Once upon a time, I used to tote a big, fat full-sized travel journal around with me wherever I went – on day trips in to the big city and my first international wanderings in Europe and Asia. I languished countless hours on rainy bus rides or sunny beaches, scribbling sappy sonnets of praise to my current locale.
Fast-forward a few years and my travel style has morphed; ultimately my journal had to adapt. For one, I pack much lighter to ease the burden of stuff while moving about the planet. But I’ve also learned not to bury my head for hours into the journal, opting instead to stay firmly in the beautiful moment. I’ve evolved to carry tiny, slim journals in which I capture little snippets of conversations, whiffs of scents and slivers of moments as they happen. Nights in hostel rooms or local pubs (or back at home afterwards) is when I put together my scribbled notes, sketched-out maps, tickets stubs and business cards together and see the story of my adventure.
It’s often been a Moleskine journal that has served this duty, and as though they’ve been peeking in my rucksack, Moleskine has created the City Notebook series: seemingly tailor-made for people like me who are part anal-organizers and part fly-by-pants explorers. Test-driving their City Notebook Seattle in my hometown has brought my staycationing to a whole new level.
Tucked into even my smallest purse, the City Notebook Seattle and I have been hitting the streets. Like any good relationship, we both have brought something to the table. The Notebook came with a few great pieces of vital info for me: beautiful little color fold-out maps of all the city’s neighborhoods, as well as a coveted at-a-glance Metro bus system map. It also offered a small index of nuts-and-bolts information, like measurement and conversions tables, as well as basic transportation contacts.
Then there were the pure, inviting pages – beckoning for my input. A tabbed section allows you to assign values, first to a set of tabs with universal icons (things like a fork/knife/spoon or a happy face/straight face/sad face) and then to a set of unmarked tabs, nudged by suggestions on a sheet of tab stickers labeled with “Theater” and “Events” (ok, I get it) and “Gestures” and “Words” (is this for modern-day anthropologists to record street lingo?). Sheets of tracing paper in the back are earmarked for “itineraries or whatever”. And the largest chunk of pages were blank palettes waiting for my notes and sketches.
The little accordion pocket in the back, a trademark on all the Moleskines I’ve carried, catches all the flotsam and scrapbooking tidbits an outing can accumulate.
My little notebook and I are in the process of writing a highly specialized personal guidebook – mapping out my favorite haunts, new discoveries and places to avoid. It’ encouraging me to use public transport (always a good thing) and definitely prodding me to see my city in a new way.
To date, Moleskine offers the City Notebook for about 45 international cities, including a few places high on my repeat-return list like Paris, Vancouver and Prague. Next time I hop a plane to one of these metropoli, I can see the City Notebook being a great companion and catch-all for my obsessive planning and note-taking. My synthesis of online reviews, guidebook recommendations and email tips from friends can all combine neatly within it’s covers.
Space Needle + EMP photo: cleverdame107