I’m back from my hiatus! I’m all moved and closed and own my apartment so life is settling down a bit. It was a little hectic there for a moment. Did you miss me? Packing and unpacking all of my belongings made me a) realize that I needed to get rid of a ton of shit, and b) brought back memories from all of my old trips.
Even though minimalism is catching on more and more nowadays, there’s still at least one thing that you usually bring back from a trip, abroad or domestic, to remind you of it (since those 700 pictures we take on our iPhones won’t suffice). For me that collection used to be shot glasses. I have about 30 shot glasses from various cities and countries here in America and abroad and it’s just stupid. After I bought a shot glass in Warsaw (with the mermaid on it, of course), I decided to stop then and there. I have no shot glass rom Gdansk or Budapest or Vienna or Dublin. You get the point.
When I was unpacking all of these tiny glass objects, it made me remember each trip, but it also made me remember that I don’t take shots ever anymore (#adulting). So, I do not regret my decision to stop collecting things I’ll never use.
What do I collect now? Art. Not super expensive art (truth be told – I’m not an art person at all and I have no idea how to look at it), just little paintings or drawings by local artists that I find while walking around a city while I’m traveling. And if I don’t see anything that grabs me, I don’t force myself to buy something for the sake of buying something. I’m currently trying to figure out where I’m going to hang all of these photos so my cats don’t have the slightest chance of knocking them down. I’ve collected a handful over the years and I thought I’d share them here:
London: Very little thought went into buying this during my summer studying abroad in London in 2007. I saw a vendor selling paintings near Big Ben and I bought it. Do not ask me how I got it home without destroying it, but luckily, I did.
Paris: That same summer I also went to Paris and our tour guide told us before we got to Sacre Coeur that there were local artists there who would ask us if we wanted our portraits drawn. Cool, right? He also told us that to get a better price that we should saw we were Canadian, not American, since we were balls deep in the Iraq War and George W. Bush was not the most liked. I would’ve heeded my guide’s advice, but I wasn’t asked by the artist. Does this look anything like me? Nah. But I do still have the necklace that I’m wearing in it!
Paris: I also bought this on that same trip to Paris in 2007. I just thought it was pretty. It’s on canvas so it was pretty easy to get home.
Seattle: Fast forward to 2011 and I bought this tiny 3.5×5″ canvas painting in Seattle while I was visiting that summer. It’s super adorable and I’m not really sure how I’m going to be able to hang it.
Dublin: Fast forward again to 2017 and I picked this up a shop in Dublin on the south side of the river. I loved it and it’s by an artist named Rob Stears. You can check out his other stuff here.
Budapest: I found this, I believe, at a vendor at the farmer’s market in the 7th district on one of my last days in Budapest. I have a black cat and and it said Budapest on it so I was sold.
Santa Fe: During my day trip with my friends to Santa Fe this past summer I picked this up from a flea market. What’s more New Mexican than a cat in a sombrero drinking a margarita?
I also have two little paintings from Prague that I bought in 2008 but I cannot for the life of me find them right now. I’m not sure how I’m going to hang these in my new apartment but I’m glad I have these memories from trips that I can look at any time I want.
What do you collect on your trips? (If anything!) Let me know below!
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