Packing to leave the country for a year is a stressful situation. It requires a lot of forethought, patience, and minimalism. Basically everything I wish I was good at, but am not. Back when I first started planning this trip I told everyone I was going to bring three bags: two duffles and a large backpack. Then I started talking to people and they helped me realize that traveling with three bags is a pain especially when traveling by train. Then my neighbors were nice enough to give me one of their old rolling duffles. So my plan became take a large Rick Steve's backpack and the large rolling duffle. Then there were some snags.
The first snag: Too much stuff. Now I will be the first to tell you that own a lot of stuff. I collect things and have a hard time giving them away. Some people would say that I am a hoarder by my own definition and I cannot deny it. Just think of me on the lowest level of it. Anyway, my parents were really nice in allowing me to use the dining room to lay all of my stuff out before shoving it in my bags. I brought down all the clothes I could possibly want to bring with me and put them on the table. Needless to say, the table became very full, very fast. From there, I had to go through the heaping clothes piles and carefully select the garments that I didn't think I would really need. I had to do this about six times to get the clothes to a mass that looked like it would fit in the duffle. Besides clothes, I packed a smaller duffle to use when I travel home (because we all know I will buy more stuff while in Europe), some toiletries, hangers, and some jewelry. Eventually I get everything to fit in the duffle and the backpack.
The second snag: Too heavy. My parents took me to the airport early in the morning (we left the house around 3:40am) to say goodbye. We get in line to check my bag. I knew it was heavy, but I was willing to have to pay extra bring everything I packed. I set the bag on the scale and it said my bag weighed around 85lbs. The women turned to me and said it would cost me $200. Can you believe it? First of all, I didn't expect the bag to weigh that much and second, I didn't expect to have to pay that much. Once I closed my mouth, I opened it and asked how much a second bag would cost. It would only be $60. So there I was in the airport, pulling out the packed duffle and shoving as many things in it as possible. Eventually I got it close enough in weight, that I only had to pay the $60.
The third snag: Trains and stations. My first stop before arriving in the UK was Washington DC. I knew that when I got there, I would have to lug my luggage through the Metro. The thing that I didn't even think about was how much space I would take up. I felt like I was the size of a male walrus. Large and in charge, except for the fact that I was definitely not in charge. So maybe I was closer to a beached baby whale. Basically, it sometimes became difficult to find enough for not only myself, but also my bags. My friend Elizabeth was kind enough to meet me at the station I was initially at and help me with my stuff. It was going pretty well until things went not so well. We had to change trains and "lucky" for us, the elevators and the escalators were not working. We easily got our workout for the day by going up and down stairs with the bags.
In summary: I cannot pack light, but with my experiences as of now, I really want to get better at it. Traveling with several bags sucks, as does, traveling with heavy bags. These are things that are now on my "Things I Have Learned" list.
Happy Lugging!
-A Beached Baby Whale aka The Adventurer
No comments:
Post a Comment