The New Year is bringing us several days of purging, a clearing of drawers, a sorting out of papers and of course, the discovery of a treasure trove of memories. In the back of a drawer, bags of small change and a few paper notes, all jumbled up. Lillipilli and I had fun sorting them out into currencies, re-bagging them for easy access for when we visit those countries before and it has been a little like looking at our travel trail, in monetary form.
Pakistani Rupees from where I grew up
Mauritian Rupees, our last big trip abroad before Pikalily was born
British Pounds, where we spent a good chunk of our lives
French Francs, now defunct, from where the hubster grew up and where I lived for a year or so
Canadian Dollars, left over from our trip to Vancouver post 9/11. We were supposed to go to Pakistan for a trip down memory lane to show the hubster where I grew up but when 9/11 happened, all planes in and out of Pakistan were grounded.
Euros, from our last trip to Europe five and a half years ago.
US Dollars, from layovers between flights and our trip to Disneyland
Fijian Dollars, 20 months living there.
NZ Dollars, 16 months living there.
Norwegian Krone, from visiting our friends in Oslo.
Belgian Francs, also now defunct, from our day trips over from the UK to see the Christmas markets in Brussels.
Spanish Pesetas, defunct, that was a 24 work jolly to Barcelona.
Italian Lira, defunct, day trips over the border from France to eat ice cream in Turin.
Hungarian Florints, a souvenir from the hubster's surprise trip with the boys to Budapest.
And who knows how on earth some Romanian Leis and I think a Greek coin got in there. Someone obviously slipped us some duff change. Dodgy Europeans!
It's extraordinary how so many of these currencies are no longer in circulation because of the Euro and how many memories they bring back.

I love looking at coins from places I've traveled! I bet it bought back some great memories of being in those far off places!
ReplyDeleteHey Lauren, yes, I was quite amazed at how powerful the memories are attached to coins! We'll keep those for years to come I think. Thanks for stopping by!
ReplyDeleteThat is an incredible amount of travel and memories wrapped up in those little coins.....no wonder you still have the longings in your bones to travel. xxx
ReplyDeleteit's the travel itch! Hard to put down roots when you've got it!
DeleteI forget how lucky we are in the UK that we can travel and pop over to other countries so easily!
ReplyDeleteyes, Europe is bliss for travelling!
Delete