟也能煮粥". Indeed, 水能載舟也能覆舟.
In the older civilaztions, the states that control the rivers reign supreme. Places which are relatively back-water these days owe their glory, albeit of yesteryears, to their proximity to the water. Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) owe its name ('between the rivers' in Greek) to the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. And of course, there is Egypt and the river Nile. Once the Greeks learnt to command their fast boats, their fleet were able to rule the Mediterranean Sea. The Athenians, and then the Greeks, would be able to launch their ships and sail south to North Africa and east to Asia.
As ships got bigger and faster, even the states in the north got into the fray. Venice ('Mistress of the Mediterranean) and port cities of Croatia, with access to the Adiatic Sea, were able to share in the wealth generated by tradings across the Med.
Rivers flow into Sea, and Sea into Ocean. These days, the Med more not longer be such a big deal, as ocean-going liners sails the Ocean. But, if yours is a state with no access to the Atlantic Ocean, access to the sea is still important. No wonder major naval powers need to maintain their presence in these seas of Europe: the Baltic fleets, the Black Sea Squadrons, the Mediterranean fleets.
Delimiting territories on the sea is not as easy as on land, when even on land exact borders an be matter of great controversy. I knew on the southern coast of Europe, there is the Mediterranean Sea; but once you throw in the Adiatic Sea, the Ionian Sea and the Aegean Sea, things got confusing. Well, actually travelling on these seas gave one a chance to clear up the confusion. The Adiatic is between the Italian and Balkan peninsula, further south is the Ionian Sea. As you round Sparta and Athen, you have the Aegean Sea. Of these three, the Aegean is probably the most famous, not less because it sounds good when translated: 愛琴海.
Travelling down the south coast of Italy and then out to the Mediterranean to go on to eastern destination isn't something new. As early as a century ago, that was how snail mail get from England to India. Although the train travelled all the way to Brindisi, south of Bari.
Not very helpful, but it does help that my ship is huge, and the word SuperFast were large on bright red background.
There wasn't much to do in the building, and outside, it was hot and everything was so bright. It's just as well that the crew alllowed us to board hours before departure time. At the same time, the cars and trucks made their way into the belly of the ship through the gaping mouth.
The family cars and the vans got in first, then it was the turn of the larger container trucks. Some passengers arrived late, and you could see them rushing across the parking area, running towards the crew with their arm, holding the ticket, outstretched infront of them.
When the last of the trucks were parked on deck (or 'the camping area', as it was called on the ship), the ship set sail, smoke belching from the engine chimneys.
One of the crew member hoisted the Greek flag as we sailed out onto the Adriatic.
Within an hour, the sun starts to set on the starboard side, over the Italian peninsula. With the sun down and the wind blowing in, the deck was getting really chilly.
Eight hours of sleep later, when I got back out on the deck, the sun was peeking out from the silouhette of a low mountain range in the distant. I wasn't sure where the ship was now.
Checking on the cellphone, I discovered that it was locked onto a AMC-AL network. That's a Albania telco. On the port side, the sun is rising over the Balkan peninsula.
Over here in Singapore, Balkan nations such as Croatia and Montenegro are being promoted as new exotic destination. One of the Orient Express route that I had decided to avoid on the onset was the Simplon-Orient-Express, which goes from Venice to Istanbul via Sofia and Belgrade. This will probably require a transit in the Balkan. Back in my university days, I vaguely remember the Muslim/Malay society raising fund for Serbia. I wasn't really aware of what was going on in the Balkan and ex-Yugoslavia states. Now, I feel it is still too early to return to this region where massacre, genocide and rape had occurred on such scale. Just stained with too much bad blood. Maybe a little later, when the court at Hague had handed out handed out judgements to the war criminals.
Ten minutes later, I got a welcome message from a Greek telecom operator. I have crossed into Greece. And maybe into the Ionian Sea?
Given that I have got myself an "aircraft type seat" for the night, I have a rather good night of rest. The room with the rows of seats were rather similar to a small cinema hall. In fact, "American Reunion" was playing on the screen at the front of the room before lights-off. The seats were also similar to cinema seats on one of the better and newer cinema. Earlier in the evening. It was rather noisy earlier on, since the room is next to the ship reception lobby. Those who have their own bed in a cabins were streaming in and out having a look-see in the "cattle class". A few groups of passengers also gathered around the tables outside having a drink.
Once the sky turned dark, there were less traffic in and outside the room. The only problem was, a big guy pick the row behind me for the night. I assumed he was one of the many truck drivers. He took off his shoes and his socks and feet began to stink up the whole room. That's not all, he started to snore once he sank into dreamland. What's worst was that the other passengers in front were cranking their neck and looking in my direction, I think they assumed I was the one doing the stinking and snoring. Some of the passengers disappeared from the room before lights-off. I reckoned they took up the ship's offer of upgrading to a cabin.
It was also around this time when it occurred to me that I have (in Milan, the morning before) reserved a room in Athen for THIS very night. I have probably got the date wrong, forgetting to take into account my one night on the ship.
That left the seats in the room rather empty. I pushed up the arm rest of the entire row and was able to lay the lenght of my body flat. Sometime in the night, I woke up to find the snoring had stopped. The big guy were nowhere to be found. He either upgrade to cain or went over to his truck.
Within half an hour after I saw the sun peeking out, the sky had turned completely bright. The ship had one port of call before going further south to Patras. For a minute, I thought we have arrived in Patras. I was not sure, and still am not sure, what's the port. But judging from the fact that we have been out at sea for about 11 hours, with another 7 to go, my guess is that we are at the port of Igoumenitsa,
and were very near the islands of Ithake and Corinth.
If you are familiar with Homer's epic, The Odyssey, this should be roughly where the hero, Ulysses, was trying to get home to after the war at Troy.
At this port-of-call, most of the trucks emptied out of the ship, while most of the passengers stayed.
Checking out the ship, it now looked to me that the passenger area wasn't really that big. There was the usual video games.
By this time, the restaurant was crowded with hungry passengers. EAT HEARTY!! FOR TONIGHT, WE DINE IN HELL.....er...IN HELLAS.
By now, the whole ship was swarmed by a bunch of noisy American kids. They probably were on a school field trip to Europe. They were everywhere, on the deck, in the restaurant, at the bar counter ordering coffee, and trying to draw cash from the ATM onboard.
On their t-shirts, there were printed some words like these: "Make it a better world." I was not sure how they intend to do it, simply by coming to Europe. My guess was they will disembark from the ship and with tour bus waiting at the pier, head straight for Athen. This, and the fact that I have no bed for tonight, gave me second thought about going all the way to Athen. What if the Acropolis is crawling with noisy American kids?
About 18 hours after the Greek flags was hoisted at Bari, the port of Patras came into sight.
All the passengers gathered at the lobby. And I was right, buses were waiting for the American kids. There were many other tour buses too, to scoop up the other passengers. As for the rest of us, about 30, there was just a port authority bus to take us over to the immigration building. Immigration check were rather relax. I was surprised to find a man getting a hair cut in one of the room near immigration check. No, he didn't look like Kitaro. I checked at the shipping lines counter about getting into town.
By the time I got out of the building, all the backpackers were squeezed under the small bus stand, which wasn't really providing any shelter from the sun. There were a handful of middle age Japanese, all tanned and slim, as if they have worked all their lives under the sun, in the field or at sea. One of them started a conversation with me in English. After learning I was from SIngapore, he switched to Chinese. Turned out, he was a ethnic Chinese who had lived most of his live in Japan.
Across the road, there were a few Mercedes Benz taxis. The drivers didn't even solicitate for our business. Within 10 minutes, everyone seemed to assume the bus wasn't going to come. One by one, the backpackers crossed over and negotiated the price for downtown. It didn't take long before the bus stand were emptied. I guess they were all in a hurry to get on a bus to Athen. Including that jolly bunch of Japs.
Me, I was still in two minds whether to stop in Patras or continue on. And any way, within five minutes after everyone else (except one guy who look like local, and a couple of young backpackers who probably didn't find it economical to split the fare between the two of them) cleared the bus stop, the city bus made it way towards us.
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