Temple of Poseidon

 One of the most notable differences between Greece and the United States is the huge gap in history and landmarks/monuments. Whatever we deem “old” in America is nothing compared to the rich history of Greece. I used to always visit Boston growing up and marvel at the history before me. Of course, by American standards it is old, our country is fairly young in the grand scheme of things. No hate to Boston, Boston has wonderful landmarks and historical statues, such as the Make Way for Ducklings statue. That’s real history and one thing Greece certainly does not have. However, Greece certainly has a lot that old American cities like Boston do not have. For example, ancient temples that have withstood thousands of years, a rich culture of cuisine originating in Greece, and a lack of drunk Boston sports fans harassing people outside of bars at all hours of the day. My favorite landmark I’ve visited so far is the Temple of Poseidon. 

The Temple itself is on the southern coast of Greece, a couple hours from Athens. My friends and I took a guided tour of the temple. We boarded a large coach bus and along the way, our tour guide taught us some history of Greece and the temple itself. She would ask us trivia questions for prizes. One of the questions was how many islands does Greece have. In a brilliant attempt to throw everyone else off I said 33 but the answer was around 6000. My guess actually ended up being the furthest away, sadly. After about an hour, we made a pit stop at what is considered to be the world's first-ever theater. The theater consisted of rows of worn-down stone benches rising up a hill, with a round stone stage set before the seats. I don’t know how to describe it very well aside from calling it very old because it is indeed very old. It was in an awesome location surrounded by nature and if you climbed the hill a bit you had a great view of the fields backed by the sea. After exploring a bit and abusing our iPhone cameras we made our way back to the bus to go to the Temple of Poseidon itself. 

                                                  View from the location of the first theater 
                                            

I’m not gonna lie, the bus ride overall was pretty shaky. I mean this bus is huge and the Greek roads are pretty small. We ran multiple red lights and forced cars off the road but we made it from point A to point B. The bus driver didn’t even seem stressed at all. He was dangerously close to committing vehicular manslaughter numerous times and his facial expressions never changed once. That’s one thing I love about Greek culture. Not how they drive, but how laid back they are. I’ll describe more in later posts but they are very carefree people. On the way from the theater to the temple, our tour guide gave us some history of the temple. Aside from the fact that it was built to please the Greek god Posideon, I don’t remember much of what she said aside from one story. There was a Greek king, Aegeus, who believed his son to be dead and then he threw himself off the cliff where the temple is, and the Aegean sea is named after him. That story seemed to get everyone's attention because people were starting to zone out. 

We were all excited to finally arrive at the temple. Set atop a rocky cliff overlooking miles of open water, the location was beautiful. The temple was incredible. While not in as good shape as some of Greece's other monuments, it’s still incredible to see how well these ancient wonders can withstand time. I thought the same thing at the temple that I did at the first theater. “Wow, this is very old.” That’s how I imagine I would react to anything built in 440 B.C. because that is indeed very old. The Temple of Poseidon is probably the most amazing landmark I’ve seen. Our tour got us there right as the sun was beginning to set so it was awesome being able to watch it from the cliff. Similar to how we acted at the theater, we completely abused our iPhone cameras. However, this was unprecedented. I've never seen anything like it. We all probably took the same exact picture like 11 times it was so unnecessary.

I will share some photos with whoever is reading this because I took so many for no reason aside from sending them to my mother. Seeing the Temple of Poseidon was the highlight of my first month in Greece, and I’m looking forward to exploring the country more.