Ephemera - e·phem·er·a
noun:
Things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time.
·Items of collectable memorabilia, typically written or printed ones, that were originally expected to have only a short-term usefulness or popularity.

Travel is the essence of ephemera. When you visit a place, you are creating experiences that are, by definition, short-term. If it is your first visit to a place, your senses may feel bombarded with stimuli. Everything is new, and you just drink it in like a dry sponge. Or, you might be returning to a place you have been before. Now you are looking for specifics;

“is that café still open?”
“Smell the bread from our favorite bakery.”
“The soup here is the best tasting  in the world.”

All of these experiences are short-term. So we try to burn them into our memories. But memory is fleeting, so we try to help it out. We write travel journals. We take photographs. That’s right, we create ephemera to help us remember ephemera. I guess that is what makes us human.