(Just to avoid confusion through this blog please remember that I am Australian and that to me flip-flops – which is a ridiculous name for an item of clothing – are actually thongs)
Everybody has their system when it comes to packing – and no one is shy about giving sharing, after all saving space and weight is a serious subject and any helpful hints need to be shared.
My packing for this trip has been rather chaotic at best – well compared to others it may be organised but as I am a little bit of an organisation freak it has felt very haphazard to me. There have been several conflicts that I have had to work my way through… it has been a trying couple of days.
The life of a backpack!
The Weather Conundrum: With a few friends keeping me company… or to be more accurate keeping my cheese company I began the labouring task of deciding what to take on my CUK trip. Croatia – nice and easy, summer dresses, swimmers, sunglasses and a book. United Kingdom, however, is another matter. I asked my family to rate the weather from 1-10, with 1 being a blizzard, 6 is cardigan weather if you are particularly wussy and 10 being so hot that you are actually wearing a super-duper sweat suit that is self creating. Their response was… the weather is “exciting” you can have all four seasons in a day – you never know what you get so its like weather roulette…hmmmmmmmmm
Stuff, Roll or Iron: Once the theme had been decided and I had divided my clothes up into little piles round my living room I pulled out the ironing board (this is pretty much the only time my ironing board has been used all year) because everyone knows that if you iron clothes they become smaller. My friend who was helping me devour cheese at this point scoffed at me “I just shove it all in, why bother folding and ironing it when its going in a pack”. A fair point it must be said, but I this way I can find things easily because they are in little piles and everything is nice and flat. Later when describing this packing session to another friend she paused and looked at me for a moment and then said “what, you don’t roll pack?” – I am not convinced on the roll pack method as I can’t quite see how it will save me space. Plus I like my little piles.
Where to Stuff my Socks: The clothes have been sorted out and its now time to consider the foot ware. First thought was that I would wear my trainers on the plane and pack my thongs (flip-flops) and heels but then I thought what will I do with my trainers when I am wearing my thongs? Then I thought how often will I be wearing my trainers anyway I pretty much live in my thongs anyway. I travelled round South East Asia with only one pair of bright yellow thongs for footwear after my black ones were stolen (they also weren’t very yellow by the end…). I can hear my Grandfather moaning from here at the thought of me gallivanting around in nothing but thongs (flip-flops), don’t worry I have heels as well! A quick late night text to my Croatia travel buddy to confirm if we were planning any hiking “NO” was the response – I knew there was a reason why she is one of my favourites! Only problem was that I now have no where to stuff my socks… then I realised – I no longer need to take socks either!
Culling Maxi’s: I had nearly everything packed when I started to do the last-minute remembering – charger, belts, earrings, address book etc. Then I remembered beach towel for Croatia, I plan to do a lot of swimming and will need my quick dry towel for showering so a beach towel may be needed. Problem is that my pack is already near bursting. Over dinner I discussed this serious problem with a friend, she looked at me seriously and said “how many maxi-dresses are you taking?”… busted! Now I have to weigh up what is more important, taking my maxi-dresses of my beach towel. She may have a point in that I can always buy more dresses over there, but it is so hard to choose which ones to cull – its like leaving behind a finger or a toe!
On Top: Finally I think I have everything in and packed… though I may wake up early tomorrow morning and pull everything out and then start again. The only important thing to do now is to make sure my pyjamas are on top so that when I arrive in the weather elusive northern hemisphere I don’t have to worry about sifting through my brilliant packing before crawling into bed.
EXCITED!
A Better Moment 