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It’s been months since I last posted, and this will be one of the few posts I do before I call this blog finished (at least until my next big trip!). I hope to have it all wrapped up before the new year. Expect some pictures soon, as I finally have the chance to go back and look over them all, and have a decent enough internet connection to upload any and all of them.

So, I’ve been meaning to talk about what I brought and didn’t bring on a trip this long, and how I managed to survive it. That’s what this post is about.

For luggage I just used one large backpack I borrowed (thanks Jim!). It only had one main compartment, which was used for all of my clothes. I had some plastic bags for clothes that got wet or smoky. There was one smaller compartment in the backpack which I used for toiletries. I also had a day bag, which was just a small duffel bag (it happened to be the one from the collector’s edition of Grand Theft Auto IV, a fact which only one random stranger on the trip noticed out loud), and I actually had enough room to stuff it in the top of the backpack if I didn’t want to sling it over my shoulder. The duffel bag held all of the other random stuff I had: my camera, Kindle, maps, hostel and plane confirmations, and any food or drinks. In total, all of my stuff weight about 37 pounds when I started the trip. Since I bought some things, it was more like 45 on the return.

The zipper on my duffel bag actually broke in Athens, and I heavily considered buying a new one, but I found a pliers in a street market for only 1 Euro. I had just been to the ATM, which only spits out 50’s (a fact I mostly lamented), and when I offered one to the man who was selling it, he told me to just take the pliers for free, rather than him bother making change. I got the zipper fixed with some creative pulling, squeezing, and twisting.

So, with the stuff that I did have, what was useful, and what wasn’t? What did I need but hadn’t brought along? Here are some lists describing those things.

Packed It, Shouldn’t Have

  • Bug spray - Europe has very few mosquitoes compared to Minnesota
  • Scissors
  • Money pouch - as the outline could be seen through clothes, I felt it made me more of a target than it did protect my money; the best way to avoid trouble was to blend in and a money pouch screams tourist
  • Bar of soap - after one use it got everywhere in my bag and I switched to a liquid body wash for the rest of the trip
  • Multiple dress shirts - one or two were good, but more than that is not necessary
  • Nintendo DS - although I thought I would play this while waiting around, I ended up always reading instead

Packed It, Glad I Did

  • Extra pair of cheap flip-flops for hostel showers
  • Towel and swimsuit - these should be obvious
  • Combination lock - some hostels had using your own lock as the only way to secure valuables
  • Kindle - lots of downtime on planes and trains; I read 9 books on my trip!
  • Sunglasses - my eyes are grateful
  • Digital camera with 8 GB of storage - I took something like 1700 pictures and can still fit several thousand more on just one memory card
  • Rain jacket - I used a windbreaker that could be rolled up into almost nothing at all

Didn’t Pack It, Wish I Had

  • Extra camera battery - there wasn’t always a good time or place to charge
  • Digital, waterproof watch - both as an alarm and a timepiece; I eventually bought one on the Greek island Paros
  • Hat - mostly to protect myself from the sun in Egypt
  • Language primers - the small kind with just the starter convenience phrases; this would have helped a lot during my first hours in a new country, and I couldn’t find anything like them on the Kindle
  • International calling card - I had to buy a lot since in Europe they’re mostly country specific, and the pre-charged SIM card idea was prohibitively expensive
  • Camera lens cleaner - sand was terrible to my camera

Didn’t Pack It, Didn’t Miss It

  • City maps/guides - they can take up a lot of space and weight, and most train stations or airports have free or very cheap fold up maps that point out the main attractions
  • Dress shoes - another pair of shoes would have heavily taken up a lot of room, and I was never at a club or restaurant where someone commented on me wearing my comfy New Balances

Well, that’s all I could think of. Packing for a trip like this is almost an adventure in itself.