Taking It On the Road (Again)

Fall comes and travel beckons.....
Time to start prepping that travel journal and packing up my art kit and hitting the road.
Actually, it would be easier if I were hitting the road -- we are flying to Portugal, Spain (Basque Country) and Paris and I have to pack LIGHT.
As light as I can anyway.....

I love travel. You might have guessed that by now. The anticipation......I don't think I am going to understand a lot of Portuguese....

I picked up some cookbooks and FADO cd's at the SF Library and I've been getting myself in the mood. Ok, it doesn't take much for me to be in the mood to pack my suitcase...but, as I said, anticipation is nice.

I have had A LOT of time to prep my travel journal. Too much so, in fact. I started over a year ago but the trip had to be cancelled because of the passing of my lovely father-in-law. 

I dragged it back out of the closet and of course I couldn't leave it alone....I had to add a bunch more stuff to it..

Here's how it was....

Here's how it is now....but it will look a lot different at the end of the trip with writing and lots more ephemera stuck inside...(I will be a week in each place so I counted the pages and marked with stick-it notes so be sure I don't run out of room. But, I can add to the book if I have to.

I've tucked in bits of ephemera to add as I go...and you NOW I will be looking for papers on the ground and on walls......
nothing is safe from me.

I've added lots of postage stamps too.....

Perhaps I should study my French?

I passed this baby up -- only $1 too - at the Library Big Book sale and now I am wondering why.
I'd like to speak Spanish with no study or effort, wouldn't you?

When I see grammar like this I just freeze....I speak French like a two year old...and they don't think it's charming.

Packed up and ready to go. I always keep my travel journal with me, in my carry-on. It is my favorite souvenir of the trip. I buy those giant zip lock bags and put the journal inside.
I put my minimal art supplies in another small zip bag and I am ready to roll.
I have a couple of small books to stash in my purse when I'm out and about and I usually work on my big travel journal with coffee in the morning at the hotel....
I can't wait!

I packed a small notebook for making a collage a day. I'm nothing if I'm not ambitious.
SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE!!!!

Spanish Words You Might Want To Know

Qulero montar en su Vespa*
I like to go to flea markets, stationery shops, supermarkets and flea markets when I travel and
Spain had them all!
I even found a thrift shop and they seem to be hard to find...

(*I want to ride on your Vespa)

PAPELERIA
If you see that STOP. Papeleria means "stationery" and you know you've got to go inside....not just drool on the windows...

And, there was a lot to drool over....

I think Salazar was the name of the shop -- but it was a papeleria too. The ladies inside couldn't speak English (or French or Italian...) and I can't speak Spanish but they were amused by all my excitement and cheerfully went outside with me so I could point at the things I was interested in.
Many shops in Europe are nothing like our self-serve shops in the USA. Things are tucked away in cabinets, drawers and on shelves and customers ask for what they want.
All very civilized but tricky when you don't speak the language.
I've found ways to get around that though....

This is the window that caught my eye. I'm sure you would stop too. I go to google-translate before I go on my trips and print out little messages to hand over to clerks in shops and post offices.
Things like "I am a paper addict and I need all your stuff"....ok, not really....
"I am looking for colorful stationery" or "Do you have any rubber stamps?" on and on.....
and it works! It even worked in a post office in Russia.
Sometimes I even make little mail art zines to hand out...

Tienda de sellos
Stamps shops abounded...I was going into every one I saw until my husband finally got a grip on  me......but I did some serious stamp shopping while I had the chance...

.........how could I not?

Stamps seem to be very popular in Spain....lots of shops selling them and lots of stamp and stamp books filled with stamps at the flea markets. I'm just sayin'. In case you want to go....

Los Sellos
Sellos beings stamps!

La confiteria
You don't have to just limit yourself to stamp and stationery shops in Spain...The  candy shops are just amazing and have boxes and tins with the most beautiful graphics on them. I bought one of these cardboard boxes to bring home. I had to eat the candy first to make my suitcase lighter....

And then there are the billboards and religious shops. This is a multi-layered billboard that I was swooning over. I managed to tear off most of the big poster....and the eye......(while my sweetie was busy pretending he didn't know me).
I also rediscovered my love of holy cards in Spain and found many, many santo tarjetas to bring home too....

And then there are the mercados de pulgas (flea markets). Don't get me started.
This is a little haul of vintage holy cards from one flea market. I  found old postcards, a book filled with stamps, vintage photos and various other treasures at the flea markets I went to. The secret? A pencil and paper. I learned how to say "Cuanto cuesta?" and then hand the paper and pencil over to the vendor. A lot of bargaining was accomplished this way, along with a little acting and smiling...

Sorry about the missing accent marks on the Spanish -- I don't know how to make them on the laptop.
Hope this word list will give up a heads up if you are off to Spain. And some of the ideas work in any country.
Have any good ideas yourself that you want to share?
My next trip I won't need these tips -- I'm off to NYC in February and I can actually talk there -- so watch out! You never know what kind of trouble I will get into.
And the Vintage Paper fair is this weekend here in San Francisco -- need I say more?

Enviar correo bueno - conseguir un buen electrónico
OOPS
Asli tells me this translation is wrong...

And I forgot to say who won the stamps -- I will put that important information in my next post.
Bye kids!
(off to the Vintage Paper Fair)

Travel Journal On Location

At the ready -- wine, Spanish peanuts, mineral water, glue stick,  travel kit (made by Dori) and journal....

I managed to make a few postcard size collages too.....

I picked up some charms like Fatima's Hand in the souk and I'm adding those to the journal pages too....

Some bits of posters torn from walls...

Working with my morning coffee....

Some papers picked up from the alleys in the medina in Fes.

I also found these spools of silk thread just lying in the alleys....so pretty, don't you think? And unusual to find something like that discarded...

Also from the streets of Fes....
(I was told the proper spelling is FES not FEZ -- that people thought it looked cooler using the Z rather than the S...I don't know if that is true but I am trying to spell it the way the locals do...)

We are on the go so much on our travels that it wasn't always easy to fit in the time to work on the journal...but I did pretty much keep it up -- in the morning with coffee, the afternoon with tea and cookies or at night with a glass of wine.

I just try to get my writing done about each day and leave space to add in photographs, paper ephemera, stamps etc
Part of the fun for me is continuing to work on my travel journal when I get back home. Kind of prolongs the trip....

On a rooftop in Sevilla..
This was about my favorite spot to work on my journal...sitting outside on a roof in Seville overlooking the city. A lovely warm afternoon -- with gathering clouds and a heavy downpour of rain later that evening.

A lot of you know my great love for Paris and France and I just have to say how terribly sad I am for the horror that happened very recently in Paris.
My heart goes out to the families of all the people who were killed or injured there.
This is not a political blog but I must say how sad it is there is so much war and ugliness in the world. All over the world, not just in France.
IMAGINE PEACE

So, I will continue to work on catching up on my mail and finishing up the travel journal and I will hold Paris in my heart.
Next I'm off to see that frisky 101 year old in Pasadena and check out all the birthday greetings he got from all of you -- he says there are 130 cards there!
I will photograph them....and work on more blog posts of Spanish post offices and the finished journal.

What's everybody else doing this Sunday afternoon?