Cutout for Travel : Paper Cutout Traveller Adventures in Europe

A whimsical request from friends, leads to a bit of fun hilarity as we take paper cutout travellers on Instagrammable adventures in Europe.

Last summer, after studying abroad in UK, I went travelling for two months through France, Italy and Greece with my friend Lane. In flying to England to join me, Lane brought with her a mysterious envelope from our friend George which was marked not to be opened until we were together in England. Inside, we found paper cutouts of photos of George and his girlfriend Liv mounted on popsicle sticks with the request that we photograph the two on our travels as a surprise for Liv.

George suggested posting the photos on Instagram but Lane and I, inspired by the film Amelie, decided to kick it old school and print the photos as we went along and mail them to Liv as postcards. As Liv had been left in the dark about the whole thing, she had no idea who the pictures were from, just like in the movie. This idea of Liv receiving postcards of photographs of herself and her boyfriend halfway across the world cracked us up and lead to some hilarious fun on our adventures in Europe.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Amelie, here’s a tease …

Now, do yourself a favour, and go and watch the full film!

While George sent us cutouts of photos of him and Liv on popsicle sticks for their pocket Paper Cutout Traveller Adventures in Europe, as that was a special adventure just for them, I am sharing illustrated sketch re-creations of the photo postcards we made for them, to protect their anonymity. You can see photographic paper cutout travellers that are a little closer to those George sent us in this Traveling with Nyki story, taking the wrongly incarcerate Nyki Kish on Paper Cutout Traveller Adventures in the North while she was in prison. Happily she was exonerated and is now the Co-Executive Director at the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies and a PhD Candidate in Sociology at UVic. For other creative inspiration, checkout the @iwascutoutforthis Paper Cutout Traveller Adventures in Europe created by Illustrator and Artist Ana Stretcu.

We started at Bristol’s most famous landmark, the Clifton Suspension Bridge. It took a few tries to fit George & Liv properly into frame, and we definitely got some stares as we took our photos – I’m pretty sure people thought we were some crazy tourists! We had to pack it in pretty quickly when it started raining and our paper cutout travellers started getting wet.

Our next photo came on a day trip to Wales. At Tintern Abbey, a medieval abbey near Chepstow, we took a photo complete with cows in the background. Sadly not the Cistercian monks’ sheep, but at least we got a sense of the Abbey’s farming history in there.

Back in Bristol, we had the photos printed at Boots, but were unable to buy stamps before leaving for France. As a result, we were unable to send the postcards until I flew through England on my way home at the end of summer. This in fact turned out to be a good thing, as a postcard from Bristol would have immediately given away who the mysterious postcards were from.

After travelling from Bristol to Paris, our next outing with the pocket paper cutout travellers was at the Eiffel Tower. Despite their name, they in fact did not fit into our pockets, and we kept forgetting to take George & Liv along with us in our purses. On our last day in Paris, we finally remembered and snapped a photo of the two in front of the romantic landmark.

Unfortunately, our next stops in France were in Avignon, Marseille, and Cassis, which are small towns where we could not locate a photo print shop. As a result, we weren’t able to print the photo until we arrived in Venice, Italy. However, Lane and I were determined to have the photo sent from France. Lane still had one French stamp left from sending postcards in France and we thought it wouldn’t be the same if Liv received the photo with an Italian postmark. As luck would have it, when we arrived a week later in Cinque Terre, we met an American named Raul headed to Paris! After a bit of awkward explanation about the concept behind the pictures, we persuaded him to mail the photo postcard for us from France. We sent the photo along with him and hoped for the best.

A week and a half later, we arrived in Rome and decided we had to get a photo of George & Liv in front of the Trevi Fountain. Thankfully, the crowds tossing coins and taking photos in front of the fountain were preoccupied enough to not wonder what we were doing and we photographed our pocket paper cutout travellers without a hitch.

Getting the photo printed was another story. The woman at the print shop was very kind, but because of the language barrier she thought I wanted all of the photos on my camera printed, rather than just the one. It took many hand gestures and both of us repeating ourselves countless times, but in the end we understood each other and I sent the second photo postcard off.

For our last postcard, we took a photo of George & Liv at Knossos, the Minoan Palace on the Greek island of Crete. Originally, we wanted a photo at the Acropolis of Athens, but Athens was our last stop on the entire trip and we decided not to risk being unable to send it before leaving. As it was, the Acropolis turned out to be far too windy – our pocket paper cutout travellers would have been swept right out of our hands! It was a good thing we had got our photo in Crete.

At summer’s end, upon returning home and reuniting with Liv, I immediately bombarded her with questions: Did she receive all the postcards? What was her reaction when she received the first one? Did she figure out who sent them?

Liv had in fact received all the photos! (Raul, if you’re reading this, thank you!) She had been highly confused at the arrival of the first photo as many of her friends were travelling Europe that summer, but George had filled her in when she’d asked. Neither of them though had expected another postcard after the first … and then another and then another.

While the concept of pocket paper cutout travellers may seem crazy to some, the amusement and hilarity that ensued around the George & Liv paper cutout travellers ended up being one of the most fun parts of our whole trip. From taking the photographs, to finding a printer, to sending them off from the correct country, we had the best time with our little stowaways.

---

Have You Ever Holidayed with a Pocket Traveller?

Have you ever holidayed with a pocket traveller for some ridiculously funny Instagrammable moments of your own? We’d love to hear your fun and quirky stories from in the comments below. Better yet, share pictures!

---

European Accommodations Map

Planning a visit to Europe? Check out this interactive map to different accommodations available throughout Europe.

---

Disclaimer: There are affiliate links in this post. If you make a purchase after clicking on one of these links, we may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This commission contributes to paying our writers for their storytelling. We only post links to things that we ourselves have tried.