So back when we left the US at the start of this adventure, I wrote one of my first blog posts about packing for such a long and diverse trip. I wrote about clothes and shoes, smooshing things into Ziploc bags, and squeezing it all into my hiking backpack.
But I wasn't totally honest with you then. In addition to our hiking backpacks, we also packed one suitcase. Most of the contents were gifts and purchases destined for Singapore (many clothing items are cheaper and/or only available in the US, so we often buy things upon request and deliver when we go back), but we also added a few items for ourselves - for example, several pieces of cold weather clothing that we didn't need in New Zealand, but thought we'd want in Japan and Europe. We left this suitcase with a friend in Auckland the day we arrived in New Zealand, and we picked it up again on the day we flew to Singapore. Furthermore, for most of our time in New Zealand, we had a rental car. Careful repacking on a daily basis wasn't necessary - we just grabbed our stuff, tossed it in the car, and off we went. If a pair of sneakers, or a small souvenir, or some dirty clothes didn't make it into our backpacks, we simply carried it (them?) separately to the car, no problem.
But when we left Singapore 2.5 weeks ago, things got serious. We had to pack everything we wanted in Europe and/or that had to go back to the US into our hiking backpacks (including some Christmas gifts and miscellaneous items we accumulated in Singapore). We didn't want to navigate the trains, crowds, and cobblestones of Europe with any roller bags, so we left the suitcase in Singapore, and set off with one hiking pack and one small personal bag each. Since arriving in Europe, we've traveled mostly by train, changing cities every 3 day or so. And every time we change places, we have, truly, been carrying all of our possessions on our backs.
I'm quite fortunate because the hiking pack that Kee-Min purchased for me for this trip actually holds just about as much as I can comfortably carry on my back when it is full with clothing, shoes, toiletries (this is ~ 35-40 lbs). And when we left Singapore, my bag was already pretty full.
So, if you were expecting a souvenir from our trip, don't hold your breath. I can probably squeeze a moist towelette from TrenItalia in there for you, but that's about it. Even if we see something "that would be perfect for X", we have to resist, with the exception of the flattest and lightest items. For ourselves, we decided at the start of the trip that our souvenirs would be memories and photos.
But as we've unpacked, repacked, done laundry, and shoved our packs onto the smallish luggage racks on the train - I still want to carry less. So, since the day we re-packed all of our stuff in Singapore, I've been trying to lighten my load. What hasn't made the cut?
In Singapore:
1. I sent a pair of pants and a skort back to New Jersey (we also sent a few New Zealand & Japan souvenirs back for my family). I wanted these items for our cross-country trip in April.
2. I left another skort, a pair of capris, and a short-sleeved shirt in Singapore. I have similar items in the US, and I can use these the next time we're back in Singapore.
3. Remember the six pairs of shoes? Well, after several years of solid service, the brown sandals were cracking and coming unglued. I knew I wouldn't need them in Europe, so I tossed them.
In Naples (after 5 days of travel in Europe):
4. Trashed my Soduko puzzle book. Between reading, trip planning, blogging, and trying to figure out what my next career will be - I hadn't done a single puzzle. I got it for free, and couldn't begin to justify carrying it any further.
5. My Fall 2011 Training Log. Fellow runners, I know many of you may consider this to be sacrilege. But please, let me explain. First of all, this fall wasn't a great training/racing time for me - the log had no huge lessons for me, except "If you try to train while you're finishing your thesis, you'll either run all your workouts too fast, or too tired, or both." And it was getting really beat up from being carted around in my bag. Further, despite my intentions to record all of 2012, I found that tracking my running while on "vacation" was making me stressed about how little running I was doing (2-3 runs per wk, vs. my "normal" 5-6 runs per wk). And being stressed on vacation sort of defeats the point, right? So I'm trying to stick to the 3 runs/wk, without obsessing over the details. I have a fresh, clean log to start in May.
In Florence (after 8 days of travel in Europe):
6. We did laundry. The super-hot dryer melted a pair of my Prana shorts (*sob!*). I know, I know - they didn't really belong in the dryer. But we only had so much room to air dry in our small room. I kept the melted shorts for a day or two, but seeing them only made me sad. And realistically, they were far too melted to be wearable. Ciao!
7. The dryer also gave the visor on my FF/Salomon hat a pretty jaunty curve - and also melted the little plastic doohickey used to adjust the circumference. Without being tight, the darn thing would have flown off my head in two minutes. More dryer victims...
Daily:
8. Ticket stubs, subway passes, museum entrances, etc. I guess they make nice souvenirs, but we'd need an extra camel or something to carry everything we'd have accumulated during the trip. We empty our pockets of every night when we get back to the room. If something will be helpful to our blogging, we'll keep it - but only until the relevant post is written! Ditto for city maps - once we're leaving the city, we toss the map.
9. I'm a huge dork, but I love the thought of "using up" my toiletries. Every day, I use a little moisturizer, toothpaste, etc - and thus I lighten my load by a few ounces.
Soon...
(Items that I won't be bringing back to the US with me, but that I can't quite trash yet)
10. My sneakers. They are shot. But I'm too cheap to splurge for a new pair here, so I'm hoping I can eeeek out another 2.5 weeks of running them, then I'll toss them before we fly home!
This list may not be complete, but this is what I can remember jettisoning so far. I think the moral of the story is: No matter how well you pack, you'll always be adjusting as you go along. I'm learning to enjoy it, as part of the process.
But now, I'm off to enjoy a good night's sleep!! Ciao!
But I wasn't totally honest with you then. In addition to our hiking backpacks, we also packed one suitcase. Most of the contents were gifts and purchases destined for Singapore (many clothing items are cheaper and/or only available in the US, so we often buy things upon request and deliver when we go back), but we also added a few items for ourselves - for example, several pieces of cold weather clothing that we didn't need in New Zealand, but thought we'd want in Japan and Europe. We left this suitcase with a friend in Auckland the day we arrived in New Zealand, and we picked it up again on the day we flew to Singapore. Furthermore, for most of our time in New Zealand, we had a rental car. Careful repacking on a daily basis wasn't necessary - we just grabbed our stuff, tossed it in the car, and off we went. If a pair of sneakers, or a small souvenir, or some dirty clothes didn't make it into our backpacks, we simply carried it (them?) separately to the car, no problem.
But when we left Singapore 2.5 weeks ago, things got serious. We had to pack everything we wanted in Europe and/or that had to go back to the US into our hiking backpacks (including some Christmas gifts and miscellaneous items we accumulated in Singapore). We didn't want to navigate the trains, crowds, and cobblestones of Europe with any roller bags, so we left the suitcase in Singapore, and set off with one hiking pack and one small personal bag each. Since arriving in Europe, we've traveled mostly by train, changing cities every 3 day or so. And every time we change places, we have, truly, been carrying all of our possessions on our backs.
I'm quite fortunate because the hiking pack that Kee-Min purchased for me for this trip actually holds just about as much as I can comfortably carry on my back when it is full with clothing, shoes, toiletries (this is ~ 35-40 lbs). And when we left Singapore, my bag was already pretty full.
So, if you were expecting a souvenir from our trip, don't hold your breath. I can probably squeeze a moist towelette from TrenItalia in there for you, but that's about it. Even if we see something "that would be perfect for X", we have to resist, with the exception of the flattest and lightest items. For ourselves, we decided at the start of the trip that our souvenirs would be memories and photos.
But as we've unpacked, repacked, done laundry, and shoved our packs onto the smallish luggage racks on the train - I still want to carry less. So, since the day we re-packed all of our stuff in Singapore, I've been trying to lighten my load. What hasn't made the cut?
In Singapore:
1. I sent a pair of pants and a skort back to New Jersey (we also sent a few New Zealand & Japan souvenirs back for my family). I wanted these items for our cross-country trip in April.
2. I left another skort, a pair of capris, and a short-sleeved shirt in Singapore. I have similar items in the US, and I can use these the next time we're back in Singapore.
3. Remember the six pairs of shoes? Well, after several years of solid service, the brown sandals were cracking and coming unglued. I knew I wouldn't need them in Europe, so I tossed them.
In Naples (after 5 days of travel in Europe):
4. Trashed my Soduko puzzle book. Between reading, trip planning, blogging, and trying to figure out what my next career will be - I hadn't done a single puzzle. I got it for free, and couldn't begin to justify carrying it any further.
5. My Fall 2011 Training Log. Fellow runners, I know many of you may consider this to be sacrilege. But please, let me explain. First of all, this fall wasn't a great training/racing time for me - the log had no huge lessons for me, except "If you try to train while you're finishing your thesis, you'll either run all your workouts too fast, or too tired, or both." And it was getting really beat up from being carted around in my bag. Further, despite my intentions to record all of 2012, I found that tracking my running while on "vacation" was making me stressed about how little running I was doing (2-3 runs per wk, vs. my "normal" 5-6 runs per wk). And being stressed on vacation sort of defeats the point, right? So I'm trying to stick to the 3 runs/wk, without obsessing over the details. I have a fresh, clean log to start in May.
In Florence (after 8 days of travel in Europe):
6. We did laundry. The super-hot dryer melted a pair of my Prana shorts (*sob!*). I know, I know - they didn't really belong in the dryer. But we only had so much room to air dry in our small room. I kept the melted shorts for a day or two, but seeing them only made me sad. And realistically, they were far too melted to be wearable. Ciao!
7. The dryer also gave the visor on my FF/Salomon hat a pretty jaunty curve - and also melted the little plastic doohickey used to adjust the circumference. Without being tight, the darn thing would have flown off my head in two minutes. More dryer victims...
Daily:
8. Ticket stubs, subway passes, museum entrances, etc. I guess they make nice souvenirs, but we'd need an extra camel or something to carry everything we'd have accumulated during the trip. We empty our pockets of every night when we get back to the room. If something will be helpful to our blogging, we'll keep it - but only until the relevant post is written! Ditto for city maps - once we're leaving the city, we toss the map.
9. I'm a huge dork, but I love the thought of "using up" my toiletries. Every day, I use a little moisturizer, toothpaste, etc - and thus I lighten my load by a few ounces.
Soon...
(Items that I won't be bringing back to the US with me, but that I can't quite trash yet)
10. My sneakers. They are shot. But I'm too cheap to splurge for a new pair here, so I'm hoping I can eeeek out another 2.5 weeks of running them, then I'll toss them before we fly home!
This list may not be complete, but this is what I can remember jettisoning so far. I think the moral of the story is: No matter how well you pack, you'll always be adjusting as you go along. I'm learning to enjoy it, as part of the process.
But now, I'm off to enjoy a good night's sleep!! Ciao!
Ahhh, a post near and dear to my heart (my family can attest to my packing obsession). You've summed up what it took us 2-3 trips to learn....but then, you have been "on the road" a while. We finally got to the point where anything we "might need" doesn't get packed, and look forward (sort of) to the adventure of finding stuff we forgot/didn't bring (such as: Anise toothpaste? Really?) Thanks for documenting YBA. You and Kee-Min have giving us some great ideas for when Amy and I can spend longer than a week traveling!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mark! I think that, no matter how much you travel, the "best packing job" is constantly evolving! And we've had one or two shopping adventures ourselves. ...plus, we're nearly out of toothpaste. Anise, you say?
DeleteAnd hey - we're doing the "European tasting menu", but any of the cities we've visited would make a great week-long trip!