You go to Europe, you take pictures, you buy a hat pin here, a postcard you never mail there then you get home and toss it all in a shoebox. There it sits until you move and its re-discovery provides you an opportunity 
to take a break from packing to reflect on some of the best memories of your life. Here’s a quick and simple tip to bring those memories to life more often, whenever you like and even better…pleasantly unexpectedly.
When you’re out picking up travel size shampoo, mini tooth brushes and assorted Band-Aids for blisters stop on over by the deodorant isle. Pick out a small can of scented aerosol body spray. Something like Axe. Toss it in your basket, pack it away (leaving your normal cologne or perfume at home) and forget about it until you arrive in Europe. Well, that’s odd you might be thinking. Here’s the thing; using this scent as a deodorant, clothes refresher, hostel room de-funker, etc throughout your trip will help you associate that particular vacation with that particular smell. Simple enough right? When you return home you’ll probably be amazed at how often someone brushes past you on the street wearing that scent or a wal-mart customer tests the spray cans in the deodorant isle…and viola, instant flood of memories. Better yet, keep a small bottle in your office desk drawer or in your car…when you get stressed or just need a mental vacation a quick spritz of the air and you’re whisked away to that special café in Granada, Spain where you had the best damn Belgian waffle with whipped cream and chocolate syrup as you sat waiting for your hotel room to be ready with your backpack by your leg, the birds chirping and…well, you get the point.
For those who need a more concrete excuse to leave their everyday, routine cologne/ perfume at home…Your olfactory bulb is part of your brain’s limbic system which is so closely associated with memory and feeling 
its referred to as the “emotional brain”. Technically speaking your olfactory bulb has direct access to your hippocampus; which is responsible for associative learning and your amygdale which processes emotion…so there….
Give it a whirl next time you head to Europe. Axe even has these little things called “bullet sprays” which fit in your pocket…my Europe smells like “phoenix”.
