Feedback & Thoughts on first draft of Europe packing list
The packing list saga continues.
Man. Great feedback. Thanks for breaking down the first packing list and giving your thoughts. I figured there was way too much stuff, but being an editor, well, you cannot edit what is not there. One of the good parts of travelling, to me anyway, is that you do not actually need all this crap. I like making that big list and chopping it all to hell though.
Aoife, Claudia and Chris Albon especially gave some great tips, and were quick to smack down the stuff they thought was shite, too much, or too much shite. Here are my thoughts on their thoughts, with a note where the argument has since been settled one way or the other.
Aoife
"Liquid anything is BAD. Minimise what you take." Good point. It is bulky too, because of the containers. I might just take Chris's advice and use regular bar soap for my clothes.
Settled, permanently and in her favour. Liquids in a carry-on are capped at 100ml a container inside one clear bag, so this stopped being a preference and became a rule. Bar soap washes you and your clothes, is not a liquid, and cannot leak into your journal.
Sari. LOL. This is called me not taking dictation well. I was brainstorming and I think "sarong" was said, but for some crackheaded reason I wrote "sari". Oh well. Made for a laugh though.
And the sarong outlasted nearly everything else on the list. Towel, blanket, curtain for a bottom bunk, picnic sheet, something to sit on at a station. Weighs nothing.
US-sized envelopes. You got it, Aoife.
"Aren't the condoms a bit incongruous?" Not when you are going to see said girl in Scotland ;-)
Claudia
Swiss Army knife. The SAK has been with me since I was 12 and has always been useful. The Benchmade is a superior blade, but the bottle opener, tweezers, toothpick and scissors on the SAK have always come in handy. Usually I will have the Benchmade in my pocket and the SAK in the zippered pouch of my daypack.
Both go in the hold now, without exception, or they get taken off you at security. That is a slow way to donate a good knife to an airport.
Palm m125. I have been thinking about this one a lot. I will need to replace the batteries lest I lose everything in there, and so far I have not thought of anything it does that Zula cannot.
The Palm went, and so eventually did the AlphaSmart, the CD player, the camera and the alarm clock. One phone. This is the single biggest change between that list and any list written now.
Water bottle. I am a little caught. I always like to have something to drink when travelling. But does that justify bringing my own bottle? If not a bottle, I thought I might bring my commuter cup, since I could also put hot drinks in there.
Bring it, and stop agonising. Tap water is safe nearly everywhere in Europe, refill points are common, and buying bottled water is a slow tax on being lazy. This is one of the few items that pays for its weight several times a day.
Sleeping bag and pillowcase. Bag, nah. I will be fine with just the sleepsheet. Pillowcase, dunno. Maybe. Could it do duty as a laundry bag?
Right on both counts. No bag, hostels have bedding. And yes, the pillowcase is your laundry bag.
Coat. Even in Oregon it takes a really hard rain before I put on my raincoat. My black thin overcoat layers well too. I will ponder this a touch more.
"Instead of a towel a small chamois perhaps?" Quite possibly. Microfibre now, and yes. It packs to nothing and dries overnight, which cotton does not.
"Ditch the sweater too. Fleece will do." Too right. No sweater.
Chris Albon
Floss, instead of a sewing kit? Really? That is quite cool. I will give that a go instead.
Still one of the best tips anyone sent in. Floss is stronger than thread, you already have it, and it repairs a strap.
Boots or sandals. Personally I love to wear my sandals, but not exclusively. I already have my boots, and I do not want to buy trainers because of the money. The only way I would get decent ones is to spend some coin, and crappy ones are cheap but fall apart. Chris has a good point though: I might not be hiking enough to justify the boots.
The compromise most people land on now is one pair of light trail shoes doing the work of both, plus sandals, plus flip-flops for hostel showers. Wear the heaviest pair on the plane.
"Benchmade folding knife?" You betcha. I see your point, two knives instead of one, but they have different functions. This might be the snob in me, but when it comes to doing a lot of cutting, say preparing a meal in the hostel, the Benchmade is much easier to use. That, and I just love my knife :-)
"5 pair socks. Go with 4." Good point. I just might do that.
He was right, and the reasoning I used against him, that a fifth pair does not take much room, is exactly the reasoning that produces a pack you cannot lift. The number you need is the number of days between washes, plus one. Merino rather than cotton matters more than the count.
Digital camera. Instead of memory cards I will be using a Sony Mavica that writes to rewritable CDs. No software required. Reader, it is a phone.
"Skully or tooq?" This was a suggestion for something whose proper name eludes me. I meant one of those little fleece caps, especially since I will be in the north and the east and a fair bit of mountains during October and November. Fleece is warm, but only if there is no wind.
Merino beanie. Warm when wet, packs into a fist, and does not do the wind thing.
"3 pair trousers. Why bring the non-convertible ones?" True. I will ponder this. It was more in the "three might be better than two" thinking.
Two. It is always two.
"Silver and black tie." Sorry, this referred to a particular tie that I have. Odds of needing it? Slim. Amount of room it takes up? Teeny. I put it in the just-in-case category. A tie can also be used for tying stuff. At least I did not mention my pocketwatch and dress shoes ;-)
Keep it. One decent shirt and a tie gets you into anywhere, and it weighs nothing.
"Swim trunks? Of course! Communal showers, great lakes! WHY EVEN QUESTION!" You are absolutely right. I question no more, in go the trunks. They would make good spare undies and something to wear while I do laundry, too.
"Eurail and Britrail maps. Who needs stinkin maps?" This bit of seeming madness may have some method behind it. The maps are in the Rail Planner app now, and it works offline, which is the one thing the paper ones had going for them.
"Universal sink plug. Instead of that, use a jar opener gripper thingie, that works much better and is much lighter." Eh? Jar opener gripper thingie? Please elaborate.
She meant the flat rubber disc. She was right: it weighs nothing, seals any drain shape, and hostel sinks almost never have a plug.
"Plastic plate. Use a frisbee! Fun toy AND plate!" That is a really good idea, except that you have never seen my lame self try to throw a frisbee.
"Battery shaver. Why use a special battery shaver when you will need to charge your Palm just as often?" I was thinking a cheap one that takes disposable AAs. USB-rechargeable now, off the same power bank as everything else, which retrospectively makes her point for her.
"Pyjama pants. Will wearing special soft pants around the hostel be worth carrying these everywhere?" That description was not clear. They are a technical pant you can also use for layering, and they are good for sleeping if it is cold, though they look a bit odd. Sean calls them my dancing pants.
"Deck of cards. Good if you play cards a lot. I don't." True. This fell more into the icebreaker category. Which is still the argument for them, and still a good one in a hostel kitchen.
"Fruit, bread, wine, cheese. I don't see why you need to include this on your packing list." Yup, that is what I am going to do. The mention just reminded me I would be doing it. Buy it before the station, where the same bread costs twice as much.
"Sewing kit, drop it." Actually I have a teeny one about the size of a credit card, and it keeps the needles and pins in place.
"Mini CD player. A battery powered mp3 player is better." And "CD case and discs, way too heavy." True, but this heads back into the expense category. Music rocks. I do not have an mp3 player right now, but I do have the CDs and a player, and unless there is a hellacious deal I would rather save the money.
The most dated exchange on the page, and the most instructive. The gadget you are proudest of packing is the one most likely to be dead weight, and every device is also a charger, a cable and a worry about where to leave it.
"Pictures and love letters from my fiancée." I have a few pictures that are okay to lose, since she has the negatives, and I am thinking I may photocopy the letters, so the originals stay home and safe but I have the reminders on the road. I just like them :-)
Take two on paper anyway. A phone full of photographs is not the same thing at four in the morning in a strange country.
Flashlight. I have a Microlight, but I had pondered a small LED headlamp, as I often do a fair bit of late-night reading and writing.
Headlamp, and it is still worth carrying over a phone torch, because it leaves both hands free and does not flatten the thing you navigate with.
"Condoms. Wait a minute, don't you have a fiancée? >:(" Aoife mentioned this too. Good call. Fiancée and I will be seeing each other in Edinburgh :-)
"Squeeze bottle of liquid soap for clothes. What? I just use regular soap." Is there a soap you would recommend? Bar soap in a box. See the top of this page, where Aoife got there first.
What the edit actually taught me
Reading all of that back, the useful question is not "do I need this" but "what does this do that something else already does". A sarong beats a towel and a blanket. Bar soap beats shampoo and laundry liquid. A phone beats five gadgets. Floss beats thread. Convertible trousers beat trousers plus shorts.
Right, now it is time to make the next draft of the list. Chop chop chop pack pack pack unpack unpack unpack CHOP pack pack.
The packing list saga: 1. First draft · 2. Feedback and thoughts · 3. Second draft
Posted 08 July 2003 by Ant in BootsnAll Travel Community, Eurail Planning, Packing · updated by Chris