Have you ever moved on from a place only to discover that you still have an entire pocket full of change? Virtually no exchange houses, official or unofficial will take pocket change, no matter how much it may add up to. It is some sort of unspoken rule among the world’s money changers. A conspiracy to keep our pockets heavy and jingling.

It took us three countries to realize that pocket change might actually make for a great souvenir and not just a pain in the butt (no pun intended) to carry around. From that point forward we made it our mission to not only keep pocket change, but to keep an entire set of change from every country.

To make matters worse, or better depending on your opinion, we even started to collect old coins, buying soviet era tin circles off the streets of Eastern Europe’s capitals, coins that represented a currency now revalued, and even collectors coins for holidays in China. Oh yes, we sunk to a new low every city we went to, negotiating for more and more metal to add to our “light” backpacks. Literally, a new low, as the weight of each new set of coins added significantly to the weight on our backs.

Of course we didn’t carry it all around the world. Virtually every box or courier shipment that went home thanks to friends and family contained precious plastic baggies of coins.

And so they were scattered around the homes of friends and family when we returned and their temporary keepers were more than pleased to return the coinage as soon as humanly possible.

Fortunately we had a plan for the 100 pounds of coins (or so it felt).

A coffee table.

Yes, we were going to cover the top of a coffee table with these coins. For months after our return I hunted high and low (online shopping!) for the perfect coffee table to cover in coins. I did not find it and loosing patience with putting his drink on the floor, Danny implored me to just buy one.

Then the fun began. Coins are metal and if you remember Chemistry 101 in high school you know that metal reacts with other chemicals. Mainly oxygen. And so those coins we so carefully collected around the world? Well without oil deposits from human touch, they tarnished, darkened and in some cases changed color completely (why hello rust). And so Danny set upon cleaning them. After probably 20 hours of soaking, scrubbing, rinsing, scrubbing and drying the entire collection is virtually there. They’ve been “cataloged” or better yet organized and sorted, piled according to country and region and finally stacked in a 3″ binder.

And sometime in the next few days, those coins, which morphed from annoying pocket change to a precious souvenir of our travels will make their way onto a coffee table where they will live on to cherish one drink at a time.

Have you collected any one thing from your travels? What have you done with your collection?

When I think of Spring Festival in China, images of red packets filled with money, heaps of food on the dinner table, and a seemingly endless barrage of fireworks comes to mind. But what does it all mean? Well, Spring Festival is the most important holiday for the Chinese culture, as it is their New Year celebration. Not only is it the longest holiday, but also the most expensive. It is estimated that during the 40 day period leading up to and following this holiday, 3.2 billion trips made by 300 million people will be made on the train network in China.

The official day this year is January 23^rd, and earlier than the last few years. The weeks leading up to the holiday, people begin buying tickets to go home, as well as gifts to return with. People cram together like sardines on trains, making terribly long journeys to villages still relatively unknown to the West. Families anxiously await the arrival of loved ones at the station, but you won’t see them greet with a hug or kiss. They either walk, or take small private vans to their homes, where a feast is waiting to happen.

Hours, if not days, are spent in agony bent over a fire cutting vegetables, slaughtering and cleaning meat. The younger family members clean the home from top to bottom to prevent the bad from last year from haunting good fortune happening in the new year. This opportunity will give them the chance to start fresh, and forgive all wrongdoing. When the feast is ready, the entire family gathers together and serves each other, the elderly eating before the young.

The men drink a clear alcohol called “bai jiu,” or “white wine,” which resembles more like moonshine than wine. In between glasses of bai jiu, the men smoke their favorite cigarettes and gulp food. The women take care of the children, making sure they’ve all eaten. Once the meal is finished, the women clean up and the men prepare the fireworks.

Red packets get passed out, and bubbling children shake them franticly in the hopes of determining how much money is inside. In the eyes of the Chinese, the more money you give, the closer you are to that person. It is not uncommon to receive huge sums of money, upwards of 500rmb (equivalent to $90 USD). To give you an idea, the average Chinese person only earns 1500rmb a month, and this is quite difficult to survive on.

Drunken men regress to children as they blow things up with fireworks, and then join the children in playing games. These activities last for several days. Bittersweet memories cleanly etched into the minds of the younger generations, they sadly pack their things and cram back onto trains to return home to the city and await the next holiday: Tomb Sweeping Day.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Flickr users scazon and tanakawho via a creative commons license.

Our visit to Argentina was a bit like the children’s tale about Goldilocks.  In the North we were a bit too late- the melting had begun and the rivers were swollen and in the South we were a little too early- the show hadn’t yet melted.  Somewhere in between things were just right.

We arrived in Argentina just as spring broke across the continent, or the period of time that the guidebooks refer to as “shoulder season”.  For Argentina, that meant that most of the cities and sites we visited were without the summer crowds, but it also meant that in the upper altitudes and to the far south, heavy snow still remained and trails, roads and even sites were still closed.  Patagonia to us, lived up to it’s stereotype- cold, windy and inhospitable.  To the far south, the nights in Ushuaia were frigid and the hiking trails through Tierra del Fuego National Park required waterproof snow boots.

On the other hand, in the north, the weather was a bit balmy still and the summer’s rains had increased the water level at Iguazu Falls so much that the river had reached historic flood stages and some of the walking paths and overlooks were closed.  We were probably a bit too late on the scene, but thankfully we avoided the summer mosquitoes and crowds.

Too early, and too late and yet ironically at the same time– just right.  The seasonal weather change had a tremendous impact on our month in Argentina, but in true Goldilocks fashion somethings we caught just right.  Like the penguins, who were still nesting on the beaches of Punto Tumbo and Puerto Madryn- the oceans not yet warm enough for their chicks to continue south.

The boats to Antarctica were just starting to leave Ushuaia, so the hotels and restaurants were open for the season.  And Bariloche still had plenty of chocolate!  The weather was perfect for biking through Argentina’s wine country and we were able to spend time at Perito Moreno without hordes of tour buses.

It’s hard to not have a good time in Argentina.  There’s no short supply of Alfajores, chocolate, good wine, and carne asada.  No matter where you are in the country the people are hospitable and there’s enough to do to keep you occupied for more than a month, no matter the season. So what can I say, it was the definition of shoulder season and for us, and things were just right.  Check out our guide to traveling in Argentina for more details!