Our Travel Tradition

Bring back souvenirs that don’t collect dust!

My first taste of traveling overseas was in 1996. I had two penfriends from school days who I had become good friends with, so I took off to Europe to stay with them.

Back then, cheap, synthetic clothing made in China was the norm in Sydney but not in Italy. Shoes, jackets, bags… it was something I had only ever dreamed about; an affordable plethora of local design and careful craftsmanship. Young and in love, I brought home a suitcase FULL of top-quality, European-made pieces for my then 18-year old wardrobe.

Exactly a decade later, planning a trip to visit my husband’s 105-year-old grandmother in Holland, we also planned to revisit my penfriends. I was really excited to once again have the chance to bring home a new and updated suitcase, packed to the brim of European style. It was planned so well, that I managed to pack an entire month’s worth of clothing for both my husband and myself into one suitcase. That way, we could bring home a second suitcase without hassle!

We visited with family in Holland, friends in Ireland, Italy and Germany and spent a weekend on our own in France. My parents were also overseas at the same time, so we rendezvoused in Florence together. Despite having a husband who also enjoys (window) shopping, so I had guilt-free entry in every store we walked past, one after the other was filled with items made in China. A lot of the cities had caught up with American brands, and in just one decade, the landscape had changed. With it went one of my original delights for travel – the ‘finds’ we’d bring home.

We’d not be bringing home any top-quality treasures this time. It was the same mediocre-mass-made-stuff available at home without the Euro to AU exchange price-tag.

In four weeks of travel, I bought not one item of clothing. During our months of planning, I had imagined coming home and living my European dream vicariously through a new wardrobe. That hope was now non-existent.

It was, however, the beginning of our little Travel Tradition, which has become one of the great pleasures in our life.

Not only was a new wardrobe not coming home with us, neither were any other souvenirs from our travels. We just couldn’t bring ourselves to buy cheap, plastic, made in China relics that would silently echo ‘by-gone-era-dust-collector’ on our already busy shelves. So instead, we discovered the joy of culture, food, moments, and with France birthing the start of bread making in our home (read my Sourdough Love-Story!), our special little Travel Tradition was created.

Now, we collect new tastes for foods, ways of doing life and ideas inspired by the culture of the places we travel. When we return to Australia, we weave those things into our everyday life, sometimes changing parts of our life to do so.

Le Puits D’Angle in France, not only sparked our sourdough journey but also inspired the way we renovated our detached garage when we returned home to Australia.

Their detached dining room (below) was a defining moment for us. You know those moments where all planets are aligned, your heart leaves your chest and the world is exactly how it was meant to be right there in that moment? That was this moment. Leaving the main-stay and walking across the courtyard for dinner and breakfast was a revelation. One that changed us.

France…

Coming home to Sydney, our fibro-shack-of-a-garage, already ear-marked for an art studio and extra living space one-day-down-the-track, was passionately transformed to bring this particular piece of Europe into our very own Australian back yard.

We work here, serve guests here and get to re-live that walk-across-the-courtyard revelation throughout our very Australian life.

Sydney…

Since travelling through New Zealand, South Island, where hedges touch the sky and replace boundary fences, we have grown our hedges to an over-sized example of their former selves.

Travelling throughout Asia, we were encompassed by shoe-free zones… homes, temples, even clothing-store changerooms! In Japan, your shoes should be left facing the direction you will leave in. Note: Your shoes will be politely turned around if you forget. 😉

So without the clutter of trinkets and souvenirs filling our suitcases, we came home already deciding to keep allllll of our shoes in the laundry at the back door, no longer in our bedroom. We spring cleaned, moved storage and relocated our fancy footwear. Now, all our foot covering fashion essentials are the first to come off when we get home and the last to go on when we leave.

It’s become a nice symbol of changing gears from the workday, to being home at night and we’ve found it keeps the carpet cleaner. I also get to feel the floor beneath my feet more, which is a lovely thing. Our house is officially a ‘shoe-free’ zone on Aussie soil.

I also bought a bicycle when we returned from visiting family in Holland. It was love at first ride when we hired one of Holland’s major modes of personal transport for a day. I ‘Waaaa Hoooo’ed through forest trees, opened my arms to the sky and dangled my legs care-free cruising down gentle hills.

But wearing a helmet to meet Australian cycling regulations and a lack of pretty forest trees with winding paths, it was nowhere near as romantic as the cobbled streets of Leersum!

I rode it once and realised how many hills we have in our flat town. So sadly, instead of cruising the streets of our little village in Australia with that bicycle, it’s main grace was to be put out on the street a few years later.  That bicycle never did hear me ‘whaaaa hooooo!’ like the hire-bike in Leersum. Perhaps the new owner, who snapped it up so quickly, was able to look past the rust and squeal with delight!

x MJ