TRAVEL JOURNALING

Anyone out there still keep a Journal? This is something I keep since I learn how to write, I might have 5 or 6 journals. It's fun to read my stories when I was younger and find out how much I grew up inside.

Now a days I don't have the need of writing on a journal, but when I'm traveling I always have one. I try to keep it updated with all my feelings, descriptions (when possible to use words) of the views, of people, of cities, some paintings, pictures and stickers. I love a colorful journal!

Comparing my Asia journal to the current one, I'm doing a terrible job! That's what happen when you are traveling solo: you spend way more time with yourself, which I think is awesome.  You have more time to write on the journal, to watch more often, to obsorb details, meet more people, to take pictures... In the other hand, when you travel with someone else you share moments, so when you are telling people about your travels you have someone to add something on the conversation, or you laugh about something and that person laughs as well because knows exactly what you mean.

I wish I could post pictures about my Asia Journal, but since it's in Portugal, I will show a bit of my current journal.

I started writting down our hitch hiking experience from Lyon (France) until Thessaloniki (Greece) with DAY 1, DAY 2 but on the DAY 3 I completly forgot about it. In the left page you can see our note with the Hitch Hiking Plan and the red checks to give us more motivation (Oh yeah only 1500 kilometres left!). On the right page some pics I got from a tourist guide, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. I like to see my journal with colors and pics, looks more interesting. 

This is the very last page, where I have a envelope and save everything small I find interesting to keep: shells, rocks, stickers, postcards, feathers, etc. These feathers I collected when I was still working in Ancient Gardens Farm, in the chickens area. And the calendar is from Barcelona.

I got this journal for more then 3 months and I have about 15 pages filled out. I have no stories written, I guess it's because I've been writting in the blog so I don't have the need of doing it in the Journal. And, obviously, I will not force myself to write on the journal just because on December I go back to Portugal. I think you should write on the journal or in the blog whenever you feel inspired, so you are able to inspire others. 

Then I use my journal for many purposes: to keep things safe in the envelope, to write down inspiring quotes, to just stick any tickets or to write down recipes. So far I have Carlos' Guacamole, Lia's melon jelly and a big list of future recipes I'm interested in, including Humus, Vegan food, Chai...

In case you are curious, I'm using a Moleskine Journal right now, click here. I like it with squares, because I prefer to write and draw in squares :)