I blame Deb.
If she hadn’t posted recently about her travel journal for her up and coming trip to the UK, I wouldn’t have been thinking about them.
Travel journals, I mean.
Many years ago, before I knew that scrapbooking had been invented, I made travel journals.
My, doesn’t that sound grand?
In reality, I can remember making two. Only I didn’t really make them; they were cheap and cheerful rice-paper scrapbooks, found in all good stationers. One following a school trip to France in my last year at Middle School (round about 1979 or 80). I shared a room with Gillian, Denise and Nicola. I didn’t like Nicola and she didn’t like me. She accused me of stealing her glasses. Which was all very well, but she was wearing them at the time. Whoops, side tracked there a bit. The second album was when we went on a family holiday to Antwerp in Belgium in the summer of 1981.
Neither journal survives.
Which is a pity, because I’ve decided that travel journals are actually pretty cool things to make and have. Ali Edwards refers to hers as Scrapbooks on the Road. And in the best tradition of memory-keeping, they’re easy to prep before you travel and complete as you go along.
In the last 18 months, I have made three and have one currently as a work in progress.
Two for when Auntie and I went on our family history research weekend in May 2011, one each, one for when I went to New York solo last May and one in the works for our upcoming family holiday to Florida later this year.
Yet when I went to Washington, D.C. with my mum in July 2010, I didn’t make one, (although I did complete two albums once we were home) and the one I started for our trip to Cartagena last September was abandoned half-way through.
Why is that? What makes one trip so much easier to record than others?
Thoughts?
This West London Life 
We both had the same idea. You because you're super organised and me because I thought it would all be written down if I didn't around to doing any layouts when we got back!!!
Hmmmmmm :0)
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He he – no bitterness there. My nemesis was my next door neighbour called Jayne. Lovely books.
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Those lovely photos just make me want to get out my spiral binder! Time beforehand to prepare would be the thing wg
Hitch would determine it for me, I think,
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I don't know – some just flow don't they?
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We have a journal that comes on holiday with us. Notes are written funny sayings recorded for posterity and the whole thing is scanned and copied into an album when we get home. The journal lives with the special waterproof bag we use for our medication – we are of the age that requires special containers for stuff like that.
As to why some holidays get better journal entries than others… some days are good some are not.
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Oh I love your post on travel journals, Ruth! Makes me so excited to fill mine up. I'm really looking forward to writing things in my journal and also saving bits and pieces along the way.
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PS: It's so cool to think that YOU will be mentioned in my travel journal! :o)!!!
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