You need a travel journal. I lost a journal from an important trip years ago and I have forever been sorry. That happens. Having written down each day's memories in that journal, though, helped me remember them years later (though I'd like to find that journal). Ya gotta get a journal, even if you think you don't like to write.
Journaling Tips
- If you write down nothing else while you travel, jot down what you ate each day. Even if you don't journal until evening, you'll still be able to remember meals -- and when you look back at your journal, you'll recall where you were when you had that gelato -- the look of a piazza in Rome, and the sound of the traffic, and whom you were with. It works!
- You don't have to buy a "real" travel journal with preprinted spaces -- two or three pocket sized spiral notebooks will hold the memories from a journey.
- Consider investing in a small booklight -- you can get one for less than $3, and it enables journaling in a dark hostel bed or on dimly lit trains.
Travel Journal Resources
- Travel Journal Tools -- journals and more
- Small book lights -- reviews and prices
- Travel Journals as Gifts
Next page: student travel new year's resolution #4 -- resolve to take a solo trip.
"I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within."
--Lillian Smith