Travels, in any way we have experienced them, leave traces in us. They may be invisible to those who did not share the same journey with us, but impressions firmly take shape within us, like hot steel when it melts and takes its solid form in memories.
Feeling a different climate on our skin, inhaling smells that were once beyond our imagination, tasting exotic fruits that grew in a distant, foreign land, meeting new people, languages, habits, cuisine, architecture, or history is something that really stays with us for a long time, maybe forever.
Let me bring an example. My deceased uncle suffered from dementia in the last years of his life; he did not remember the events that had just happened the same day when I would talk to him, but it is interesting that he remembered the details of his travels from many years ago. He had a lot of albums full of photos from Cuba, Thailand, Kenya, Tunisia, Egypt... worlds so far away but carefully kept in his memory and in the photo albums on the shelves in his room. They surely left a huge impression on him that could not be erased.
I think you wouldn't disagree with me if I say that we collect experiences, emotions and moments from our trips, but souvenirs are also considered common items to take home. They do not have to be expensive or big. Lately we have been travelling light, ie with a backpack each of us. There is no room for extra souvenirs in this case, but some brochures or thin booklets with information about the place we have visited always find a place in my bag. Maps as well, and entrances to museums, churches, etc.
That is how a small collection of these brochures was made, without a real intention to make a collection of them. They just got larger in number over the years, although I was throwing away many of them before I realised they actually form a collection and a way to remember the places we have been to. So, this is a reduced collection of the brochures, but it still can represent some of the countries we have visited or at least passed through.
Let's start from the roots of some of my ancestors... Budapest, Hungary. City maps and guides on what to visit, which bus to take, and where to park your vehicle. We found an underground parking by the river Danube, on the Pest side and from there walked through the centre, saw the most famous buildings, crossed the river walking on the Chain Bridge and strolled in the part of the city called Buda. It was summer, with quite high summer temperatures, but it is better to visit it when the weather is good than in the cold winter.
Each year, when we visit our families and go by car, we pass through and stop in France, Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia. One year we went through France and then Germany, Austria, Hungary... I don't have booklets from all the countries and cities we have been to, but just a small selection.
From our latest trip to Austria, I do have some booklets, but they are... somewhere... in a room where there is a lot of mess right now haha, wait, I have to find them. 😆 Here they are!
I have some hopes that some Hivers who also went there would like to participate in this topic and show us more brochures from this city. 😉
Another Hive meetup that happened in Poland, Kraków. A map and a booklet of a museum we have visited.
These are not some remote countries for me haha, but they also count for this collection.
The majority of the booklets, brochures, tickets and maps are from the country where we live, Spain. I can't complain, we have seen a nice number of places, but still there are soooooooooooooo many regions and cities we would like to see. I don't know... my husband was mentioning lately a camper or a van where people who like to travel could do it without the need to rent accommodation each time. It would be cool to see more of Spain and get this collection even larger with additional brochures. 😉
So, June is here, our new monthly theme in the Hive Collectors community is also revealing itself...
Brochures/maps/booklets/flyers/tickets from your travels!
Some of us had a collection of shoes in the previous month - it is time to see where they have travelled! 😇
