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11150847_10152762051527617_3820638610166569824_nWhen you're travelling, something you realise very quickly is what is important to take away from every stage of your journey. When all you're carrying around with you is a 65litre backpack with your whole life compressed into it, that doesn't leave much space to pick up things along the way. It becomes so much more important to store away all the precious memories from all the places you visit and the things that you see. For me, it's always been more important to capture the emotions, the colours, smells and tastes of each moment rather than actually having some cheesy souvenir from a market stall. The only real souvenirs I have now are clothes and jewellery I bought along the way, and a dinky little carved elephant from the sanctuary where I volunteered. It seems a poor representation of the incredible 18 months I've spent exploring extraordinary countries and the amazing sights I've seen. I have nothing physical to link me to the beautiful souls I met along the way, and yet I still feel so inextricably linked to them no matter what the distance, all because of the memories in this little diary.

Read: How to get more out of your travel snaps

imageAs I said my goodbyes to friends and family before I left to go travelling, there were gifts and cards wishing me well on my journey, but none meant as much as the one from my workmates. They had clubbed together to buy me a few little goodies, including a beautiful little travel journal to take with me and write all my memories as I traveled around the world solo. The red patterned leather book was the perfect place to store every thought, feeling and experience as I set out on my adventure. It was such a thoughtful gift, and one I treasured as I traveled across Asia and Australia, writing in it became a nightly treat as I reminisced over the day's events. I'm a traditionalist when it comes to the delights of reading actual books instead of screens and hand writing notes, there's something so beautiful about actually holding something in your hand rather than sending an email or downloading an e-book. I love blogging, it has been a huge part of my travelling experience and I would heartily recommend any traveler keep a blog so they have an easily accessible journal to store their memories and photographs that they can share with the world. Doing so has meant sharing every beautiful experience with friends, family and countless strangers through the internet, it's been amazing to know I could help other travelers by advising them on locations I had already visited.18237_10152752290777617_375494848472286630_nBut, as amazing as blogging is, there is still a lot of my world and my heart that I don't share on www.absolutelylucy.com. For my own sanity and privacy, it is important to me to have a part of my life that is separate, and that part is even more special to me. That's the part that is hidden in the pages of my travel journal, of the book that is just for me, filled with tales of love, hopes and dreams, of the experiences that are etched on my soul and the stories I simply cannot repeat. Whether you're a writer, an artist or a musician, creative souls have a need to express their big ideas and as a traveler, the exposure to so many amazing places and people is the perfect driving force for putting pen to paper. For me, writing was addictive when I was away, I just couldn't write fast enough to get all my thoughts out. Some people struggle to spend time alone, but I can't help wondering if that is actually because they don't have a satisfying way of expressing themselves when they do. I craved time alone to write both in my travel journal, and on here, it was therapeutic and even writing the tiniest details would often work as a catalyst for creating the posts that you ended up reading. It was amazing how much one would influence the other, often I would start writing in my journal, then halfway through I would have to grab my laptop and start typing a new blog post to share with you guys. Travel is inspiration in its purest form.11224543_10152762050452617_3879807044485580878_nAfter working as a journalist, it was so freeing to be able to spend my days and nights writing purely for myself, the more I wrote, the more the words flowed on to the pages. It's addictive. Even as the moments were happening, I was experiencing them as I would write them on the page, always thinking of how I would immortalise every person I met as though they were a character in a story I was writing. I loved that feeling, and I feel lucky to have experienced a world that excited me enough to write like this. But whether you write for a living or you just want to keep a momento of your travels, keeping a travel diary is such beautiful way of storing your memories and keeping them close to your heart when you move on. You just don't get the same experience when you clutch your laptop close to you as you remember those you left behind, but there's something comforting about having a little book that is just for you. It doesn't have to be words, I knew so many travelers who incorporated music, art and poetry into their own books, each inspired in different ways to create something, a memory of each stage of their journey.11223868_10152762052357617_6382879823733307420_nI'll always remember a friend, Phoebe, who I met in Pai, Thailand, who had started holding "art club" with new friends as she traveled around. She was a beautiful soul who traveled with a tiny collection of paints, pens and gathered a group around to create something amazing together in the pages of her little journal. This way everyone had to contribute something and years later she would look at it and remember every single person who was there. When I was on the slow boat between Thailand and Laos, there was a woman who used her artistic skills to capture each moment - she actually started to sketch and paint the scene in front of her as a group of us played games and chatted. Her work was beautiful and it was incredible to see the finished piece against the live scene, our trip is now captured forever and it's all thanks to her amazing talents. Another friend of mine wrote a mixture of poems and prose inspired by the place he was in, he loved to read aloud to us in the evenings and share the words he felt compelled to write. And I'll never forget the guy I met who said art and words were not his forte but said each place had a song, a sound that was distinctive, he spent his time trying to capture the essence of each location in music, in lyrics he created. The results were beautiful.imageI still have my travel journal from my first 18 months of travelling, it sits proudly on my shelf which I'm surprised doesn't bow under the weight of all those memories. With just a few months at home and a few trips around Europe planned, my thoughts are already on preparing for my return to Australia as I sort out visas, tax returns and insurance. But something that had slipped my mind until the team at Pen Heaven sent me a beautiful hand made leather travel journal by Laurige to be my "trusty companion to help with all my creative thoughts, memos and notes." Made by French artisans, my journal arrived in a stunning deep red, with Absolutely Lucy embossed in gold lettering on the bottom right corner. It was the ultimate in luxury for a writer, and gives me the perfect place to keep track of every precious travelling moment. The journal makes the perfect gift for a traveler, because no traveler wants something they cannot take with them - what's the point in leaving things locked up in storage? This is something personal that they will treasure forever, even more so because the leather case is refillable - you can replace the writing paper within as it runs out and start afresh for each voyage. At £47 it is a little pricey for a journal, but as a gift that will never grow old, it is perfect for any adventurers in your life, a timeless keepsake they will treasure forever, and a perfect place to store their big ideas. It's available in a range of gorgeous colours and you can choose whether you prefer lined paper for writing, or fancy getting creative with plain paper. I'll be using mine to write all those beautiful memories, and to make big plans for the future.

Find the full range of Laurige products here to order your personalised travel journal.

Have you kept a travel journal - what does yours mean to you? How do you keep track of your memories? Do you regret not keeping a journal?

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imageWhether you're writing it just for yourself, for your family and closest friends, or an audience of thousands every month - writing a travel blog can provide you with a home for all your previous memories, photos and experiences. All those amazing moments you had while travelling through the jungles, mountains, cities and deserts spread across the globe are combined into one amazing story, with you as the main character. So many travellers I meet carry with them a travel journal, as do I, which is a lovely way to keep note of thoughts and moments along the way, but in today's modern age, a blog is an even easier way to combine all your photos, words and videos into a multimedia collage of your time on the road. For those who haven't been following Absolutely Lucy for as long, I actually started this blog as a lifestyle blog around a year before deciding to come travelling, I then developed it into a travel blog as well so I could capture every moment and share it with my readers along the way.

Travel blogging along my journey has been one of the best things about travelling - not only because I get to share it with you guys, but simply because I love to write and doing this has given me a reason to. I love that I can look back over my time in Asia and Australia, and find all my pics, videos and stories in one place, I love that I can share it with friends who were there at the time and others who would have loved to be. Even better, my stories and experiences have given me the opportunity to reach out and help advise or inspire others to face their fears and to go out and do the same. I've heard from so many fellow travellers who have read my blog and been inspired to start their own, or who wanted advice on how to go about doing it, and it's great to be a part of. So many say to me they wish they could write, that they are jealous of those who can, but that should never stand in your way when it comes to blogging. In blogging you don't have to write a certain way, it's all about your unique voice and how you express yourself. If that comes in the form of a picture diary, or homemade videos then who cares?

10 reasons to keep a blog while you travel:

  1. It's fun! You love writing and find it a great outlet for everything that's stored up in your head, so why not pour out every memory on to the page so you have a record of it?
  2. You've had some pretty damn amazing experiences since travelling, many of which took your breath away, so why not share them with others?
  3. One day, ten years from now, you could be sitting in a cold office looking out the window at dreary, rainy old Britain as you work a job you can't stand - create something that will keep the daydream and the memory alive.
  4. It gives you focus and something to work on creatively, it's so easy to get lost in a backpacker life of going out every night and sunbathing every day but never achieving anything you can measure. It's nice to have something to show for your time.
  5. It looks good on your CV to show you have great computer skills, social media experience and the drive to create something you're not being paid for.
  6. It can grow into something amazing if your blog actually gets noticed and draws enough followers, you could end up doing it for a living!
  7. It's fun to share blog posts and videos with your travel buddies after you've parted ways and to relive the memories and the jokes.
  8. It's a great way to connect with other travellers and other bloggers - I ended up becoming great friends with two travel bloggers I never would have met if it weren't for blogging and arriving in Phuket at the same time. Plus you can offer advice and tips to other backpackers.
  9. It helps you keep track of the days, what you did and when - after six months or even a year of travel, the days kind of blur into one and it's easy to forget.
  10. What else are you going to do while you're laying in a hammock by the pool?! With most travellers carrying laptops or iPads with the. These days it's pretty easy to keep up. I do all my blogging on an iPad mini and its been a dream to work on, plus great for storing all my pics and videos, and it's way smaller and lighter than a laptop.

Why did you start a travel blog? If you haven't already - would you?

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