My battery, the 3rd, started from Cholargos at dusk and the next morning, after a night-long torment standing at the military station of Rouf, we got in the Larissaikos.
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At 6 the railway started with a hair-raising hum, and everyone burst into sobs and cries, mixed with screams of enthusiasm.
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It is impossible to describe what was going on in every station. The revelling started from Tatoi and Menidi. The villagers were expecting the train in order to see off their own people and wish the army good luck.
- 'Farewell, lads!...'
- 'Have courage and we will chase the macaroni-eaters!...'
[...] And among the wishes and the pleas, the voices of those seeking their own people predominated:
- 'Nikos Vlachos... Vlachos 3rd battery', 'Spyros Ntounis .... Ntounis from Spata, alpinist...'
[...] At Kakosalesi, the enthusiasm was something extraordinary. How come such a small village had so many thousands of villagers? And how many lambs must they have butchered to make all the sweet-smelling souvlakia they were giving us? Each villager, apart form the souvlakia he was offering, had hanging before him a 'wooden flask' of wine and in his hands he was holding two 'cups' of clay ... 'of a hundred'. He was pouring wine for the soldiers with one cup and with the other he was 'clinking' and drinking himself!... He was drinking himself, as many times as he was pouring for others! They had all gone tipsy!...
- 'Drink, lads!... All for you! All for the fatherland! - Wait for us. In a while we'll join you in the battle!...'
[...] At Thiva, girls were scattering flowers on our train, they were kissing the soldiers through the windows and giving them their addresses to send them the news from the front, while at the same time they were distributing corn-bread, wine and other goods they had made.
[...] Livadeia received us with tabors and pipes, playing at an ennervating pitch various old patriotic war-songs. The station was decked with flags and our villagers were giving out bread, cheese and other foods.
- 'Farewell, boys!...' - 'Farewell, brothers, and come back victors!...'

(Nassos Phakidis, ATHINA-TEPELENI, in: Chatzipatera-Phafaliou, Martyries 1940-41, Athens, Kedros, 1982, p. 65)