The other day, as I was lying in my bed, I thought about the need that I have to write my stories in travel journals. I don’t remember exactly when it started. I have always been writing. Diaries, stories, songs, poems… So I guess that confiding in travel journals seemed inevitable.
My First Travel Journals
During my first big solo trip to Italy, I was writing in my personal blog. For three months, my blog became as much a blog as a travel journal. I was very lonely, and it was my way of sharing the experience. After the internship, since my boss, who was seriously messed-up, gave my blog’s address to my teacher, I closed it and started sharing less personal thoughts online.
I continued writing travel blogs, but it was more like giving tips and advice, less intimate. When I finished my master’s degree, one of my Italian colleagues (from a much better agency) gave me a journal because she knew I liked to write and draw. I’ve always had notepads where I would write random stuff. But this was a proper journal. It looked professional, like Indiana Jones professional (leather cover, thick pages). And I guess that was my first real travel journal.
Nowadays, I have a thing for Paperblanks notebooks, they are gorgeous!
What I Write In My Travel Journals
Well, it depends. On the mood, the time I have and when I write.
At first, I was writing useful stuff in my travel journals before the trip: how to get to the hostel, the timetables of boats and buses. I was even drawing maps because my phone was crap and I didn’t have the Internet abroad.
Sometimes, I would write short stories about things that happened, things that people said and that made me laugh, the colors of a sunset, a feeling. Some days, I would write proper sentences. Some others, I would only write random words and I would think “Yeah, sure, it will make sense later” (even though it didn’t always).
I would also use the notes on my phone to write those random words.
I used travel journals to write the names of the people I had already sent postcards to, to make sure I wouldn’t forget anyone.
These days, I write complete stories, with sentences, verbs and everything in my travel journals. But that’s because most of the time, I write my journals after things happened, often after the trip. I take pictures and I have a great memory. I recall nearly everything. And I write either in French or in English.
It’s a different experience, it feels like I can re-live the trip after it’s finished. I can “digest” the feelings. Often, things are intense during the journey, and this step allows me to feel things with the benefit of hindsight. Which leads me to this last section:
Why Do I Write?
I write because I like writing, because it’s a way of sharing my trip, because it helps me “digest” it, because it feels more real when it’s on paper. Because I can re-live it as many times as I want.
And because I am scared of forgetting.
I think that when I’ll get old and (maybe) retired, I could write my memoirs. However, I also think that there have been cases of Alzheimer on both sides of my family and that maybe, I’ll forget all about these adventures. And that scares the hell out of me!
I feel like we are our memories, our experiences. So what if we lose them? Are we still us? Or are we a new person?
By writing these travel journals, I’m trying to keep those memories alive. I’m thinking that if I’m not all there anymore, my grand-kids (if mankind hasn’t been erased from the planet yet) will get to know me this way and will get to experience places that don’t exist anymore (Venice?).
On a lighter and more positive note, it has been easier typing articles for this website with a solid base already written on paper. 😉
To read more thoughts, you can visit the page Thoughts.
