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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Travel mementos
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Lyda*Rose
Ship's broken porthole
# 4544
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Posted
This morning I recalled a collection that a church friend had from travels long ago in Europe. She and her son collected toilet tissue samples from restrooms all over the continent and carefully labeled each one in pencil. The collection wound up pinned on a corkboard in her bathroom for forty years.
I started thinking about momentos. When I went to France back in my twenties, I bought little, embroidered patches (do they still sell those?) and sewed them to a tote bag. These days I tend toward pretty but mundane post cards. I like things small and cheap, though not quite as cheap as toilet paper.
What do you like taking home with you from your journeys?
[ 26. August 2015, 13:05: Message edited by: Ariel ]
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"Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG... thank you. Thank you for my life." ~from Joe Vs the Volcano
Posts: 21377 | From: CA | Registered: May 2003
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
I gave up lugging a camera & lenses, and seeing the world through the view-finder some years ago. Aside from the easier traveling, I no longer have to deal with overflowing boxes of slides!
My souvenirs now tend to be smallish art works, ranging from sketches or water-colors by street artists to fairly inexpensive bits of gallery art. The only unifying theme is that they are representational and depict the building or city I'm in. (Though I've been fooled on occasion. I bought a nice etching that I thought was Oxford City Hall. It is some other building entirely!)
A big plus factor -- they are lightweight and easy to pack.
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
I love buying handcrafted items of folk art both as souvenirs and as gifts. In central Africa (the copperbelt) I usually buy copper bracelets and carved wood items-- cooking spoons, bowls, animals.
I do love to take photos as well-- now with digital cameras far less equipment to lug around and no slides. I'll post them on fb for friends to pass over and use an online service to print photo books. If I'm doing a charitable donation to an organization in that country as an alternative Xmas gift I'll make a small photo book to give to the recipient to let them know where the gift went.
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
From Iceland recently, a sweater, gloves, and a gorgeous lopi wool rug dyed in landscape colours. I couldn't get any knitting wool as the only shop I saw was shut, it being Sunday. Bookmarks for nephews and nieces, and some jewellery using basalt for sisters. Two hand turned wooden boxes from a brilliant turner on the Faroes. Couldn't cope with carrying his lampshades. Turner
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
Neckties. I buy at least one, but usually three in each country. In the 1970s it was tea shirts. But I immatured into an old fart who wears ties.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
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Posted
I buy a picture fridge magnet. I've moved house a lot, and these were always the first things to be unpacked. Weirdly, as soon as my travel souvenirs were on the fridge, it felt like home.
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
I also collect fridge magnets, our large American Fridge is now quite full ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Tree Bee
Ship's tiller girl
# 4033
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Posted
I collect tickets. Bus tickets, concert, gardens, boat trip tickets.
So as well as reminding myself where I've been and what I've seen, they tell me when I did it too, which is so easy to forget.
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"Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple."
— Woody Guthrie
http://saysaysay54.wordpress.com
Posts: 5257 | From: me to you. | Registered: Feb 2003
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
Rocks. And my friends know to pick up pretty stones for me during their travels!
I'm not talking about boulders, mind you, but little rocks between one half inch and two inches long.
I have a fossil from Pennsylvania that has a star all the way through. (It's the inside of a certain reed.)
My BFF just brought a little piece of fossilized coral from the Arctic Ocean!
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Graven Image
Shipmate
# 8755
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Posted
I would buy dolls for a young friend. Now I tend not to lug anything home. I have enough stuff. The people who owned our home before us have filled the yard with rocks all with painted date and place of their travels. Some are rather large and I cannot imagine bring them home in a suitcase.
Posts: 2641 | From: Third planet from the sun. USA | Registered: Nov 2004
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Belle Ringer
Shipmate
# 13379
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Posted
A coffee mug. A friend got me started, explaining they break, you don't end up with too many. Well, she had 3 pre-teens. Hers broke. I have to weed mine out sometimes. But it's fun that every cuppa tea or juice is in a mug with pleasant memories attached.
One per trip, not per tourist site!
Posts: 5830 | From: Texas | Registered: Jan 2008
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
When I was in China we went to Xian, site of the Terra Cotta Warriors. The town is also the eastern end of the Silk Road, and in the Muslim Market there I found a carving made from a single joint of bamboo. It was about as big as my thigh, and represents a squash blossom bud with some leaves. What it really looks like is Cthulhu, or perhaps the submarine Nautlus, or maybe a giant squid. Tentacles! Since it is bamboo it is fairly tough and light, which is good since I had to bundle it in my arms and carry it home like a baby.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Sparrow
Shipmate
# 2458
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Posted
I usually buy a tshirt with a local design, unfortunately then I don't want to wear them and spoil them! I have a couple of gorgeous ones from Australia a couple of years ago with Aboriginal art designs.
The other thing is a local tea towel - always useful and a nice reminder of the summer holiday on a dreary winter's evening when I'm doing the washing up!
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For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Posts: 3149 | From: Bottom right hand corner of the UK | Registered: Mar 2002
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To The Pain
Shipmate
# 12235
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Posted
I often, but not always, pick up a Christmas tree ornament on each trip. I didn't manage this summer, being too intent on my mission to find T-shirts for the small relatives. While I am on a trip just now (for work) I don't think that really warrants commemorating!
Posts: 1183 | From: The Granite City | Registered: Jan 2007
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Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
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Posted
In one school I worked in, we set up a competition. Whenever a member of staff went on holiday, their task was to bring back the tackiest souvenir they could find for a maximum cost of £1.50. I remember a golf-playing Nessie, a snow globe of a London bus which leaked all the water out, a magnificent plastic-gilt Venetian gondola, a teddy bear Beefeater carrying an enormous flower, a musical Pope ... you get the idea! They all lived on a table in the corner of the staffroom, which became a magnet for the small children of staff.
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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ArachnidinElmet
Shipmate
# 17346
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Posted
I went through a period of buying shot glasses from various countries and receiving them from friends. A nice practical present ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
I also have several regional cookbooks (how to make Hungarian goulash and streudal, Dutch croquettes etc.. and if it's that kind of country, a comic book in the local language.
There is a law in the Arachnid family that wherever I go I have to buy my Mum a bookmark. The house is full of them but we only ever seem to use train tickets and shopping lists to actually mark books.
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'If a pleasant, straight-forward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle manoeuvres' - Kafka
Posts: 1887 | From: the rhubarb triangle | Registered: Sep 2012
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
Teddy-bears.
If we go somewhere new, we like to buy a teddy (usually with the place-name on his sweater).
Or if we just happen to see a little bear who looks as if he's been waiting for us to adopt him ...
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Cottontail:
In one school I worked in, we set up a competition. Whenever a member of staff went on holiday, their task was to bring back the tackiest souvenir they could find for a maximum cost of £1.50. I remember a golf-playing Nessie, a snow globe of a London bus which leaked all the water out, a magnificent plastic-gilt Venetian gondola, a teddy bear Beefeater carrying an enormous flower, a musical Pope ... you get the idea! They all lived on a table in the corner of the staffroom, which became a magnet for the small children of staff.
This is awesome. You know, if you took photos, you'd have the makings of a popular blog right there.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Sparrow
Shipmate
# 2458
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Posted
My last ten years or so in work were in aviation, and many of my colleagues had to travel extensively by air all round the world in the course of work. A colleague of mine had amassed a large collection of airline sick bags (empty!) which he used to get all our other colleagues to bring back whenever they flew!
![[Confused]](confused.gif)
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For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Posts: 3149 | From: Bottom right hand corner of the UK | Registered: Mar 2002
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St. Gwladys
Shipmate
# 14504
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Posted
When I was a child, I, too, collected fabric badges which got sewn onto my duffel bag. As a couple, we have collected mugs, which explains why our mug cupboard has over 100 in it - particularly mugs of places and advertising promotions. (Easter eggs were often chosen because they came with a mug). It's quite sad to see mugs from attractions which have now closed, like the visitor centre at Goonhilly in Cornwall. We used to buy pin badges for Lord P and he had a large piece of fabric mounted on the back of his bedroom door with them pinned on.
We now have so much "stuff" that we tend not to buy souvenirs, but we do take lots of photos!
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"I say - are you a matelot?"
"Careful what you say sir, we're on board ship here"
From "New York Girls", Steeleye Span, Commoners Crown (Voiced by Peter Sellers)
Posts: 3333 | From: Rhymney Valley, South Wales | Registered: Jan 2009
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cattyish
Wuss in Boots
# 7829
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Posted
I have a charm bracelet. It has a little Sydney Harbour bridge, a Maeshowe dragon and a disc shaped charm I bought in Marrakesh airport on it. There was a Groatie buckie but that fell out of its mount. I need to get something German as I was ill while there and something Austrian because we were in the mountains far from any shop.
Cattyish, jangling.
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...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Posts: 1794 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jul 2004
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Ariston
Insane Unicorn
# 10894
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Posted
Books, sometimes in languages I can't read. Granted, I learned French a few years after spending a long morning wandering the specialist bookshops of the Latin Quarter, wondering if somewhere there might be one that specialized in philosophy (...yes), but, at the time, it cause my then-girlfriend no end of bemusement that I had all these dense books I couldn't do anything with.
Perhaps the strangest thing I've brought back was 25 pounds of dirt. Well, clay, really, and a very unique kind at that, but try explaining that to the person wondering why your bags are overweight.
My mom, of course, collected rocks. Not small ones, either. Usually about 30-40 pound rocks, sometimes larger, that she could put in the garden. There were a few times on road trips when the family minivan would lean to one side a bit as my dad and I deposited the Requisite Rock.
(edited to indicate time, rather than cause)
[ 27. August 2015, 16:49: Message edited by: Ariston ]
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“Therefore, let it be explained that nowhere are the proprieties quite so strictly enforced as in men’s colleges that invite young women guests, especially over-night visitors in the fraternity houses.” Emily Post, 1937.
Posts: 6849 | From: The People's Republic of Balcones | Registered: Jan 2006
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Lyda*Rose
Ship's broken porthole
# 4544
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
quote:
Originally posted by Cottontail:
In one school I worked in, we set up a competition. Whenever a member of staff went on holiday, their task was to bring back the tackiest souvenir they could find for a maximum cost of £1.50. I remember a golf-playing Nessie, a snow globe of a London bus which leaked all the water out, a magnificent plastic-gilt Venetian gondola, a teddy bear Beefeater carrying an enormous flower, a musical Pope ... you get the idea! They all lived on a table in the corner of the staffroom, which became a magnet for the small children of staff.
This is awesome. You know, if you took photos, you'd have the makings of a popular blog right there.
Or a Pinterest page. ![[Cool]](cool.gif)
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"Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG... thank you. Thank you for my life." ~from Joe Vs the Volcano
Posts: 21377 | From: CA | Registered: May 2003
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Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
quote:
Originally posted by Cottontail:
In one school I worked in, we set up a competition. Whenever a member of staff went on holiday, their task was to bring back the tackiest souvenir they could find for a maximum cost of £1.50. I remember a golf-playing Nessie, a snow globe of a London bus which leaked all the water out, a magnificent plastic-gilt Venetian gondola, a teddy bear Beefeater carrying an enormous flower, a musical Pope ... you get the idea! They all lived on a table in the corner of the staffroom, which became a magnet for the small children of staff.
This is awesome. You know, if you took photos, you'd have the makings of a popular blog right there.
Or a Pinterest page.
Haha - I never thought of that. Alas, this was back in the 90s, before blogging was ever a thing. Though now I am wondering if that table still exists ...
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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Matariki
Shipmate
# 14380
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Posted
I certainly do the fridge magnet thing, with magnets from Dublin to Jakarta vying for space.
I did a "bucket trip" (not that I plan to kick the bucket quite yet) to northern India and Nepal earlier this year and brought more than I ever did before. I picked up quite a few pashmina shawls and some other bit and pieces. When visiting the US or the UK I carry back a lot of books and hope no o ne weighs my cabin bag.
Posts: 298 | From: Just across the Shire from Hobbiton | Registered: Dec 2008
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crunt
Shipmate
# 1321
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:
The other thing is a local tea towel - always useful and a nice reminder of the summer holiday on a dreary winter's evening when I'm doing the washing up!
I nearly drove myself mad trying to find souvenir tea towels in Singapore. It's just not a thing there any longer, it seems.
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QUIZ: Bible
QUIZ: world religions
LTL Discussion
languagespider.com
Posts: 269 | From: Up country in the middle of Malaysia | Registered: Sep 2001
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
...but they do a great line in really tacky souvenirs of the Merlion!
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688
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Posted
I tend to buy stuff for other people, rather than for myself. This has the advantage of cluttering up someone else’s house ![[Two face]](graemlins/scot_twoface.gif) . Can be anything, but preferably original and/or slightly kitsch and funny.
In Amsterdam, I picked up a genuine Delftware cow for my parents. They also have a nodding dinosaur in the back of their car from the Natural History Museum. My (now) husband got a wee Nessie from Scotland.
One year for Christmas I bought the ugliest Parisian souvenirs I could find as presents for my whole family (yes I did get them real presents as well). We then voted on which one was the tackiest. That said, for really tacky souvenirs, Paris can’t compete with Rome. I think my mother still has a Pope Benedict calendar somewhere.
Posts: 3696 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I am now worrying about presents from my eclipse trip back in March. I bought one sister a pair of reindeer antler earrings, very tiny, with little copies of an ancient rock drawing of a reindeer on them. I haven't seen the other sister since, cannot remember what I would have bought her, and cannot find anything that makes sense as a gift for her. I hope to see her soon - have that very nice basalt and silver thing for her from Iceland, but not from the earlier trip to Norway.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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ArachnidinElmet
Shipmate
# 17346
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
...That said, for really tacky souvenirs, Paris can’t compete with Rome. I think my mother still has a Pope Benedict calendar somewhere.
I have a Pope JPII snow globe from a friend's visit to Italy. It looks as if he's Godzilla, terrorising the buildings of Rome
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
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'If a pleasant, straight-forward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle manoeuvres' - Kafka
Posts: 1887 | From: the rhubarb triangle | Registered: Sep 2012
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Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
That said, for really tacky souvenirs, Paris can’t compete with Rome. I think my mother still has a Pope Benedict calendar somewhere.
I bought a friend a small fridge calendar from Florence, entitled "Florence by Night". The twist? None of the photos are by night ...
![[Paranoid]](graemlins/paranoid.gif)
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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Sparrow
Shipmate
# 2458
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariston:
My mom, of course, collected rocks. Not small ones, either. Usually about 30-40 pound rocks, sometimes larger, that she could put in the garden. There were a few times on road trips when the family minivan would lean to one side a bit as my dad and I deposited the Requisite Rock.
(edited to indicate time, rather than cause)
Last time the BF and I were walking in the Lake District, we passed through a disused slate quarry. BF decided that he would like to take back "a few" nicely shaped pieces of slate to put round his garden pond. He was definitely leaning to one side after that as we came down the mountain track!
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
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For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Posts: 3149 | From: Bottom right hand corner of the UK | Registered: Mar 2002
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
It has turned out that the two hand turned boxes from the Faroes have turned into one. I sent them off, on the same day, as birthday gifts to my nieces, one in South Wales, one in South London. The London one has failed to arrive after being sent on the 11th.
I have the certificates of postage. I shall initiate search on Tuesday after the Bank Holiday. I have emailed the turner to see if there can be a replacement.
Bad taste in the mouth, that sort of thing.
[ 30. August 2015, 19:15: Message edited by: Penny S ]
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
The North East man is sometimes given gifts whilst working abroad. My favourite so far is a cheese slicer with a decorative handle, which cheers up the cutlery drawer no end.
On one working trip he was given framed dead butterflies, which I refuse to have on display anywhere.
One gift baffles us. It's two small china ornaments, which can fit together. One is a little cat, and the other is a small boy doing a backwards crab bend. The small boy is wearing the sort of trousers that non-potty trained little boys can wear, with an open crotch, and the crab bend position means that his genitals are displayed.
The small cat fits under his back.
We have no idea whether it represents something - a character in a fairy story perhaps? Anyone come across anything similar?
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
If I were you I would hide it away before Operation Yewtree gets hold of you.
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
It's not on display!! It's still in the box it came in.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
Very wise.
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My beard is a testament to my masculinity and virility, and demonstrates that I am a real man. Trouble is, bits of quiche sometimes get caught in it.
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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