There are few things in life that can give you such an exhilarating experience as traveling. Nothing compares to the kaleidoscope of emotions you feel during your adventure. Naturally, no one wants it to end sooner. How can you prolong your travel memories? How to keep the memory of exotic foods, majestic sites, and interesting people bright a little while longer, before day-to-day life mellows it all down?
There are actually a lot of things you can do to keep the aftertaste of your journey vivid for a long time. Some of them are based on the items you can obtain during your travels. After all, memory works better when it has a physical anchor. So, let’s take a look at some of those “anchors” you can make.
Table of Contents
9 Ideas to prolonge your travel memories:
#Postcard Collection
There are a few things you gather on your journey that are more obviously connected to the place of your visit than postcards. The places are literally depicted there. One look at them is enough to go down memory lane and revisit those cities and sites. So, if you have no opportunity to carry a lot of stuff back home, this is a way to go, just grab a card or two anywhere you come to. To top it all, these little pieces of paper are infinitely easy to keep and carry around.
#Travel Slideshow
If you tend to take a lot of pictures on your travels, you can use them to make a neat slideshow or a movie that sums up your adventures. This way, you can easily share your story with your friends on a big screen in the living room, or with everyone across the Internet. And, on top of it all, working on such a project will help you keep the memories fresh for a while longer. If you want to dive deeper into the subject, here are some travel slideshow tips.
#Travel Log
Grab a pen and a notebook with you. And write down everything you see, think, or feel during your travels. If you can spice it up with hand drawings – all the better. The trick is that handwriting stimulates memory. You have an adventure, then write it down, thus experiencing it twice right away. You can dive back into your experiences anytime you want, simply by reading your journal.
#Local Souvenir
Physical mementos that you keep bumping into while going around your house is a great way to jog your memory. So grab whatever you can carry the next time you will be roaming through foreign lands. Of course, you should keep in mind the volume of your backpack and airport restrictions. And try being creative with the things you pick – there are tons of stuff beyond fridge magnets.
#Scrapbook
Scrapbooking is an art form of its own. Tickets, postcards, leaflets, local food warps, boarding passes, and leftover currency – they are no paper waste, but building blocks. The easiest way is to grab all that paper and glue it into an empty notebook. Add some drawings or handwriting to spice things up. You’ll be able to refresh your trip memories, as all those trinkets get in your hands once again. If you need more ideas, check out these scrapbooking tips.
#Memory Box
A memory box (a.k.a. shadowbox) is basically a picture frame but in 3D. You simply take a rather flat display box, put some memorable stuff inside, and enclose it with a glass. What can you put inside? Polaroid photos, coins, receipts, seashells from a seashore, fun-looking rocks, tickets – anything helps trigger the memories and doesn’t fit into a scrapbook. You can also put some extra work into decorating the box itself.
#Travel Art Photos
Everyone takes photos during their vacation abroad. But there are much fewer people that make art photos on purpose. So next time you will be venturing abroad, try going beyond making selfies in front of sites. Instead, try making artistic photography – just imagine a photo exhibit with your name and take pictures that would fit there. That might require some prior learning of photography theory, but the result will be worth it. But what is it for you? You’ll be able to jolt your memory every once in a while by giving other people a reason to remind you about this stuff!
#Cooking it Up
According to science, you can stimulate your memory with foods, smells, and tastes related to the experience. Bring some spices and recipes from the places you have traveled to if you want to delve deeper into memories of your journey. Ask for the proportions of each spice in a local blend you enjoy, so you can recreate the dish in the future. That’s a smart thing to do since spices can expire. And you don’t want your memory to expire as well, do you?
#Cash Display
Almost every nation in the world has its own money. In addition to monetary worth, all those coins and banknotes can be interesting to look at. They obtain some emotional value, after spending time in your pockets and accompanying you in your adventures. If you have any extra money at the conclusion of your travels, why not save it for the display?
#Bonus Idea
Custom photo blankets can be beautiful mementos and become treasured possessions nowadays. Imagine having a picture from your last memorable trip placed on something that can be snuggled with. These blankets are becoming the latest trends and provide a new way to keep precious memories close to the heart.
And that is it! There are numerous other inventive ways to keep your voyage memories as fresh as possible. And there are no bad ideas; yours will be just as good as any other!
