Arrival in Greece
During the autumn of 1947 Andrews arrived at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. It was a time of civil war, the rate of inflation was high and the Greek people were suffering extreme hardship. He was unfortunate and suffered from an "obscure nervous disorder," which turned out to be epilepsy, and spent much of his first winter in a miserable draughty room. Travel was severely restricted; a permit was needed to travel more than a few miles from Athens. It could also be dangerous, for a few days after the students had visited Mycenae an English journalist was kidnapped there; some travellers were unlucky, and a US reporter was captured in the mountains and his body was washed up soon afterwards near Salonika. After a disappointing stay in Greece Andrews was preparing to leave when he was offered a Fulbright Fellowship to stay and carry out a study of the castles and fortifications built by various invaders in the Peloponnese. This offered a field unresearched by others and the freedom to travel alone, and so he accepted with delight.
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Famous quotes containing the words arrival and/or greece:
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