Windows into other worlds

After doing significant travel over Europe, I ended up with a giant collection of post cards.  Every time I sift through them, they trigger memories and take me back into another place in time.  They are like travel portals. Imagine if you could just step right into one and be transported!

Travelling to a different country can be, in many ways, like visiting a new world!  The people often speak in another language and wear different kinds of clothes.  The architecture is different, and so is the nature. You hear different bird sounds, smell different scents. There are different rules and norms. Sometimes, the weather and seasons are opposite, or just completely different to where you are from.  You might be wading through metres of snow in below freezing temperatures, or standing under a tropical downpour of rain beneath the palm trees.  If you use your imagination, you can travel anywhere you want in your mind!

Imagine travelling in a time where the internet and photography did not exist. You would only be able to bring back journals, sketches and exotic artefacts.  Travel would be a lot slower, and no doubt more dangerous.  Would people even believe you were there?  Would you believe it yourself when you returned, or would it all just feel like a dream?

I started collecting post cards on my first trip to Europe, eventually laminating them into posters and putting them up around the house.  I continued the habit in my last few years overseas, so that now I have more postcards than I know what to do with!  I still have to figure out a way to display them – perhaps under a glass coffee table, or in frames, or posters. It is definitely worth putting them up though. They are a good conversation starters for when visitors come over, and provide a lot of inspiration for future trips. As for me, whenever I look into one of these little windows, I am taken back to a beautiful moment in time!

Does anyone else collect postcards?  How have you displayed them?  What other souvenirs do you collect on your travels?