Why your most important travel accessory might be a trusty notebook. ♦
While I also had a lot of other—much more essential—items like toiletries, an umbrella, and my passport, I knew even before boarding the plane or landing in the UK that I would want to record memories from my travels with pen and paper, so the pocket-size travel notebook was my top priority. After all, this study abroad program would be my first time traveling anywhere without my friends or family, and my first time abroad, period. I only knew a few people on the trip, and not very well. My travel journal would not just be a record of my study abroad experience but a companion, helping me learn to travel on my own and navigate another country.
Once I arrived, I carried my journal with me everywhere in London, jotting down unpolished notes every day. If I forgot my notebook, I would write notes on my phone before rewriting them out on paper at the end of the day. These stream-of-consciousness scribbles ranged from the weather and what I ordered at a nice café to how I felt about my classes and my internship in the city. While some of my notes seemed insignificant at the time, they helped me remember little moments during my first jetlagged days in London, and the short six weeks that flew by while I was there.
In my first few days in the city, I wrote down whenever I was struck by cultural differences, like the readily accessible public transportation on the Underground or a seemingly impossible traffic crossing system where the pedestrian seemed to never have the right of way.
Weeks into my trip and more comfortable on the Tube, I wrote a note about (and took a picture of) every dog I saw; it amazed me how little dachshunds and even a big mastiff would sit obediently and wait for their Tube stop, staying quiet and polite for the other passengers. I have multiple pages describing different cafés I tried and what I liked about the local spots nearby our flats in Earls Court and our classrooms by Gloucester Road. One weekend when we took the train for a small day trip in Brighton, I jotted down, “Had a veggie burger with avocado, onion, salsa—amazing!”, recording the ingredients of a delicious meal.
At the same time, some of my most intense emotions and my favorite memories are stored in the pages of my pocket travel journal. It makes me smile looking back on my notes when I first had dinner with everyone on the trip, seeing how little I knew some of the people who were close friends by our last day together. I have a page dedicated to when I saw one of my favorite shows onstage in the West End and cried seeing it live. I wrote about what I was doing in my publishing internship and what I was learning in my English classes. How this trip connected to so much of what I am passionate about and want to spend the rest of my life contributing to the world after I graduate.
Another reason journaling was so important to my travel experience is how the process of writing forced me to sit a while and reflect on my travels while I was in London; sitting on the Tube with pen in hand, opening my journal in Kensington Gardens or Hyde Park, or jotting down ideas at the Waterstones on Piccadilly helped me to truly look around and be present for my adventures.
It’s for these reasons that I believe we should all keep a travel journal—so many moments that I would have forgotten or not considered worth writing about are preserved in my notebook and will help me remember this life-changing trip so many years later. While I also enjoyed the busy routine of classes and tours, it is the unexpected moments—like seeing an adorable dog on the Tube or finding an unexpectedly delicious veggie burger at the Brighton Gourmet Burger Kitchen with friends—that make traveling so special and worth remembering.
I also learned that it’s not just me; so many other people in my program and beyond use journaling as a way to enhance their travel experience. In fact, pen and paper is a matter of personal preference; there’s no particular right or wrong way to journal. My roommate saved all the restaurants and tourist spots she visited on a Google Maps list, adding little notes about what she ordered, what the atmosphere was like, and if she would go back next time. Another friend studying abroad in France created a shared photo album with comments and notes under each photo to document her journey. Others post photos to Instagram or different social media platforms with funny and personal captions to record their experiences and share them. One friend on the trip gave me the idea to save small paper items like tickets, receipts, and brochures as another way of journaling and remembering both the sensory details and the little moments that traveling is all about.
I have just arrived home from my first time abroad. Flipping back through my journal’s messy pages with smudges, stains, and run-on sentences from my travels, I remember the little details to share with my family who couldn’t be there for those amazing experiences with me. While the memories are still fresh, I know that looking at the pages will bring me back to London long after I’ve started to forget the details of my travels.
On a weekend trip to Amsterdam, I bought another notebook, decorated with the paintbrush strokes and vibrant colors of Van Gogh’s lilacs, and I plan to fill it up with memories, unexpected moments, tears, smiles, and musings from my next big trip.
As a first-time traveler, I am glad I took some time to stop and record my memories in my travel journal. As writers, we might believe our notebooks need to be an impressive finished product or complete, but what travel journaling—through snapshots, notes, scribbles, or doodles—really allows us is to preserve our unfiltered memories and take something back home that is uniquely ours.
