What’s Your Favourite Souvenir? (The Office Cleanout Continues…)

by Brett Atkinson on

Thanks to everyone for the feedback on what to do with the old guidebooks at my office. Part of the shift also involves bringing home a few favourite souvenirs from past travels. Here are some special keepsakes I’ve now got to find room for at home.

  1. A framed front page of La Epoca, the Buenos Aires newspaper, from the day after Eva Peron’s funeral.
  2. An 18th century map of Asia Minor I bought in Istanbul
  3. A screen print by an artist called “O” who hangs out at Venice Beach in Los Angeles. Basically it’s an American flag with the word “Democracy” spelt out with the logos of various American corporations. D for Disney, E for Enron, M for McDonalds…you get the picture.
  4. A faux gold plated microphone from when I played guitar (a shocking version of Wild Thing) at an advertising conference in Cannes, France.
  5. A copy of Kerouac’s Big Sur that I bought at the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, California

What are the poignant, heart rending or downright tacky travel mementos you hold dearest?

Thanks to kristenhillier on Flickr for the stunning pic of Venice Beach.

How Come Tintin Didn’t Make The Cut?

by Brett Atkinson on

Our friends at World Hum have just named their 10 greatest fictional travellers ranging from cutesy Dora the Explorer at number 10 up to Jack Kerouac’s uber cool Sal Paradise at number 1.

To my Kiwi eyes, the list is a little United States-centric, and as much as I love On the Road, Sal Paradise didn’t really get far on a global basis did he? But I guess he deserves to be there purely for how much inspiration the book’s given to those of us afflicted with wanderlust.

A few notable exceptions I’d like to add are Phileas Fogg from Jules Verne’s Around the World In 80 Days, the globe-trotting Carmen San Diego, and Belgium’s biggest export after Trappist beer, Tintin.

If the T-shirts in the markets of Asia are to be believed, that boy’s been everywhere. Even a few places author Herge didn’t even write about.

Thanks to Mullenkedheim on Flickr for the pic “proving” Tintin went to Hanoi.