Analog Activity - Souvenir Day Journal

So much of the typical traveling experience seems rushed to me. Maybe you’ve been in a situation where your time is limited in a destination and you find yourself taking photos or videos with your phone so that you can remember it more later. I have - on a walking tour of historic Berlin, where we had only three hours to cover the entire central area; in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in LA’s Koreatown where a dozen people stood waiting for the table I occupied to be cleared; or during one of the most expensive weeks of travel I’ve had recently - a drive around Iceland - where my five-day rental-car budget meant each stop along the way meant less time to stop somewhere else.

Looking back, I find myself with a stronger memory of that photo of myself in front of Gullfoss than that of the trail approaching it. The picture of my bibimbap I texted my friend stands out more than the smell of the dish. And when I think of the Brandenberg Tor, I think first of all of the video I took of it, panning across Pariser Platz where my tour group mulled about, than of the structure itself.

I think when we take these photos and videos, when we’re rushed, we think that we’re helping reinforce our memory of a place. But what we’re really doing is outsourcing it. We’re storing it in our external drives (not to get too into technological metaphor but this one works) rather than writing it into our own brains.

Taking a photograph with a camera, especially a manual film camera, requires us to be a bit more present - paying attention to how the light looks over a landscape, for example, so we can set the shutter speed for a good exposure. I think writing, though, requires even more presence. We have to not only observe the places we’re visiting, but then channel the observations of our senses into our brain, convert them to language, and then convert that language into muscle movements that transcribe the language onto a page. This process engages our brains on more levels than simply snapping a photo, and thus imprints the experience more strongly.

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But can you still do this when you have limited time? I think you can, at least to a certain extent, and even create an artifact to supplement your memory later on (because most memories, especially mine, don’t work extremely well even with extra effort!). Enter the Souvenir Day Journal!

A few days ago, I took a self-guided walking tour of Guanajuato City, Mexico, using for reference a map in my Lonely Planet guidebook. I’d brought along my regular travel journal of choice, a Moleskine-knockoff pocket journal, with the intention of documenting the walk along the way. But in one of my first stops, I changed my plan.

The Mercado Hidalgo is the largest market in Guanajuato City. The design of its structure is like that of a European train station, with a large indoor hall enclosed by a curved steel roof. The main floor of the market contained mostly food stalls - produce vendors, carnitas stands, a twenty-peso espresso served in a styrofoam cup, etc - while the second floor held souvenir stands. As I poked through these souvenier stands, drinking my espresso, I noticed the journals many of them contained. It’s a pretty common souvenier around the world, really, but since I had journaling on my mind already, I got an idea.

I would buy a Guanajuato souvenir journal specifically to document my walking tour day.

So after scoping the selection at the various stands (many were identical, most similar in price and appearance), I settled on this one. It’s tiny, maybe 8cm on a side, with this pressboard-engraving of a cheeky smoking skeleton on the cover. What sold me on it was that it had blank pages inside (most of the rest didn’t), and that it was only 30 pesos (less than 2 US dollars).

Pocketing the journal, I went on my walk. Guanajuato’s a compact city. The Centro’s in a long narrow valley, the streets are winding and narrow. There are lots of little pocket plazas, food vendors, Colonial cathedrals, stone staircases, and the like. I wandered around for a couple of hours. Then, taking a break at a cafe, I recorded what I’d seen in my little journal while I sipped an Americano.

The size of the journal lent itself to short sentences, snippets of images. But the process of recalling what I’d experienced - even though it was only a short time ago - made the experiences more vivid. I remembered small details as well as sweeping impressions. Putting them in the journal cemented them further in my mind.

After the cafe, I continued my walk, and finished writing the journal when I was back at my lodging for the afternoon. It also worked out that the notes of my tour took up the 75 tiny pages almost completely, so by the time I finished it I’d had both a full day and a full journal. And sure, I took a few pictures - including some with my film cameras, which I’ll link here once they’re developed and scanned - but the artifact of the journal itself was my most valuable take-away.

Because not only did I take a little time and extra effort to imprint the memories at the time, I also have a neat souvenier from the city itself. And within the souvenier are my impressions of the city as well. I can revisit those in the future. And when I do, the short notes I wrote will not be substitutes for the memories I didn’t make. They’ll be signposts, guiding me to the places in my mind where Guanajuato has been all along.

What helps you preserve your travel memories? Have you ever made a travel journal as a souvenir? Will you try it on a future trip? Comment below - I’d like to know what’s worked for you too!