Page 159 - GREC14N_SKG_03

SKG

Alexandros
arrived after a short visit to Vienna to kiss, maybe for the
in the city last time, his grandfather and grandmother –the
distances were huge, and who knew whether he
by ship would see them again. If they were still alive. If he
was still alive...
When he heard a sailor shouting that they would
soon be docked, he wore his long white shirt,
tucked it hastily into his riding trousers and then,
soaked in sweat, left the tiny cabin he had found
for himself and had paid handsomely. A cabin hot and humid as hell.
He was travelling for a long time, this last part of his journey from
Piraeus to Salonika had lasted two days. The ship was sailing all night
along the coasts of Chalkidiki, they had probably escaped from the
danger of pirates, but the cannons stayed put. The sea was calm and
sweet, sounds and scents from the land reached him, touched him;
sleepy crickets, sheep bells, dogs howls, pine-tree, resin, dry seaweed,
freshly cut grass. The first days of June, nature at its best! was preparing to sail into
It was almost dawn, as Alexandros found out, while he was dragging the harbor. He opened the
his feet to the deck with other half-awake, plagued by the mosquitoes lapels of his shirt to freshen
passengers, who were now surfacing from the ship’s guts. It was up and tried to see through
almost dawn and the light was dim; worried and alert, the crew the morning haziness: a thin
cloud was hovering above
the sea and below the sky, it
The Enchanted Ones, Las Incantadas, in Ladino, “the was obvious that the water
was evaporating right there,
Karyatides of Salonika”, are weaving the thread of before his very eyes, and he
this story that begins with a queen madly in love had never seen such a thing in
with Alexander the Great to run through Salonika of his life! His lips curved into a
the 19th century. Οι Μαγεμένες, Las Incantadas στα timid smile when he looked
λαντίνο, «οι Καρυάτιδες της Θεσσαλονίκης» γνέφουν at the direction where an
image, idyllic at the very least,
το νήμα αυτής της ιστορίας που ξεκινά με μια βασί- was beginning to formulate
λισσα τρελά ερωτευμένη με τον Μέγα Αλέξανδρο για and becoming definite. In the
να διατρέξει τη Θεσσαλονίκη του 19ου αιώνα. harbor, ships lied anchored;

B e yo n d t h e

w a l l s

159