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ОглавлениеThe Lands of the Tamed Turk
CHAPTER I
WHY THE BALKANS?
The Rundreise Ticket—Why the Balkans?—When and Where English is Heard—Why Not the Balkans?
For a week we had remained in London, trying furiously to make up our minds which part of the Continent would interest us most. In the evenings at dinner we laid bare our ideas collected during the day, and endeavoured to formulate plans, but those countries which one favoured to visit seemed in no wise to appeal to the other. By the end of the week we had about completed our inventory of the tourable parts of Europe without one of us being inoculated with a special desire to revisit any of them. Then some one suggested, “Why not the Balkans?”
That seemingly insignificant little interrogation cut short our evening convocations in London as abruptly as one would snuff the wick of a candle, for inside of forty-eight hours we had purchased our “Rundreise” and “Hapag” tickets and were speeding Vienna-ward.
To the seasoned traveller the following brief explanation may seem a trifle superfluous but, at the same time, it may be the means of saving a world of bother and inconvenience, no small item of expense and an incalculable loss of temper to the uninitiated—especially in countries where an English-speaking individual is regarded with no little curiosity.
The “Rundreise,” or “Round-trip-ticket,” is an institution in itself. On it you may travel, for example, from London to Constantinople and return to London by way of any route or in any direction. You may go to Paris, to Cologne, and up the Rhine to Frankfort; thence to Vienna, Buda-Pesth, Constantinople, and return by way of the Levant and the Riviera. There are a hundred different routes by which to go and come, a hundred interesting parts of countries to pass through, a hundred beautiful cities to visit. You may travel by rail or by boat, first, second or third class—according to the price paid—but you must return to the starting-point, or, at all events, you will have paid for that privilege, and it concerns but you if you do not care to avail yourself of it.
The one serious proviso of the “Rundreise ticket,” and one that will be at once a drawback to some and a boon to others, is that no luggage may be checked on it. But the less luggage and the smaller the assortment of clothes taken for travel in the Balkans the better—providing, of course, your mission does not necessitate your being dined and wined by the nobility and diplomats.
The “Hapag ticket” is, in the language of the Magyar, of the same general specie as the “Rundreise.”
And in contemplating such a trip through the Southeast of Europe, two important questions naturally arise: Why? and why not the Balkans?
To the first there are many convincing replies. The Balkan States have been, for two thousand years, the “Powder Box” of Europe. The Greeks, and, after them, the Romans, came and saw and conquered; the Venetians, for a time, swept all before them along the coast of the Adriatic; for five hundred years the Turks, thirsting for the blood of the Christians, have attacked, have been repulsed and have attacked again, shocking the entire world with their atrocious massacres. One need not hunger for history in travelling through the Balkans. In addition, its peoples are primitive, their customs are curious and their methods mediæval. They are backward and unsophisticated in everything but war—and that word “war” has been the slogan in the “Near East” for centuries.
Furthermore, the territory has been left uninvaded by the frantic tourist,—in fact, an American is regarded as a wonder to look upon, and his harmless little camera, aimed promiscuously, is as apt to conjure up a crowd of stary-eyed, open-mouthed, inquisitive natives as the perpetration of a political tragedy.
And woe is he who cannot speak German, or at least enough of that language to ask the questions necessary to travel, for the days of “personally conducted” tours through the Balkans have yet to come. He may speak French fluently but, exclusive of the diplomatic circles, it would be as much to his advantage to adhere to American slang. The exceptions, however, invariably prove the rule, and it is when English is least expected to be heard that its utterance is the most heartily appreciated.
“A CROWD OF STARY-EYED, OPEN-MOUTHED, INQUISITIVE NATIVES.”
The head-waiter of the hotel in Belgrade had been a deck steward on a trans-Atlantic liner and of course surprised us upon our arrival with a generous speech in English.
The hotel proprietor in Sophia spoke nine languages with great fluency and, in addition, had been studying English from newspapers. He had so far advanced in the mastery of the grammar as to have been able to read Dickens (whether he understood it or not is another matter), but I had the honour of being the first English-speaking person upon whom he had had the opportunity of airing his pronunciation. Considering the fact that he had never before indulged his English in conversation he butchered it to a remarkably small degree, and was understood without an excessive amount of difficulty.
As another example of this clandestine knowledge of the English language throughout the Balkan Peninsula, I was standing one evening on the molo at Ragusa, watching two fishermen load their small boats with nets and other implements of the catch. At the stern of their craft was displayed a large and cumbersome lantern having a powerful reflector. I questioned the rower in German, such as it was, as to the use of this paraphernalia, and, as I had not heard a word of my mother-tongue in the town—in fact, all along the Dalmatian coast—my auricular nerves suffered a profound but agreeable shock when the man replied, “The sardines follow the light while we lead ’em into the nets.” He had been a sailor and had visited almost every port in the United States as well as in England.
And, why not the Balkans?
In place of the mountain-trails and muddy cart-roads of a few years ago there are now railway lines that form a network through the most interesting sections, and travel is facilitated proportionately. The scenery is as picturesque as any in Europe, while the touch of colour, in the garb of the peasants mingling with the variegated uniforms of the always conspicuous army, adds an unalloyed charm seldom enjoyed along the time-honoured travel routes of the Continent. Good hotels, at which the food is excellent and well prepared, may be found in the cities, and the accommodations, if not luxurious, cleanly and comfortable.
THE HOTEL PROPRIETOR, SOPHIA.
As late as 1853-54 not a single telegraphic line existed beyond the Austrian frontier. Along the highway from Belgrade to Constantinople, through Nisch and Sophia, messages from the Western courts to the Sublime Porte were carried by dare-devil riders at a speed which sacrificed horse-flesh regardlessly. A notable achievement was the ride along this route of one Colonel Townley, who covered eight hundred miles in the incredibly short time of five days and ten hours. To-day the “Orient Express” eats its tortuous way tri-weekly from Calais to Constantinople, crossing Europe from edge to edge, in a fraction over four days.
Hardships of travel through the near East have vanished, although, in countries so backward and so seldom visited by the sightseer, it would be highly improbable that inconveniences would not be encountered. But these inconveniences are doubly cancelled by the pleasures and sensations of vibrating between the beauty-spots of pugnacious little principalities, whose histories have been written so indelibly with blood upon the pages of the world’s progress.
