Dad’s Stories
My late dad, a well-traveled seaman during his days, made me interested about the countries he visited through his stories. If you’ve been to my other blogs then you know that already or you might have read it here, the about page. 🙂 My dad loves to tell us about the places he visited. It’s not just the places he saw but beautiful experiences, too. Like how when you leave your wallet at a store in Norway, you will still find it where you left it off after 2 days. That was back in the early 80’s…I can’t be sure if it’s still how it is nowadays. (I should visit Oslo soon to know. 😀 Right?)
Photographs
Dad’s work as a seaman made him able to land on and visit different European cities and towns. His favorite among those would be Greece…full of mythology and architecture older than Jesus Christ. He sent us a lot of photos when he visited Athens…I was in the 4th grade then – 10-years-old. (Your memory gets sharper when your older and when the people a memory is connected to is dead…well, that’s just an observation I have of myself though I’ve always have a good memory to begin with hihi.)
I clearly remember those photos because he personally wrote notes for me. One of which was him standing in front of the Parthenon. His photos on his visits to the Netherlands/Holland (tulips!) were addressed mostly to my older sister.
Tokens to Remember
He also brought home a number of souvenir items, displayed around our house. There were marble figurines of certain Greek dieties, miniatures of famous buildings, and mini city plates.
When I went with my younger son to the Volksgarten during a last-year-excursion I was nostalgic seeing the Theseus Temple. Though newly renovated and all clean and white, it truly resembles the temples of Athens. It made me want to buy one of those cheap flights to Paphos advertisements I see on my sidebar often and hop on the next available flight.
Remembering Dad’s Travels and Experiencing The Places Myself
Greece is still one of the country on my bucket list. I don’t know how far or how many years more should I wait to see the temples myself but I surely will and in memory of my beloved Father.
Edit 2017: Hubby went to visit Athens and Santorini in May but I wasn’t able to go having to tend to the kids since they still have school. 🙁
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Beautiful post, thank you for sharing your story. I am sure you will eventually get to Greece in memory of your father’s travels there – good luck!! 🙂
Sara