17 January 2014

Packing

The constant problem of packing. I've recently seen videos about the contents of other peoples luggage and am baffled by them. Do you really need a tennis bracket and your own plates when you go on a trip? I say that you really just need your passport, a method of getting money, as in a credit card, and the clothes you're wearing. After you realise this packing becomes really easy. I just went on a 3 week holiday to Finland and packed my stuff in 20 minutes. These minutes also contained washing the dishes and turning the flat upside down while searching for my finnish SIM-card. Okay I admin I had pre-packed my Christmas gifts beforehand while wrapping them.



There also had to be space for the stuff I still had to bring here from Finland that didn't fit at the time I moved here. Have I mentioned that everything I currently own fits in a car? And I mean really everything I own. It's very refreshing to get rid of stuff you kind of don't want to get rid of and when you have space to store them, don't get rid of. Now I'm free to move wherever I want without any constraints. Luckily for my current well being I'm happy to live here in Aberdeen, I'm not sure if I had the strength to move again in such a short time.

I don't know who would buy just one of these
Oh yeah, the packing. Do you really need five shoes, twelve dresses, a coffee maker, your Ming dynasty porcelain elephant and clean underwear while travelling? Well clean underwear I do get, but you don't really need extra shoes or dresses do you? It's a luxury that you can live without. You totally can survive with just the shoes you're wearing while travelling. Maybe one extra pair, be it shoes for night-life or hiking, but that's it. A few shirts or something else for the upper body, a few skirts/trousers/jeans for the bottom part and you're fine for outfits. On longer trips you can wash them and they'll last a lifetime. Underwear and socks too, they don't even take that much space.

Even if you forget everything, you won't die. I assure you you can buy everything you need from our destination as well. There are people living there too, and they've survived living there as you'll probably see when arriving there. So means of getting money, and a passport for getting into the country is everything you need. Don't stress about what to pack, just pack something and it's fine.

Random pictures continue. Here's my understanding of Europe.


Guess I'll have to travel more to get it right the next time :D Although I'm not sure that it'd help since I didn't really know where I live. I don't really know why Tiia and Tiia were laughing so hard when they watched me draw this out. Sadly it's also in Finnish since we were in Finland at the time I drew this.

Next time I'll be travelling with just hand luggage. I'm sick of hauling a suitcase around with me, and I won't be able to leave it behind locked doors while I'm supposed to be flying either. Cheaper too. The picture below is the travelling we did during the Christmas holidays. Tell me in the comments about your packing practises! A quick tip for flying that I learned this time: your luggage weight is rounded down, if you're allowed a 15kg bag, it can weigh 15.9kg and you don't have to pay any extra.