We’re about three-quarters of the way through summer vacation, and I’ve been having the best time relaxing and doing mostly nothing at home. I didn’t get to go anywhere terribly exciting this summer, but I thought I’d share how I remember all the things I’ve done while on vacation. I have a pretty horrible memory, so I do a number of things to make sure that I’ve documented my travels in such a way that I can feel the memories at a later date.
The first thing I do to save my memories takes place during the actual trip – I write in my travel journal. At the end of every night, or even during any sort of downtime (such as waiting for food to arrive at a restaurant), I try to keep up with what I’ve done so far on the trip. My sister is really good at doodling the cool things that we see, but I’m not, so I try to make up for it with scraps of paper that I glue into the book. I like to include maps, stickers, tickets, and business cards from the restaurants where I eat.
My first two travel journals, gifted to me by my sister on a West Coast adventure in British Columbia, Alaska, and Yukon Territory!
I also fold larger bits of paper in. I started out by having pretty small journals and I’ve kept with this theme because it makes it easier to carry around. The pages below are from my trips to South America and New York City.
Another thing I do is make videos. It’s very silly and completely for fun, but it’s nice to go through all of the footage I’ve taken on a trip, edit it (thanks to Windows Movie Maker), and almost experience the trip again. I post them as unlisted on Youtube and send the link to my family and friends so that they can really see what I got up to on vacation!
I am so cool that I have a title card for my vacation videos.
Finally, I share my photos and thoughts on this blog! My photos would metaphorically and digitally collect dust if this blog didn’t exist, because I rarely go through photo albums on my computer. It’s also nice to be able to share my experiences with strangers through writing, and I read this blog to myself enough that I am reminded of all the fun things I’ve done while travelling.
Since I won’t have any fun travel posts any time soon, here are a couple of my favourites!
- Dangerous Dan Does Deutchsland. Dangerous Dan and I will hopefully go on more vacations together in the future, but it was nice to hear about what he gets up to when I’m not around! He also has a strange obsession with Germany.
- Naha, Okinawa. Japan is just so different from home; taking in the culture was just as exciting as visiting all the castles here.
- Québec City. I was lucky enough to spend about five weeks here, so I got to know the city well. This was my guide to the different neighbourhoods in Québec City!
- Montevideo. I went on a bus tour and learned so much!
- Singapore: FOOD. There’s nothing cooler than eating on the streets and throwing peanut shells up in the air.
- Cape Cod and Boston: FOOD. I thought I’d bring us back to North America.
What are some of the coolest places you’ve visited? How do you document your travels?
Claire's Life 