Flashy Packer

 What kind of traveller are you? I guess I would call myself a flashpacker. It's really funny because I think I've progressed backwards when it comes to how I've traveled. When I was younger and poorer, I stayed in REALLY nice hotels. I find my standards of what's nice now runs the gamut. I think it's less conventionally nice now. For instance, I went to London and stayed in very cool hotel. They had a tiny tv on the bathtub rim so you could watch tv while bathing and also floor/towel warmers and a lovely view of the city. Compare that to a place I stayed alone on an island in Colombia where electricity ran off a car battery, the shower was barely big enough for me, and there were no fans, forget about a/c (again..car battery) in oppressive heat.. all for a beautiful hut-like house over the water. I loved staying in both places equally.

     First off, when choosing my destination every place has a cost pro and con in this regard. Let's just say I will never make it to Switzerland. Last year I went to Thailand, Cambodia, and longish layovers in Tokyo, Japan. The flight to Thailand was expensive, but the stay was cheap: lodging, food, and transport. Well, I'm excluding Japan. Still obviously bitter about the 100 USD cab ride I had to take from Haneda. This year it's Italy and the flight was a good deal, but I am looking at paying significantly more for lodging, food (.50 beer..Cambodia..sigh), and transport.
   
     I am by no means rich, but I am also not making 10 bucks an hour any longer either. I have a 20 year old Volvo with one headlight that is on the verge of falling apart any second now. I am solidly middle class, but my car is one step up from the projects. I don't want a car payment and higher car insurance, because I think this would undercut my ability to save as much as I do. It's my one sacrifice. And mind you, I just go somewhere once a year for a month, I can't imagine what long-termers do. On one of my travels, I met a woman from Switzerland who was taking 6 months off after getting laid off from her job. By the way, how do Europeans do this?!! She wasn't the first one I met who said they did this. Anyway, she said she has a small apartment (check!) and rode a bike..like bicycle bike..to work (nope can't hang). When I was poorer, I just used to live off of ramen noodles and peanut-butter jelly sandwiches until I couldn't stand it anymore and would switch to spaghetti and sauce for a bit of luxury. Nowadays I can eat normally and still catch a flight. This might change when I return. I see car payments in my future very soon.

     In other news, my trip is coming up in a month and I am both excited and a little scared. No matter how many times I've gone off somewhere alone I still get a little voice in my head saying, 'What the fuck are you doing?!'.  Will I be able to communicate with people? Will it be hard to get around? How the hell am I going to get from Matera to Spello? It doesn't help that I haven't planned for nor researched how I'm going to get into the city once I land. I'm landing in Milan's airport, but leaving straight away to go to Venice. I guess researching this is the next order of business. Also I would like to go on some tours in Rome and The Vatican, but can't decide which ones I'd like to do. Just the sheer amount of things to see and do in Rome is overwhelming.

     On the backpack front, I didn't get my backpack last weekend, but I have decided on which one I want. The Rei Vagabond Tour 40L. I looked at the Osprey Farpoint and I just didn't like the shape of it. Judging by the pics on the rei.com website, the Vagabond just looks cleaner and more streamlined to me, plus I think it has zippers you can lock, which would be a nice bit of extra security for when you leave your bag in the room. Anyway, the Vagabond will be here next week! I actually went to the brick and mortar Rei after I saw  on rei.com that the bag would be available at the store. I looked around and saw the Ospreys and a few Rei hiking packs, but not the one I wanted. I asked one of the sales guys if they had any in stock. He checked their computer or something and told me they had one in stock. He looked everywhere and so did I, but couldn't find it. I was so disappointed. I was almost like a crack addict giving serious eyeball to the customer service people thinking they probably had one behind the counter. Then I thought well I'll just order it online.
I woke up the next day and for whatever reason it showed it was out of stock! Then I refreshed and it was in my cart and ready to checkout. Yay! For those few moments when I thought I would never get the bag, I looked at a few websites to see what were some other good 40L packs aside from the Osprey. Carryology and Snarky Nomad are two sites that were a bit helpful in looking for an alternative. I must say, if the Tortuga was in stock right now I'd be on it! Maybe next year. ;)
   
      I must say, it might be very hard for me to get down to 40L or less. I went to Nashville (lovely city btw!) last week for work related training with my Kelty Redwing 50 and it was packed to the gills! If this was a trial run, I failed miserably! And on top of that carried my laptop bag. In my laptop bag were the usb charger for my cell phone, power for laptop, notepads, point and shoot camera, and headphones. It was nuts and I recognized I was going off the goddamn rails as I was packing, but couldn't stop myself. Let this list teach a lesson that you shouldn't procrastinate and pack under pressure. Sanity will leave you.

What I packed in the Kelty:
6 tshirts
2 camis
3 pairs of jeans
2 pairs of shorts
1 pair of flat shoes
1 pair of ankle boots
1 full sized towel
1 big ziploc freezer bag full of toiletries (shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste, deoderant, etc)
1 laptop
1 curling iron

1. I never wore the shorts.
2. I obviously should have left the towel at home. The Sheraton ain't exactly a fleabag hotel.
3.  Perhaps I could've planned better and gone to the mall the day before to get the Shampoo and Conditioner Lush Bars instead of taking full size bottles of shampoo and conditioner.
4. The boots were the heaviest of all, but man, they are so cool I couldn't leave them.

     The bad thing about Nashville was (aside from the packing fiasco) is that I was so busy with training I didn't get a chance to study Italian at all. No tutoring or conversations, no Pimsleur, nothing. As such, when I got back home and had my tutoring session, it was like I had amnesia! I forgot half of everything I knew. I listened to Pimsleur from when I last stopped and most of it sounded like gibberish to me. The more I spoke to people, it started coming back, but it was lot of...'Um...what does that mean again?'. I'm still not back where I was and I'm a little distraught about it. It's not like I was/am super fluent, but I was getting to the point where I could catch someone's meaning the first time they said it and didn't have to ask them to repeat it slowly. It is very true that you have to stay on top of language learning daily, even if it's just 15 mins. or even I think 2 or 3 times a week at the very least.

     That's all for this week. Will post pics of my glorious Vagabond pack next week!







   

 

Piccolo. No,piu piccolo.

Stupid web advertising. You got me.
There I was, minding my own beeswax perusing the interwebs, when lo and behold I came across an advert for a Macy's luggage sale. I tried for about 2 seconds to summon the willpower. I told myself, "No don't..". Click! I swear once I looked I could feel my synapses poppin'. The Kraken had been released. Macy's of course didn't have what I wanted. I didn't want a rolling suitcase. No I didn't want a suitcase at all. You intrepid hostel dwelling, vagabonding, and flashpacking hobos know what I want.  I WANT A NEW BACKPACK!

     How can this be? I just got a new one last year! And another new one the year before that! I am Brknsuitcase and as my info implies I am always on the hunt for the one piece of luggage that will make my life super easy when I'm travelling. I do love my Kelty Redwing 50 that I got last year, but it was precisely that bag that has me wanting a new one. I had a whiff of the good life doing carry-on only. Bangkok to Siem Reap flight was the exception  (plane was smallish) and even then they let me put it in the empty seat next to me. I loved that I was able to throw it in the overhead bin for most of the plane rides I took last year. I loved not having scary thoughts of wearing the same underwear for a week or two because of lost luggage.  I loved that I didn't have to find and then wait for the baggage carousel. I loved the pockets of the Redwing which allowed me to tuck and store things quickly and easily with all the outside pockets. The only thing I didn't like about it were the straps dangling and flapping everywhere. Oh, and with carry-on only comes great responsibility and shoulder aching from carrying 15lbs on your back all the damn time.

     I, quite frankly, thought I did splendidly last year with weight, but I was comparing it to the year before that where I thought I was the shit for getting myself down to 25lbs. Which I compared with the year before that when I wheeled around a whopping 40 pounds in a huge suitcase. I was thinking maybe I could get myself down to 10lbs this year, but I think it's a pipe dream. This is Italy, not exactly a steamy tropical climate. And I will never again go a week wearing the same smelly shirt because it was the only one I packed and couldn't get to a laundry. This time, I would like to be fresh and have fashion choices. I want to layer like a boss! I also think the airlines changed their carry-on baggage requirements again so the 50L won't work anymore and I do NOT want to go back to checking in. Nevah! So I'm looking at you 40L. Can I go this low? Do I dare to dream?

     I've looked at Amazon, Rei.com, Sierra Trading Company, and theclymb. So far the Osprey Farpoint 40 and the Rei Vagabond 40 packs look the best. Everything else looks out of my price range. I'm planning on hitting REI and my local owned gear shop next week to try on some stuff to see how it fits. Of course I will let you know how it went! Don't fret!

     In other news, I am still learning Italian. I kind of gave up on Assimil. I didn't feel like anything was sinking in. So I started doing Duolingo which helped me understand how to put a sentence together. I'm also paying a tutor on italki and having conversations with people on my days off and doing Pimsleur sometimes 2 or 3 lessons a day. I'm going h.a.m. until packing day. I still speak like a drunk toddler, but now I think if I landed today in Italy I could order a drink and tell someone where I want to go and what I want to do. Per esempio, "Vorrei comprare un backpack!".