I spent my junior year of college in southern France. While there, I perfected my skills at traveling with minimal stuff. I had arrived in France with a backpacking-size backpack and a duffle bag, and that’s what I had for 9 months. I lived with a French family and was allowed to do one load of laundry a week. I quickly fell into a pattern of wearing only white and light-colored clothes for an entire week so I could wash a full load of lights, and then wearing only dark-colored clothes for a whole week so I could do a full load of darks. Boy howdy, was I sick of those clothes at the end of my year abroad, but I made it all work.
While studying abroad, I did a lot of traveling on weekend and school breaks. Back then, you could buy a Eurail pass that allowed 30 days of travel within 3 months, and you could take trains all over Europe. I explored France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Monaco, Greece… That was a blast. Sometimes my friends and I had a plan, and sometimes we would go to the train station and see when the next train was leaving and where it was going and then hop on. Today, I’m so uptight about planning and scheduling that I can’t even imagine how I was that spontaneous when I was younger, but I digress.
Whether traveling for a weekend or a week, I quickly learned that I was packing too much stuff in my bag. Not only was I packing clothes and shoes that I never wore, that stuff was heavy and I was carrying it around on my back. I learned to pare down. I developed the art of wearing the same shirt 3 days in a row. That sounds disgusting, doesn’t it? Well, get over it. It’s Europe. As long as the shirt doesn’t look dirty, it’s fine. And even if it smells a little teensy bit used, it’s still fine. Let’s just say that body odor is not as offensive in certain European countries as it is in the US. That’s also why France invented perfume.
Ever since that experience, I’ve traveled lightly. Weekend getaway? High school book-bag as a suitcase. Week-long trip? A small rollerbag. Two-week trip? Well, I have to make a wee little confession. When I went to Bangalore for work in 2011, I went for 2 weeks and (gasp!) checked my luggage. The only reason for doing this, though, was because I packed 4 liters of water to take with me. Americans are not supposed to drink the tap water in India. In fact, I was told that I shouldn’t even brush my teeth with it. No, no, no! And not knowing if there would be a place to buy water near my hotel and what the whole situation would be, I brought water with me. It turns out that the hotel provided bottled water for international guests, so my checked luggage was all for naught. And for those of you who are curious about what else I packed for Bangalore – 3 shirts, 3 skirts, 2 pairs of shoes. Booyah!
So, this post is a very long-winded way of saying what I’m taking to Europe on this trip. Here’s my luggage:
Inside this backpack are 6 short-sleeve shirts, 4 long-sleeve undershirts and 2 cardigans/wraps for layering when it gets cold, 2 skirts, 1 pants, 1 jeans, 1 dress for fancy restaurants, and 3 pairs shoes. Of course, there are also the requisite toiletries and socks, camera, Nalgene water bottle, Kindle, small notebook, European hairdryer (bought it on our last trip, hate having wet hair when it’s cold and rainy outside)… And I have 5 more hours to decide if I bring the France guidebook. I might leave the guidebook at home because, as Chad put it, France does have internet access.