escaping
104 CalmMoment.com
P
ut pen to paper – this month my mission is
to convince you that keeping a travel journal
will change your life. If the idea of writing
a daily diary feels a little overwhelming, don’t panic.
Travelling is the perfect time to try writing – you’re
away from the pressures of work, a busy social life
and a pinging phone. Plus, you often have plenty of
‘dead’ time – sitting on buses, trains and planes –
when you’ll have the head space to open a book
and reflect on the amazing places you’re exploring.
A journal is an ideal way to stop yourself feeling
like you have nothing to occupy you if you’re
travelling alone, and I think writing is one of the
most mindful, mentally beneficial things you can do
while exploring. Your journal doesn’t have to be a
good mood-only zone, either. Travelling is amazing,
but it can be exhausting, intense and infuriating –
spilling your feelings on the page offers release.
Ready to get started? Keeping a journal is also
delightfully cheap – all you need is a diary, pens,
and glue or sticky tape. You could, of course, write
your diary on your laptop, but I love having a bound
book in my hands – once full of clean, blank pages
and now covered in my spidery handwriting. I
recommend buying a notebook you love to look at
(I love Moleskine ones) as a diary is something to
cherish – a safe space you can call your own.
Wondering how to get started? A shiny new
journal can seem intimidating, but you might find
that once you start it’s hard to stop documenting
all the amazing things you experience on the road.
If putting your emotions into words feels like a
challenge, try using your senses – what can you
see, smell, hear and touch in this new country?
What weird and wonderful things are on sale in the
markets? What bright clothes are locals wearing?
What’s outside your train window? Write while
everything is fresh, and don’t forget to date your
entries. Remember, your journal doesn’t have to be
perfect – it is just for you, and grammar, spelling
and handwriting can go to the wall.
Feel like waxing lyrical isn’t your thing? You can
still be a journal lover. Pack a lovely art book andWriting refuge
As well as a place to record the times of your life,
a travel journal can act as your own private sanctuaryyou can create a totally word-free scrapbook full of
maps, photographs, ticket stubs, doodles and
sketches that describe your adventures. Travel
scrapbooking is mindful, relaxing and seriously
addictive. You can get as detailed and beautiful as
you like – Google ‘bullet journals’ for inspiring
works of art – or you can create a wild mismatch
of glued-in finds that make you happy.
The biggest joy of travel journalling, of course, is
looking back years later at what you wrote. Funny
conversations, interesting little details – they’re
quickly forgotten as you travel through life, but
reading your dog-eared diary will transport you
straight back. My friend Pete journals his travels
and he recently pulled out his diary from a trip to
France years ago – we laughed until we cried at
some of the things we’d said, totally forgotten
except for within his diary pages. My scrapbook
from the year I spent living in Rome is no thing of
beauty, but I love it – it’s stuffed with half-written
thoughts, lists of delicious pasta dishes I’d tried,
faded postcards, shopping lists, sketches of Rome’s
grandest ruins, even dried flowers. Reading some of
it makes me proud, some I’d rather not remember
(hello, embarrassing crushes – I literally wrote as
much about boys as I did about Italy back then) but
it’s all there – an honest, warts-and-all time capsule
straight back to my 21-year-old self.
Buy a journal you love, and start seeing the
world differently, now and in years to come. As
Oscar Wilde said, “I never travel without my diary.
One should always have something sensational to
read on the train.”Sian Lewis is a travel writer
and adventurer. Sian blogs at
thegirloutdoors.co.uk and her book,
The Girl Outdoors: The Wild Girl’s Guide
To Adventure, Travel and Wellbeing
(Conway, £ 1 4. 99 ) is out now.Words: Sian Lewis / Illustration: Ellice Weaver