When travelling, everyone likes to collect souvenirs from the trip. It's nice to have something that you can look at that will evoke an instant memory of another place, another country, another culture. Of course, what do you collect? Sometimes you can go a bit over the top and before you know your house is full of crap. Crap that reminds you of some place else, but it's still crap.

One of the first trips we went on was to Oktoberfest in Germany with Nat and Teshie. While we were there Natalie mentioned that she collected pins from the different countries she has visited. A little badge of the country's flag or maybe something that the country is known for (like a bull for Spain or a windmill for the Netherlands.) I thought that was a pretty good thing to collect so I started to do the same. In the beginning I just collected a pin for the country. Then I started collecting pins for the cities. Then I started collecting pins for the museums I visited, and pins for the musicals I've seen on the West End. I have quite a collection now.


(I have missed a couple though. I didn't get one in Granada because I sprained my ankle. Anyone going to Granada soon? I'd like a Pomegranate pin please. I didn't get one from Cinque Terre because they don't make them. That's a niche market they are missing out. Don't they want my tourist dollar?)

So in the beginning, I just collected pins. Now a few other things have started to creep on to the list. We've been collecting the Euro coins from each country. I also have a few squashed pennies.


After visiting the Christmas markets in Vienna, I thought I might start to collect Christmas ornaments from the countries we visit. I thought that these would be nice to hang on our tree (when we get a tree when we get a house when we return to Australia). This is a smaller collection as most countries don't have Christmas ornaments out when you visit them in the Summer.


What do you collect when you travel?