The Art of Journaling as you travel...

Old Sep 28th, 2008, 11:03 AM
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The Art of Journaling as you travel...

I am totally ripping this title from an article I just read! After years of travel I regret not keeping enough notes/journals AS I TRAVELLED. Not later, but then and there, capturing the memories of "the butterfly that just went by". I love to write about sparked emotions when I see places and meet people. I have noticed the people who journal about every bite they put in their mouth; I guess what you write says so much about what you are about....

Do you do journal WHILE traveling? What type of journal you keep? when do you annotate? what do you write about?
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 11:27 AM
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I don't keep one, as I'm either too busy enjoying the moment, or too tired once I have returned after a busy day of fun.

My mom, however, is an artist, and on our trip to Paris/Rome she had a little 5x7 watercolor book. Every day she tried to take a moment to paint a quick scene. At the end of the day, she stopped and wrote a summary of the day, including whatever funny or extra cool things we saw.

When we returned home, she sent me a CD with her trip photos and a copy of her notes typed out. I just found this copy the other day and greatly enjoyed reliving all the great moments that I had already forgotten.
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 11:35 AM
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I don't seem to be patient enough to journal. I've brought a couple of actual journals with me, but after a few days, I abandon them. I think it's because I don't like writing without a specific audience.

However, especially when I'm traveling alone, I do hunt up internet cafes and send long, detailed messages to my sister with a copy to myself. When I get home I have a lovely on-going description of what I did and said.
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 11:38 AM
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Someone here sugested buying a picture postcard of the place you are visiting & writing notes, on the back.
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 12:07 PM
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Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't - depends on how busy I am while I'm traveling. But I always take notes, every day, without fail, no matter where I am, even if it's boring.

Which is, I suppose, why my trip reports read like massive regurgitations. I just can't keep it simple and unadorned, and I'm much more interested in the little nuances than in recording what I saw or ate.
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 12:16 PM
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Hello Viagero, I have only done this once when I went to Italy some months after I lost my husband. I spent two weeks at a friends house in a small town in the Dolomites and basically just relaxed and soaked in the beautiful views, the clean crisp air and the company of my friends and their friends along with some side trips. At the suggestion of my stepson I wrote a journal, well more like a diary actually. It was good for my soul.


But otherwise I haven't haven't but I it is a good idea if one is interested in doing so I think.
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 12:25 PM
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Yes, I do. I have kept journals ever since I was 14 y/o. When I travel, I just take the current journal I'm writing in with me. When traveling, I write more often and usually catch up the day's events every night, although sometimes I have skipped a day. Outside of traveling, I write when I'm in the mood. On travel, I write about the places we've seen, the sites we visited, special moments on a trip (both good and bad) and whatever I want I guess. I also use my journal as a quasi scrap book. When travelling I'll put things inside of it among the pages, such as postcards from places I've really enjoyed, entry tickets to museums, etc. again whatever strikes me. The rest of the time, I may stick in a special card someone has given me, a note, and I've even been known to print an e-mail I have received and put that within the pages. I do go back and periodically read them and I enjoy it. Keep saying one of these days, maybe one of my nieces/nephew will enjoy reading them.
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 12:28 PM
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At times I wish I had kept notes along the way, but for brevity's sake and in order to more accurately describe just how the trip effected my life, it makes more sense to write what I feel after the trip has ended. The description becomes too clinical if I write from notes taken at the time. Maybe I'm more of a writer than a journalist?
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 12:38 PM
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I journal while I travel. It is much easier to do it when everything is still fresh in my memory. I use a new journal every trip. I use spiral-less notebook as a journal to reduce the bulk. I always carry my journal in my day pack to convert waiting times into productive times. I write about factual details of my trip (I have seen my parents and in-laws argue endlessly about what they did on their trips eons ago...), new insights, what I would do next time, etc.

When I travel by train, I use the travel time to catch up on my journal.
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 12:55 PM
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I've often wondered as I read wonderful and really helpful, detailed trip reports if the traveler actually had time to enjoy the trip! I do take some notes, even used a pedometer in Greece for the heck of it, and recorded our steps daily. I don't write down the exact menu or prices, just maybe if it was reasonable or not, or awful. I do take WAY too many pictures, digital, and I won't part with many of them since they're in the computer and only a few are really printed.
When I travel with women friends we do generally journal some info at the end of the day, reminding each other of the names of churches, restaurants, etc.
I thank those that provide so much information, love to read many of them, such humor and honesty and detail that I can actually put myself in their shoes.
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 01:31 PM
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I only kept a true journal on one trip (to France), but I still enjoy going back and reading it.

On the first morning, I found a store selling lots of fun notebooks and found a funky one with pockets in the covers and a stretchy band to hold it all together.

I wrote random things at random times each day, and stuck any tickets, postcards, receipts, etc into the pockets.

I still laugh when I see my cartoonish attempts to sketch the fashions of the moment, and I am always reminded of small details that have slipped away with time when I revisit that journal. I think I will have to try it again on a future trip, if the cost of everything ever goes down!

Another style of journal I keep on scuba trips to warm, sunny islands is my computerized scuba log. Divers are supposed to keep track of dive time, air consumption, etc for safety reasons to plan future dives preventing decompression sickness, but I also record all the interesting fish I see, where I went to dinner the night before, and other trip highlights. I love reading these logs and they are so easy to keep on the computer.
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 01:32 PM
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YES!!! I have always kept a journal since my first trip 15 years ago. It amazes me when I go back and read them how much I've forgotten over time, even trips just a year ago! At first I would write in them before I went to bed or first thing in the morning.

Now that I have an interest in travel writing, I'll stop and write when something has struck me or had an effect on me, good or bad, and write the circumstances, what I thought/felt/smelt/tasted/heard, etc. I also tend to write while on trains and planes, or when waiting for my traveling partner to return from a shop or restroom.
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 02:02 PM
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I used to keep a notebook and jot thoughts and rhymes infrequently. Now that I am traveling with my Blackberry, I send myself email notes. Here is one from 10 days ago written from the Plaza Manuel Bacerra in Madrid.
"Immaculately groomed old ladies with their canes and caretakers meet for cerveza, coca and conversation with cronies. It is a balmy late afternoon in madrid and there is a paseo of sorts as I eat my long overdue lunch. music is piped into my ear and I think better headphones may be in order. No complaints! I love this."
It etches the picture in my mind.
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 02:03 PM
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In recent years I've been a lot more intentional about journaling and usually write a few pages at the end of each day. If for some reason that's not possible I try to write early the next day while my impressions are still relatively fresh. I try to include places visited and the like but I'm much more inclined to write about people I've met and special things I've experienced. Occasionally I sketch and take my watercolours for scenes that spark a particular interest along the way. While traveling I also shop for journals ... next trip I'll use one handmade by a young Vietnamese girl I met in Hoi An. It's wonderful to browse through the journals later ... almost like reliving the vacation experiences all over again.
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 02:34 PM
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Yes. Have been for almost 25 years. Some are more detailed than others, depending on where we are, who we are with, time, etc. When we've gone for longer trips I write letters home to my mother and she hands them over to me when we return.

I always find time to write. I'm a night owl so stay up later than my husband and write then. Or while we are on a train or plane (he likes to sleep). When we are in England we often watch TV in the evenings and I write as I watch. I'll even jot down a few notes while he's filling the car up with gas. My trip diaries are some of my favourite possessions.
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 02:39 PM
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As an often solo traveler, I find plenty of time for journaling; sitting in a cafe, on a train, or on my balcony overlooking some view. I'm not a record the details type of person so much as I tend to write about my observations and often about the thoughts and inspirations I have when I travel.

I find getting away from my everyday life (and work world) is one of the best ways for activating my creative self. Journaling helps me capture that.
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 03:16 PM
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I'm not good at keeping a detailed travel journal. I always wanted to and tried my best a couple of times, but I failed miserably. My brain is just too tired at the end of the day.

Last trip I bought a Moleskin City Notebook (Paris) and used it to jot down short notes, lists, names of paintings I liked, what I did each day in point form, etc. It worked out really well. The Moleskin notebooks are very lightweight and compact so they're easy to carry around. Before I left I wrote down important addresses, directions, instructions, phrases, and other handy things.

At the end of the trip, I didn't have a journal per se but something full of details and memories nonetheless, not to mention practical information.

The Moleskins Notebooks are great for people like me who are too much of a zombie of the end of the day to do a detailed journal on a consistent basis.
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 03:19 PM
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I used to journal religiously and write long trip reports. I find that unless the trip report is about London, Paris or Rome not a lot of people read them. So, I make my trip reports shorter now (if I post them at all). Journaling just takes up time on vacation and I have better things to do while on vacation.
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 03:46 PM
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For a long time I didn't, but I wish I had.

When I read my journals now, it's like taking the trip a second time.

I keep the facts (hotels, restaurants, costs) and impressions. I now carry a glue stick and stick in business cards, napkins and all kinds of junk that I would otherwise have throw away.

I now include little sketches, although I have no artistic ability.

I carry my journal with me and write whenever I can, but my favorite time is over coffee/beer/wine at my mid-afternoon break. I finish writing about the day after dinner, or if I've been out on the town, at breakfast the next morning.
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Old Sep 28th, 2008, 04:10 PM
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I keep a journal of every trip. The last thing at night I do is write up the day. I know I miss things but I take the view that if I don't remember them on the day they occurred they weren't all that memorable! Like many of you I also keep tickets, brochures, postcards etc and when I return I put them with my photos and printouts of my journals into albums. My husband says he can't remember anything until he has read my trip journals! I love doing it and it is like doing the trip again as I put it all together. It has become such a habit that I don't go anywhere without my journal.
Rosemary
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