My family and I travel a lot, and we all shop for souvenirs wherever we go. Each one of us always gets a specific thing: Dad buys old currency notes, Mom goes for shot glasses, my sister collects bells and I hoard keychains. But along with the tourist-y items, we always get something special , something unique- a non- souvenir souvenir . Over the years, it’s become a family tradition.

What I love is how each object sparks so many memories to life. Like the silver and porcelain tajines we got from Morocco: my mother spent half-an-hour bargaining with the vendor to get them for half the price. She failed, but he gave me a brass mirror. Or the bright blue wooden pepper grinder from Budapest that we ‘ve barely used. It was purchased on a rainy afternoon when we were stuck inside the great marketplace and forced to eat extremely garlicky pasta bolognese for lunch. And then there’s the old fashioned beer jug from Austria with the special lid.

Keychains and bells are all very well, but all you do is buy them at a store.You don’t hunt for them amidst winding lanes and foul weather. Sometimes you  stumble upon them unexpectedly. While we were visiting Barcelona, my mom got lost and wandered into a glassblower’s shop. When we found her, she showed us two tiny glass animals she’d bought for me and my sister: a goofy blue dog, and a purple cow with spindly little legs. I can never forget Barcelona - the taste of paella, the suffocating heat, the beaches surrounded by the Mediterranean- so long I have these mementos. 

I don’t know when I’ll travel again, but when I do, I know what to buy. Shot glasses for my mother, bells for my sister, currency for Dad, keychains for myself, and a special something I can treasure forever.