Has blogging taken the place of diaries and journals? Does anyone still keep a handwritten account of their travels?
I am fairly new to this whole blogging lark but am enjoying the novelty of typing in my daily accounts and having relevant photos displayed alongside. I have kept a handwritten journal for several years now and have always written my travels in it. When I went on my gap year (only four years ago which shows how quickly things change) there was no internet access except in the larger towns, so I wrote my daily ramblings in a book and wrote letters home to family.
What does everyone else think? Has the ease of internet access replaced the need for written communication? Are you able to access travelblog throughout your travels? Does anyone still keep handwritten accounts of their adventures?
Reply to this I have never kept a hand written diary.
My hand writing is appalling.
I dont log anything while I travel. Sometimes I remember some interesting experience and then gather emails I sent to friends at the time and make them into a blog.
Mel
Reply to this I still keep a hand written account of what we do each day. I like to stick in tickets, beer bottle labels etc etc. Not quite a scrapbook, but more than just a few lines of scribble. Maybe this is because I started travelling before internet was big and accessible. Or maybe because I had older family members that wanted to read my diary - I didnt just write for me, I wrote for others to read too, so they could share in my experiences. I find I record more that way. I dont blog daily when travelling, and its nice to record things as they happen - well, almost as they happen. I must admit though to finding keeping my journal hard, to make the time to write something each day. I feel guilty though if I dont. Even if no-one around me is keeping one. I dont keep a journal for every trip. For example we have just had a 10 day break, and while I wrote a couple of blogs, I didnt keep a diary. We were "only" exploring our own back yard. It was a weird trip though, had it worked out as we'd hoped, I'd have probably scrawled a few more things down each day in my regular diary.
The ease of internet access has certainly replaced the need to written communication a bit. I'm sure less postcards are sent. I know we send less. We find time to access travelblog and update our travels. Sometimes adding pictures at the time, and sometimes later, depending of access and time and cost. We used to get letters from home via poste restante, but no more. Emails are easier, and you dont miss them if you change plans and head another direction.
The bigger issue for us is now that we take digital photos, what will happen to photo albums? One trip we did print out the best photos and put them in an album, but we didnt for our last trip. Less people asked to see them. Did they see enough in the blog? Do they not have the time with the busier lives we apparently lead these days? Or are they just uninterested?
Maybe i should not write a daily journal, keep those tickets and labels, print out a select few pictures and make a scrapbook. Or should I keep on with that daily journal, not sticking anything in, and re-write excerpts to go in the scrapbook with the select few photos and labels?
Something to ponder...
Reply to this Oh I still print off photographs for an album. Certainly since I got a digital camera I take 10 times the amount of pictures I used to. I tend to keep my images on the computer and just print off the best - I buy photo albums that take around 200 pictures and never make more prints than can go in one album.
As for writing a journal, I still do it because it is something I can take with me. There are still places where no internet access is available - especially if you happen to be trekking across a desert or climbing up a mountain. My last trip was to California and despite the fact there was obviously internet everywhere I didn't have much opportunity to use it as I was out all day and often got home quite late. I also did a bit of camping and certainly didn't find any computers there. At least with a handwritten journal it is possible to lie on a sleeping mat with a pen and torch and get down the days events before you forget!
Reply to this I have a travel blog and a blogger account and I must admit I am becoming pretty lax in writing in my diary/journal. Since I am not travelling I really look forward to update my blogger acount a few times a week, and travelblog when I go somewhere. Wish I was this excited about doing a diary - but it may be due to the fact that I am not travelling anywhere exciting at the moment.
I did take a few written notes whilst in the US, and used those to make blogs when I got home - so maybe the best of both worlds. Though a bit hard if you are travelling for a year or so - too long elapsed.
Reply to this Also, travelblogs are public and I write them with that in mind. Mine are generally to keep people informed as to what I'm up to. I like keeping a handwritten journal as well so I can write whatever I want in them! Plus journals are really useful if you don't have access to the internet for a while to catch up on blogs later on.
Reply to this My handwritten journals are still very important to me. I generally stay fairly far behind (ok, way behind) on my blogs and I certainly don't want to spend a lot of time in front of a computer while I am traveling, so I have even started doing my first draft of the blog on paper - It allows me to spend my writing time at a nice cafe' or at an amazing tourist attraction (I wrote a few of my blogs sitting on top of pyramids) instead of in an internet cafe'. I also have been writing my blogs for a younger audience, so I am generally forced to leave out certain points that would be inappropriate for them - The adult content gets recorded in the journal. Sadly, I am generally more rushed when I do my daily journal entries, so they have morphed into more of an elementary recording of happenings than a well written story.
Reply to this I write a daily journal every day, and I use excerpts of that to write my blogs. My journals record not only what I see, but what I'm thinking about too. When I travel, I keep my journal with my in my daypack, and pull it out whenever I want to record something. I love looking back on my journals after the fact--it's interesting to see where I was at in my life in each place I've visited.
Reply to this I agree with you all. Handwritten journals are important, you can write in them anywhere (and read them again anywhere) and are a useful 'tool' for writing a blog later. Like you travellingmum, we also have a blogger account for "twotravelbugs at home", but I'm much more lax in writing in that than I am in a journal when travelling! And thanks AnnaAdventuring, I will go and print off those best photos from the last trip. I have been meaning to do it since we got home, but...and, yeah, we take many more pics than we used to with film.
Reply to this I am also quite new to blogging and plan to use a combination of blogging and journaling when I travel. As many of you have mentioned, journals can be taken anywhere (although I guess a laptop can be taken most places as well these days) and there's something a bit more peaceful to me about sitting at a cafe or a park or some place and writing in my journal as opposed to typing away on my laptop. Plus even when journaling my travel experiences I tend to find myself shifting into more personal thoughts and experiences (e.g. unrelated to travel per se), and of course there are some things I would rather write about privately. However, in general I do love that I can pass along my experiences, thoughts and pictures to others through my blog while I'm traveling. I am leaving for Europe for 16 days on Friday and this will be my first trip since starting my blog, so I'm excited to get to really use it!
Reply to this I am only new to "blogging" but one of my passions is traveling, and has been for a long time! so I am finding this very exciting to report about the trips and share the experience with a larger community of people.
even if I hate being on a plane, as it stresses me so much 😉 but the reason I am writing is also cause I would love to hear back from like minded people who want to share about travels, anything, may it be ideas, tips, good deals, your own experience abroad, how did you find the locals and so on...I'll be glad to display these topics on my website, .
This is also my first attempt at creating a website, so I hope you can be indulgent, though i am can say I am decently happy with the result. Feel free to visit my page and leave a comment, or question, and i'll gladly reply to you to the best of my ability.
Take care and kind regards, A.
Reply to this I keep a written journal for travelling (especially as I don't want to spend heaps of time in internet cafes, and being technologically challenged, have issues with putting the photos up). My journal allows me to keep a detailed record which I then take bits out of for the blog and a written record to go with the photo album. On longer trips my blog can be weeks behind where I am!
I now living in the UK (which is basically a long holiday) so I blog every couple of weeks about general life stuff to keep family and friends updated on what I'm up to and do a seperate one if I do a trip or experiencfe something out of the ordinary - festival/events - stay tuned for cheese rolling!
I love the blog for being able to share words and pics and also print out photos and keep albums (to keep my journal company) and to include tickets, souvenirs, etc. I guess one is for me and one is for whoever might be interested in what I have to say!
Cheers Jane x
Reply to this I have written dairies when I´m on holyday since the early 1990´ties and pretend to do it also in the years to come. We were blogging for the first time in the autum which was great, but something just has too little interest for others so by my opinion it shouldn´t be put on a blog.
Reply to this Yes I see your point, I still think everything that relates to travels can be interesting to others, even personal anecdotes, it depends on how it is presented, the language and the style used.
Reply to this Well, basicly I don´t want to sit at a pc for hours to write when I´m on holyday, and I dont carry a computer, so I have to keep a diary, which is very valuable and the only way to remember the small incidents 5 years later.
Reply to this If you want to go almost the complete opposite direction, and are into high tech blogging- check out Seero.com, it broadcasts live video and the GPS coordinates from your travels. Just playing devil's advocate 😊
Craig Stanton is using it to broadcast his walking trek across Japan, you can check that out here: http://www.seero.com/video/Craig_6
Reply to this I kept a handwritten journal this summer when I headed to Europe with Contiki Holidays. I then ended up typing it up on blogger so my family and friends could read about my wonderful experience!! You can view it at www.jennacarollo.blogspot.com . I absolutely had the time of my life and cant wait to go to Australia with Contiki again this Summer... I plan on keeping another journal and will definitely be updating it online! 😊 😊
Reply to this I've always kept a travel journal. This last trip was the first time I also had a blog, and for me it was an online travel journal. It also replaced letters and emails to friends. I kept a notebook at the same time, to jot down things I wanted to blog about later. But I haven't kept it. So yes, blogging has, for me, replaced my travel journal. I found it interesting to compare the two - I went back and read my letters and journals from previous trips and for some strange reason I seem to have captured different kinds of things.
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