We asked our friends to tell us about the talismans they use – in travel and in daily life. Here are 11 stories about friendship, trust, secrets, romance and faith in the future.

1.
“I had a little pink elephant in school. I bathed it before every school competition – I don’t know why, but I felt that as long as my elephant was clean, everything would be fine.”
(Lucy Kadets)

2.
“I have a plushy Hedgehog from Japan. It’s about the size of my palm, with a little fardel. Day and night it keeps an eye open at the windscreen of my car. I’m very fond of it — my husband gave it to me. If the speedo shows a nice number (like 090909), I always show it to him.”
(Marianna Orlinkova)

3.
“When I first started serving in the Israeli army, I donated blood for the first time in my life to the paramedic service. How does it all work there? They stick a tube in you, and you lie down watching a red liquid slowly flowing out of you and into a half-liter package. They usually give you a rubber ball to squeeze and let go of to make the blood flow smoother, a resistance band for lazy people. But I got a model of a heart. It became my amulet. I carried it around in the pocket of my service trousers for three years. I didn’t tell anyone, but I thought to myself, I’m carrying my heart in my pocket. If anything happens, they won’t be aiming there. And if I needed to calm down, I just squeezed it a few times, and I was good.”
(Ilia Kitov)

4.
“I have a hypnoglyph — it’s a talisman that materialized from literature, from a fantasy story by John Anthony. A guy from the Russian city of Perm once went to Crimea, cut some fossilized Crimean juniper (a traditional pirate handicraft) and made hypnoglyphs out of it. Giving your own, ‘rubbed’ hypnoglyph to somebody else is dangerous, an experienced shaman can draw your soul from it in its entirety. It works well as a charm, you can give a somewhat sacred hypnoglyph to someone close to you.”
(Vladimir Belenkovich)

5.
“My daughter’s things work as talismans for me. She’s lucky — that means I might get a little of her luck too. Her earrings are particularly helpful.”
(Eugenia Ilyina)

6.
“When I first decided to go work in another city, I went into an art shop and bought a little ring with a piece of red coral on it. It wasn’t even silver. I don’t wear rings anymore, and more than twenty five years has passed, but I still have that little ring — as a reminder of an important decision, right or wrong, but definitely my own.”
(Inga Esterkin)

7.
“When I came to Israel many years ago as a tourist, I picked up three white pebbles in the desert. I’ve carried them with me ever since for good luck in a small leather purse on my keychain in place of a trinket. I don’t know what they’re capable of, but I ended up moving to Israel to live!”
(Maria Voul)

8.
“My friend gave me this funny little rabbit as a travelling companion: I was travelling across the border for the first time, and was completely alone. Now I try to bring it with me and photograph it with sights in the background. It’s like “I’m not the type to hold the Leaning Tower of Pisa up with my hand, but he can do whatever he wants.”
(Ekaterina Protasova)

9.
“For some reason, I bought a Czech silver groschen in Kutná Hora and since then I’ve been carrying it around in my purse. Doesn’t seem to have brought me any extra money.”
(Yulia Borovinskaya)

10.
“I have a brass kitten with ‘emerald’ eyes, a souvenir from Turkey that my friends brought back. It’s been with me for countless moves from apartment to apartment. It keeps me safe!”
(Tania Tomer)

11.
“I got given this hare for my thirtieth birthday, by a girl from work. He was sad at first without anything to do at home, leaning against a Brodsky tome. Then, after a few years, it was September, pneumonia, recommendations to walk in dry weather and warm clothes, the old suitcases left at the entryway with metal tags in the corners and a new camera lens. And it all started happening.”
(Marina Hagen)

A big thanks to all who told us these stories.