My second journal is a small 4 x 3¾ inch blank book. I learned the hard way on how hard it is to find a blank book - meaning a book without any lines in it - in Eastern Europe. I didn't find any in Berlin. None in Prague. Finally, in Ceske Budejovice, I found one. It had an ugly plaid cover that I immediately tore off - but it did it's job. I filled this 200+ page journal in just 25 days.

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Here is an example of the average page in this journal: a few rubber stamp marks, a postmarked stamp, a transportation ticket stub (Hungarian tram) and a list of transportation taken during the day (lower left).

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In Yugoslavia, I stayed in a wonderully furnished, one-bedroom (two bed), family room, kitchen, washing room, and bathroom for US$10 a day. I loved it so much that I didn't want to forget anything about it... so I drew it in my journal. I talk more about doing this in my journal tips section.

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Here is a page from my visit to Perast, Yugoslavia. I wanted to show you this page with attention to the flower and the stamp. I picked and placed the flower before I bought the stamp! It was amazing on how they both had the same color. I didn't notice this until I was placing the stamp on the page.

The item to the far left is a wing from a dead Yugoslavic dragonfly I found. .

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I will always remember sitting near the Temple of Apollo in Pompeii, Italy with Mount Vesuvius lying ominously in the background. Why will I always remember it? because I drew it! I counted six tour groups come and go as I sat and sketched. The tourists might briefly recall how the ancient pillars seemed to stand in defiance to the sleeping giant, but the 25 minutes I took to sketch it perminantly placed the scene in my memory.

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C o n t e n t s :

  M y   r e a l
........J o u r n a l s :

Although I do not write in a journal regularily, I am a huge believer in journal writing on journeys. They are a way of capturing the thoughts, feelings and moments of the trip - many that you will surprisingly forget about otherwise.

I bought my first journal in Paris, France - but I did not expect to use it as a journal. I bought the book so I could keep track of what places I went to, transportation I took, people I met, etc. It wasn't very much - maybe a page or two of notes per day.

But in a period of a few days, my scribbles became sentences, my lists became paragraphs. Pretty soon, I couldn't stop writing. Rather than start each entry with just the date, I included the time as well. I was completely addicted.

And, yes, I do like to write small.

Journal 1
Journal 2
Journal 3

Tips 1
Tips 2
Tips 3

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