My journals are for:

Dates, times, place names, people names, event names, phrases in languages I don't know, names of specific life I've seen or geologic formations, and other specifics that quickly elude the memory.

The gist of a place stays with you (if worth remembering), there is no need to write that down....(for me at least).

my journal is for my more personal thoughts, or maybe situations a bit too scandalous for blog purposes ;-) hehe

It's actually more like therapy for myself. I'm the type of person where I need to talk out what's bothering me, and if there's no one around to talk to, writing it out sort of helps me sort out my mind.

besides this, I sometimes use it to write down the boring details as well... names, events, how i got from a to b.

When I'm traveling, I keep a little note pad to record place names I won't remember later and such details of the day.

I use my blog to record the details of the trip. Not like 3:45, stubbed toe, but the general things I did that day, my impressions of the places I saw, etc.

It's more for me than anything. I do have friends who claim to live vicariously through my journals. But in the end, my trips are all too brief before being back at the corp grind. And I can flip back and read about a trip 3 years ago, and it's like being there again. It all rushes back. And I suspect it will do the same one day years hence...

I journal, and my journals are my prized possessions. I, of course, remember all the big stuff...but going back and re-reading segments of my journals I get to remember tiny little details that make me smile.

I also put in ticket stubs, matchbook covers, napkins and any other little thing that has a place name of where I've been and adds color. I sketch, press flowers...basically anything. My journals are colorful and evocative of where I've been.

I invite other people to write or add stuff if they want and I've had people draw pictures and even do henna designs.

I do write as well, of course, some times the day to day stuff...sometimes stories that have nothing to do with the trip.

I have to admit...I unabashedly love my journals.

I've kept journals for three trips now, and I *really* wish I had for the others. My travel notebooks rank among my most personally-important possessions (like in a building's-burning-what-do-you-rescue scenario, they'd easily make top three), especially my Argentina/Uruguay one which serves as my ONLY reminder of what it was like, since I lost my camera and came home without a single photo. I also reread my travel journals constantly, often when I'm wanderlusting and need some kind of travel fix.

My journals have been going downhill. When I first moved to China I kept a detailed journal on my laptop. Then I got lazy with it and added to it when something really important happened.

On my travels I usually put down some notes and wrote more later. Now I just keep notes of place names, brief descriptions, or really amusing sights that I probably will forget later on. I use these so I can label my photos when I get home and also so I can write better articles that I hope to sell at some point.

My journals start off awfully neat and then downgrade to scrawl fairly fast.

They are very capable of invoking exact memories of time and place years later but what the hell.

I've always kept a journal when I travel. Mainly just for me.

They started out very detailed (at least the hand written ones in an actual hard journal) then regressed to nothing about 2 -3 weeks before the end of the trip.

Still I find its amazing the memories that flood back when I flick though them. Things I hadn't thought about for years.

The online journal is an extension of that I guess. Combining the ability to let family and friends know where I am and what I'm up to in one place rather than sitting down and writing my journal then sitting down and writing a 'group letter' or several home.

Except they do not have to wait a week or two, or three to get the 'letter'.

quote:

Originally posted by Justin7199:
Now, some people's journals have produced some great stuff. I'm thinking of jv's Pigs in the Toilet, in particular (the site's been down, for some reason. Renew it Jeff!!)

Ah, thanks for the props! I took the site down because I was paying a monthly fee, and the project had sort of run its course. But I'm thinking of reincarnating it in some form ...

As for my travel journals, they tend to be detail-heavy -- places, names, dates, random anecdotes, and notes that only I would likely be able to decipher. When I sit down to write in earnest, the details help refresh my memory. Pictures also help.

quote:

Originally posted by elAdi:
I haven't read The Brothers Karamazov twice (yet), why would I want to re-read my travel journal?

Of all the books in the world worth reading twice, you didn't read THIS one? Stidno, elAdi.

quote:

Originally posted by jv:
Ah, thanks for the props! I took the site down because I was paying a monthly fee, and the project had sort of run its course. But I'm thinking of reincarnating it in some form

Definitely one of the more enjoyable reads so another vote for you reincarnating it in some form. I was a going to show it to someone a few weeks back and then it was gone.

quote:

Originally posted by halfnine:

quote:

Originally posted by jv:
Ah, thanks for the props! I took the site down because I was paying a monthly fee, and the project had sort of run its course. But I'm thinking of reincarnating it in some form

Definitely one of the more enjoyable reads so another vote for you reincarnating it in some form. I was a going to show it to someone a few weeks back and then it was gone.

Well, if you put it that way ... see link below. Maybe not as pretty as the original, but the text is all there (and it's free!). I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it, btw!