Jan 29 2009
Travel Tip: Recording Travel Memories
Often the best souvenir from a trip is a memory—not a shot glass or T-shirt—but, no matter how wonderful a trip is, years later, the memories fade.
As a travel writer, it’s important for me to take notes when I travel. I have small notebooks all over my apartment that fit in my purse to make it easy for me to take notes during a tour, record impressions of a city while sitting at a café, and write down restaurant names and menu options.
During my recent trip to Krakow, I discovered my notes from my trip to East Africa almost two years ago and I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to relive the bumpy roads (evidenced by my illegible writing on some pages), the smells (“freshly cut grass from women ‘hacking’ with machetes, burning rubber from tires sitting in the hot sun, corn and manioc cooking over open fires, and exhaust from the vehicles” were all specific ally mentioned), and some of the people I met along the way—including some names and faces I’d forgotten over time.
Even if you don’t want to carry a small notebook and take extensive notes, there are other ways of preserving memories. Helen from Massachusetts shared her idea in a Journeywoman newsletter:
My favorite travel tip is to write myself a postcard every day. I choose one card per day with a good picture of my favorite site and then I take some time to write typical diary entry stuff. I pop into the local post office and buy the prettiest stamp for that area and stick it on the card. The denomination doesn’t matter because I’m not mailing these postcards anyway. At the end of my trip I have a wonderful journal, a unique collection of photos, and an interesting mix of foreign postage stamps.
These post cards can be stapled together when you get home, slipped into a photo album (it needs to be one where you can see both sides), or collected on a ring with a hole punched in each corner.
As Family Travel Adventures states, this method can also be a way to include children in the preservation of memories…encourage each child to select a postcard each day and have them spend a few minutes each evening writing themselves or a friend back home about their day—what they saw, what they ate, what they enjoyed. They will certainly enjoy reading back over the notes as they grow older and return to vacation destinations as adults.
Related Posts
Photo postcards1 by lusi, www.sxc.hu
Thats a cool idea - but I am so old that I actually used to do the same thing but then mailed the card to my mother - who would get them months later - usually out of order - and know I was still alive as I backpacked alone! I still have the cards in a box somewhere -its funny the difference I told her sometimes and what I actually said in my diary!
I love the postcard idea. I would never think of doing that but it’s a fantastic way to remember and journal your trips. Great tips.
Sheila–You’re absolutely right! Having all that information at hand makes it much easier for the kids to write that “what I did last summer” report and I’m sure they’re grateful in the long run for all the memories.
Lis–Haha, I can definitely understand how letters home explaining a trip can be somewhat different from what actually happened. Does Mom really need to know how many beers you had or that you went out alone at night in a foreign country? Sometimes ignorance is bliss!
Jodapoet–I agree; it can be cheap and quick…which is what we all need sometimes!
How do you think the current recession will affect the travel business? Maybe people still want to travel - just cheaper?