TRAVEL|MEMORIES
My Five Favourite Souvenirs
Why are they special?
On my first trip to the UK , I bought so much “stuff” that the beautiful check-in staff at Heathrow wanted to charge me $1,000 excess baggage! Even my breaking down in tears exclaiming, “…but I bought all of this in your country!” had no effect on that hard-hearted woman. It wasn’t entirely truthful. Most of that excess weight was from free books and brochures from all of the castles and churches I’d visited, but she wasn’t to know that. That was the rude awakening I needed! I’ve never been asked to pay for excess baggage since then!
My Santorini Paintings
I’d had some Santorini prints for so many years that the sunlight had faded them. So when I visited Santorini, I wanted to buy a real painting — just one — but came home with fourteen. Why? They are all painted by art students and were really cheap! It gave me warm fuzzy feelings that I was supporting struggling art students. Maybe I was deluding myself, but eleven years later, I still love them. I wake up each morning to three of them in my bedroom. I love the colours- the vibrant blues and pure whites and the occasional splash of purple bougainvillea. They were just canvases — I rolled them up in a postal tube to send them home. As you can see, I bought frames and mounted them.
My Pandora Bracelet
I used to collect fridge magnets and souvenir spoons. Fridge magnets are heavy and not recommended for the flight home. I gave up collecting spoons when I first started to travel overseas. I have a huge collection of spoons from places in Australia I’ve visited. The fun was in finding a spoon in out-of-the-way places that weren’t even on the map — ghost towns! The keeping and displaying of the collection was not so much fun — think silver cleaning and wall space to display them.
Finding charms for my Pandora bracelet is the same sort of a challenge as finding the spoons. Not everywhere has a Pandora shop, so the first thing on my list is to locate one. I will only buy a charm if it’s something that’s particular to that city. So the Charles Bridge from Prague, the Czar’s royal crown from Russia, the double-decker bus from London, the shamrock from Dublin, the palm tree from Dubai, the Sagrada Familia from Barcelona — I’ve cursed that one a few times, it gets caught on everything! — the Flamenco dancers fan from Nerja, and the only gold charm I have — the Nevsky Alexander Cathedral from Tallinn.
My photobooks
I like hard copy photos so I find the best way to keep these is in a photobook. Selecting the best photos from each place is the most difficult task especially when my daughter is a good photographer and takes thousands of photos! Even if no one else is interested, I enjoy reliving my trip, especially during the pandemic years when it was difficult to go anywhere.
My Matamanoa Print
One of the good memories of my 20-year marriage was the vacation we spent in Fiji. We were lucky enough to stay on the exclusive Matamanoa Island during the Fijian Coup at reduced rates. The kids were given their own bure for free and we all enjoyed alone time and family time, playing beach volleyball, tennis, table tennis and snorkelling. Everyone loved it! Keeley loved it so much that she planned to return for her honeymoon even though she went an around island walk and fell off a “cliff”.
Fortunately, one of the group she went walking with was a doctor — a paediatrician no less — who was wonderful and she was transported back to the resort in a wheelbarrow. I think she felt special because everyone on the island kept asking her how she was. One of her legs was badly scraped and bruised but nothing a bit of attention couldn’t cure. The doctor checked up on her every day. Such a friendly vibe from the staff and the few guests made this a really special time for all of us. Hence the print which I’ve saved through three breakups and eight moves.
My maroon leather gloves
On my first visit to Prague in 2011, I bought a pair of fur-lined leather gloves at the markets. They were very cheap so I doubted they were real leather, but I was wrong. The fur has worn thin after all these years, but they still keep my hands warm when I’m travelling. The only problem is I have to take them off to take photos on my iPhone. Once I took them off briefly on the very tip of Lands’ End. The wind and the almost horizontal rain almost froze my fingers together.
As a budget traveller, I tend to buy nothing that’s not useful and because I travel in winter, it’s usually things to keep me warmer. A beanie from my last visit to Prague,( I had left my beautiful black woollen cap in a Bolt in Budapest), a lovely warm locally knitted ear muff in Tallinn, and a cheap long raincoat — I was tired of having wet pants — which only lasted until I got to Iceland. I have to buy a decent wet weather long coat before my next trip.
What are the favourite souvenirs you’ve collected from your travels?
This is a response to Linda Ng’s prompt. Thanks, Linda. You’re getting to be really good at setting these informal prompts!
Osan Fernando, JoAnn Ryan, Belcairn and Nishan Fuard have beaten me to the punch with great stories about things they’ve souvenired from their travels.
