Chapter 173 Kemal's Trip to Athens

Hans saw Kemal staring at the tractor working outside the car window intently. It was obvious that Kemal was very interested in tractors: "According to the plan, after I report to the University of Athens and complete the handover work, I will visit the tractor factory the next day. If you are interested, you can come and visit together."

First, both of them are foreigners who met in a foreign country; second, both of them are young people in their twenties, and Hans has a good impression of Kemal.

Moreover, whether in Germany or the Ottoman Empire, the diplomatic relations between the two sides have continued to improve in recent years due to the consideration of interests, and domestic public opinion is also enthusiastic.

"Tractor factory? Greece can already produce tractors by itself?" Kemal said in a lost voice.

"Yes, I heard that it is near the largest industrial zone in Greece, the Port of Piraeus, 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 street.

With the improvement of Greece's finances, Athens, as the current capital of Greece, must have a new look.

Under the active urging of Prime Minister Alexandros, the city of Athens began to vigorously renovate and expand the old city.

During the preparation process, the new urban construction plan fully absorbed the advanced experience and lessons of the development of large cities in Western Europe, and carried out sufficient demonstration. The designers went to a number of large and medium-sized European cities such as Paris, Hamburg, and London for field investigations.

After several years of hard work, Athens, as 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, complete underground pipeline facilities, tap water supply systems, etc. have been built in Athens, and a large number of public lighting systems on both sides of the road have been built.

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

Conservatives believe that they should learn from London and adopt the already very mature gas lighting street lamps. After all, there are big cities like London that have done preliminary explorations. As long as they follow the rules, there will definitely be no outrageous mistakes in large-scale lighting applications, and they win in stability.

There are also outstanding people who have keenly realized that electric lighting is the best choice for the future. Moreover, Athens has considerable advantages in adopting electric lighting systems. That is, as a trendsetter in the wave of alternating current, Greece has always been at an advanced level in the development of its power system.

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

So far, the main users of electricity in Greece are still factories. It still takes time to popularize it on a large scale in terms of personal electricity use by residents. After all, the inertia of society is also very large. As a new application, light bulb lighting is not accepted by the public all of a sudden.

Of course, this may also be caused by the lack of energy in Greece except for electric energy.

After learning about the public lighting plan that the municipal government is preparing, it is keenly aware that this is 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 the infinite brightness of electric lighting.

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

Karl personally went to the city hall and the prime minister's residence, and finally got a promise that for insurance reasons, the developed factory could be allowed to first build the first phase of the lighting project and apply it on a small scale.

If the feasibility of bulb lighting for public lighting is verified, Tesla Power Company will get more contracts.

At the same time, several parks were built in the city, and around these parks, many hospitals and markets, as well as supporting schools, emerged like mushrooms after rain.

The emergence of these public facilities in large numbers has given the whole of Greece a 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 made the two people who came to Athens for the first time greatly admired.

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 bleak and dilapidated appearance of Central and Eastern Europe in the inherent concept of Western European people. It looked like a good place to work in the future.

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

Think about a long-standing city like Constantinople. When walking on the streets, you can see smelly sewage everywhere. The Ottoman Empire's finances were sluggish, and it was impossible to spend too much money on an unimportant sewage system.

For a long time in history, Constantinople was the most magnificent city in Europe. In the Middle Ages, those Western European merchants who passed through Constantinople almost felt ashamed when passing through this city.

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

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

I don't know when the glory of Constantinople was surpassed by Paris, London, and even Berlin, these latecomers.

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.”