A well used travel journal in Graz

 Hi all, 

I am back from a lovely travel in Graz, an Austrian city I did not even know about until we were booked to join my sister, her husband & another couple there for 5 days.  The husbands were there on work, we were there to catch up. 

I had to look Graz up - I had been to several other Austrian cities like Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Niederau skiing mountains etc 

I am a habitual travel journal keeper, I love travelling & the ritual of organising my thoughts & experiences at the end of each day, particularly on long trips because it gives meaning to the experiences & it is a way of returning to the moment at another time in future. 

Daughter & I decided  5 days warranted travelling light  - I seldom buy things when I travel so it is easy to do a carry on bag only.  After the busy hub of Frankfort airport, the airport at Graz is tiny, a reminder of some we have used in South Africa where you walk from the plane in to the airport building - very user friendly after the busy ones we normally use. 

We stayed at the central hotel of Palais Erzherzog Johann with its amazing covered inner courtyard filled with plants over the 4 floors. The massive glass roof can really be appreciated from the viewing platform on the K & O building next door. The views from the platform are stunning across the traditional red roofs of the city & the landmarks can be appreciated. 

The tourist information centre a short walk from the hotel had an excellent free guide of the main attractions in the city & we duly marked off most of them over our visit.  Definitely worth using a guide to appreciate the long & interesting history of the city. 

I had just used a good quality blank book with about 40 pages for the travel journal for this trip that I customised. It served me well because the thicker paper was sturdy enough for the ink not to bleed through & to hold the various sheets I added to it. 

I liked stamping up the days in the margins - something I will do again.  This is me finishing off the journal at home ... 

I also liked the folded paper pockets I made to hold the various ephemera (tickets,  wrappers, receipts etc) along the way until they could be stuck in at home. I learnt how to make them  from various YouTube videos .... 

In the end, because of space, I did not take a small pencil case but took a pencil & two pens, one of which had the four colours you selected from to drop  down & use. It was very useful & definitely something I will take with again on the next trip. 

I have been sticking papers in & adding some more detail & I am now happy that it hold memories of this trip which I thoroughly enjoyed. 

I hope I have inspired you to take up journaling when you travel. Let me know please or if you  have any helpful tips, please share them. 

Dee 💕

Making a travel journal

 Who else loves keeping a travel journal? It should be functional & beautiful, something you can write in on your travels ... 

I find it focuses the mind & helps me to remember all the details of trips I take. I like to find journal books that  I like - some with lined paper, some with blank or a mixture of both. I often customise them according to the trip. 

I have  blogged several times about my various travel journals - revisit them via the links below. 

Keeping a travel journal  with some of my collection from travels 

My journaling while travelling recently in South Africa 

Journaling on the Ganges at Varanasi in India 

Journaling a Twixmas trip 

 I always keep an eye out for a journal or a book I can use for trips. I have a few at hand but like ones with a connection to the place (like the Spain / Riga / Africa ones) 

I have a trip coming up to  Austria, to a city I have not visited before. I am meeting family there & with light luggage, I needed a journal that is not too bulky or heavy. 

Fortunately I had found a blank notebook at TK Maxx - it is a soft cover with heavy paper which I rather liked. However it is rather boring & the price sticker pulled off some of the paper on the cover leaving a mark that I did not like. It was perfect to cover the book in the map of Graz that I bought online. 

Using some little stamps to add the days to the margin, the cut the corners with different shapes so it is easy to see how many pages for each day.   A music sheet is always a good idea across Austria which has a strong tradition of music ... 

I ordered a Graz map online & when it arrived, it was way bigger than I anticipated so it was perfect to cut up & use in a journal.  I used it to cover the book with - making it longer to use the side flaps as a flap for all those little bits I always collect on trips. 

Being on my summer holidays & having a bit of time, I drew in margins & then stamped the days down the margin. I added a strip of washi tape to the margin & to keep the days separate, I punched each day with a different shape. 

I also wrote in some travel quotes on the bottom of the page.

The map paper is good quality, so I used some to make pockets that can be used to tuck in tickets, notes etc. 

The notebook did not have a tie to hold it all together so I used a length of black elastic, doubled up & with two clock charms on it. Graz has a rather nice town clock so that is a good reminder. I always like to have a ruler with me, this was part of a much longer one that I cut to the right size. It has a little dot spaces which is rather useful for keeping writing straight. These Bic highlighters are useful but space will be short so they might not go with. I love having a few post it notes handy .... 

It is now very functional & will be a good space to record my explorations of a new city with my sister & my daughter.  I love the routine of writing down events & activities each night while they are fresh in my mind. 

Have you personalised a journal? What do you add? Who else likes to revisit holidays by reading back over the entries?  Do you have a method of writing your journal? What do you put in?  Tell all ... 

Thank you for your visit, do stop by again soon for an update ... 

Dee 💕