When I first read this contest, I thought that I would have a difficult time to single out that one absolute favorite souvenir from all my various travels.
But as I walked around my apartment, I realized that I have one souvenir that is displayed prominently in the very front of my apartment. It is the souvenir that I first see when I enter my apartment, and the very last one I see as I leave every day.
What are souvenirs anyway? The dictionary defines "souvenir" as: a thing that is kept as a reminder of a person, place, or event.
This particular item I have had since 2010. And it reminds me of all three things: a person, a place, and an event.
The person: In the interest of protecting his identity and privacy, I shall call him Ares.
The place: Athens, Greece.
The event: The most romantic time in my life.
I met Ares in the summer of 2010 when I was visiting Athens, Greece for the first time. I was traveling alone, as I usually do, and was wandering the streets of Athens, hoping to not get lost. I had somehow found my way to Monastiraki and was eager to visit a famous souvlaki shop that had been recommended to me when I passed by a lone figure sitting in an outdoor cafe. I smiled at him, and he smiled back. I gathered my courage to approach this cool, mysterious stranger, and he rewarded me with an invitation to sit with him and drink a cool and refreshing frappe. That was the start of a beautiful and romantic love story.
Ares was a local who lived in the beautiful neighborhood of Kolonaki. He had a rooftop apartment that overlooked the city streets of Athens. We spent the days as tourists, visiting museums and ancient ruins, and the nights, we would roam Athens' colorful and lively streets and kiss in gold-lit alleys. Sometimes, we would sit on his rooftop, where we could see Lykavittos Hill on one side, and the Acropolis on the other, and we would daydream about one day living together in this beautiful city. Of course, we both knew that I was merely a tourist, and he was a local, with deep roots and a life there in Greece, but for the moments that we were together, we lived only in the present and loved each other as only lovers do when they know that their time together would soon come to an end.
I had over a thousand photos of my time in Greece with Ares. As fate would have it, my external hard drive broke, and I have lost every piece of hard evidence of my time with him. I cried for months. Sometimes, I still cry for all those lost photos.
All I have left are my memories, and of course, the love and affection that I still have in my heart for him. But he gave me a gift, and it is one of the few concrete souvenirs that I have that is a reminder of him.
It is a framed depiction of the famous oil canvas painting by the French artist, Jacques-Louis David, of Leonidas and his 300 Spartans at The Battle of Thermopylae.