How to Bring the World Home

I try to bring every place home with me. I pick up the ground and shove scraps of earth and small memories in my pocket. A single seashell from the middle of the Sahara, a broken tile from the beach in Tarifa, two tobacco leaves from a cigar farm in Viñales, Cuba. The dream is to carry a little piece of each place back home.

Aside from what we collect, there are simple ways to bring our favorite travelmoments back to life.

How to bring the world home:

+ While traveling, take pictures of the restaurant menus and meals you enjoy. Take pictures of the plates and glassware. Shazam the songs playing in the background of bars, cafes, and restaurants. When you get home, plan a themed night for yourself or invite friends. Recreate some of those dishes, find similar wine glasses or carafes, and play the same songs while you eat.

+ Shop for souvenirs that will elevate your daily routine. Skip the tourist shops selling the predictable t-shirts and magnets. Walk the local markets, grocery stores, and houseware stores. Pick up things like: ceramic bowls, wooden spoons, rattan coasters, handmade mugs, or copper pepper grinders.

Select things that look and feel like the place you’re in. When you’re sitting at home, listening to an Italian cafe playlist and starting your day, you will remember the little market in Spain where you found your dimpled coffee mug or the shop in Bali where you bought your coasters.

+ Bring back things you can savor. A bag of dried pasta, a tin of sardines, small jars of local honey, a bottle of wine or olive oil. Bring back the empty bottles to reuse, peel off the labels and stick them in your journal.

+ Buy artwork from local shops and vendors. Find pieces that fit your style and your home, paintings or prints that make you smile each time you walk through a room.

+ Send yourself a postcard from your favorite places. Make sure to add some details about the trip or your day, something small you may not always remember. When these cards show up in the mail, they will transport you back to those moments. Hang them on a cork board in your kitchen, frame them and hang them on the wall, keep them in a box by the bed.

+ Print and frame the photos that make you smile. Try to resist printing the pretty landscapes and choose the pictures that remind you of more than a sunset. Hang the ones that seem a little messy or a tad blurry, the laughing over dinner one or the running into the oceanone.

+ Buy a piece of jewelry; a thin bracelet, or a necklace charm. Buy a vintage watch from a secondhand shop, a tote bag, a wallet. Incorporate these pieces into your wardrobe or wear them on special occasions. Pick up a small piece from each country or city you don’t want to forget.

+ Write it all down. Take notes on the early mornings, seaside restaurants, the smell of fresh bread or wild thyme, and the interesting people you meet. Jot down the little details, the inside jokes, the mishaps. Months or years later, you will remember what the beach looked like but you might not recall the name of the cafe where you watched the sunset, or the two humpback whales breaching off the coast. Write down the details so you can share them with friends, so you can relive them later, and so you can keep them.

+ For all those scraps and found pieces, place them in a clear jar on a shelf, arrange them on a wall altar or in old typeset drawers, or turn them into a charm or paper weight.

Because you can’t bring everything home:

Our bags and our budgets rarely allow us to bring everything home. So, I opened a studio where I make ceramics, jewelry, and art inspired by my favorite places. I put my expensive art degree to use making Mallorca inspired fruit bowls, wall altars and copitas inspired by the traditions and rituals of Mexico, and palm tree prints inspired by an antique painting I purchased at a flea market in Buenos Aires. I create pieces that remind me of the places I’ve been, and the places I’ve loved.

+ Make your own art and home decor. Use maps, paper menus, or train stubs for collages. Recreate the graffiti or murals you saw on walls. Paint scenes or write poems, turn found pieces into wall hangings. Find your own way to recreate the destinations you fell in love with.

. . .

While we were walking the Fisherman’s Trail in Portugal, we needed to carry our own lunches and snacks for the day. We packed tins of sardines, jars of local honey, fresh baked bread, and oranges in our day bags. Now, I find similar items and set them out while we have a glass of Port, or I pack them for a picnic in the park.

It will never be the same as being there, but incorporating your favorite places into your daily routine can make wherever you are feel like your own little getaway.