Glittering Travel Memories: Why Jewelry Makes the Best Souvenir by Terri Jones

When I was in my 20s, I developed a passion for travel. It started with a backpacking trip through Europe and has taken me by train through the Rockies, down a zipline in Kauai, shopping for bell bottoms in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury and so on! 

On every trip, I allow myself to purchase at least one piece of unique, often handmade jewelry and have built an eclectic collection of jewelry that way.  Some pieces have become part of my identity, like the square, brushed-silver ring from a training session in Park City, Utah, and the necklace with concentric ovals found in Amsterdam's Nine Streets district. But one thing they have in common is they all have a memory attached.

While in Paris, I wandered into an out-of-the-way bead shop and used some of my high school French to purchase a pair of lovely art deco-style earrings. That night I wore the earrings to dinner with my husband on the Left Bank.

One of my latest finds was in a German Christmas Market on a trip with my husband, stepmom and mother-in-law. Now when I wear the triangle-shaped beech earrings I found, I think of warm, mulled wine and wandering through quaint German villages with three people I love the most.