Travel Tuesdays With KM

WHATCHA GET ME?!?


I LOVE getting fun gifts for people when I travel.  When I see a souvenir shop I simply can't help myself, I must go in and peruse.  The hardest part is deciding what to get everyone.  


Sometimes people collect trinkets like shot glasses or snow globes.  When I was younger, my family always brought me back a snow globe from where they went.  It helped me get an idea of what the place was like.

Snow globes from Hershey Park, York's Wild Animal Kingdom,
Maine, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Canada, Philadelphia, New Orleans
again, and New York.

Recently, my brother went to San Diego for Comic Con.  I am a huge, huge, HUGE movie freak and would have loved to gone out to San Diego to see the convention.  I've never been to the West Coast but am definitely itching to get out there.  My brother was nice enough to think of me and get me some pretty cool swag.  He's really good at finding souvenirs that I'll like.I am obsessed with True Blood.  I watch the show and have read all of the books that it's based off of so he made sure to find me something from that which ended up being a t-shirt as well as the comic book pictured below.  Think about who you're buying your souvenir for and find something that they're interested in like my brother did.  

I like to look for different souvenirs that can be used and actually enjoyed by the person I'm giving to.  Deciding what to get my brother when I studied abroad was a challenge to say the least.  He's not really into anything specific so I had to think hard about something that he would enjoy.  At one of the souvenir shops in Edinburgh Castle (and I say one because there were maybe five, and yes I went into every one of them!), I saw a chocolate bar that had a picture of the castle on the package and it hit me.  I could get him chocolate from every country I go to.  The boy had enough chocolate to last him a year by the time I was through.

Camel and zebra mask from a Nubian village in Egypt.  In
the middle is a piece of alabaster which I found
at the Step Pyramid (my aunt is convinced that it is cursed
because it came from a pyramid site and I didn't ask if I could take it).

I brought this dolphin and frog, carved from recycled wood,
back from my trip to Brazil.  The wood the frog is carved from is actually
that color, they did not dye it.  Ir can also be used to reproduce the
noise the frogs make by running the stick along the frog's back.

Some souvenirs, like the ones pictured above, I like to bring back to decorate the house with.  They add an interesting touch to the room they're in and bonus, it's also a conversation starter.  It's also something different that the usual things. 


For us ladies, it's always nice to bring a piece of jewelry home.  It makes the perfect gift for my mom, grandmother, and all my gurlz!

I always have to buy something to help me remember my travels.  When I studied abroad it was my first time EVER out of the country and I wanted to have something special to remember my new adventures.  Some of the countries I visited had some really cool hats that I thought helped represent the country perfectly so of course I bought myself some.

Fun snow hat from Bruges, Belgium

Scottish cap from where else? SCOTLAND

French beret from Paris, France

Since not every country has unique hats, I decided to find a ring from every country I traveled to so I could wear a piece of my travels whenever I wanted.  In two of the countries I visited, I ended up getting two rings and I didn't end up getting one when I was in Paris (insert sad face here).  Can you guess what country each ring is from?  Give it a go but let me tell you, no one has guessed right yet.






What's kind of souvenirs have you given or received?  Let me know!