Packing light

I wrote this a little over a week ago, but never posted it.   Read what I ended up doing at the bottom of the page...

The countdown is on....eight days left for preparation.  I'm feeling ok about it, however I still have a lot to do.  Packing is a major puzzle.  First, since I will be going on a tour that highly recommends/suggests/requires packing light - using a small suitcase that I can easily carry up stairs myself - I have very limited space. Then, I will be flying first to London and then to Ireland, back to London and then on to Istanbul.  So three international flights with carry-on restrictions.

The third consideration is appropriate clothing for the varied weather: Ireland with weather temps/rain about the same as Juneau; followed by September in Turkey which will be hot, followed by October and November when the weather starts to cool and rain.  Then appropriate clothing for the circumstances: casual tourist clothes and good walking shoes to begin with and then a bit nicer clothes for when I am living with the families and need to be a bit more respectable as their guests. 

I have a Eagle Creek convertible wheeler/backpack suitcase that has a day pack that can zipper onto it.  It is carry on size and that is my first decision: do I carry on or check the bag?  Of course now checking the bag costs extra, but it allows me to take my toiletries with me and not have to purchase some in Ireland and then again more in Istanbul.  (Liquid and cream toiletries must be in under 4 oz containers and must fit into one quart size ziplock bag.)  So, I bought a facial sunblock, unfortunately in a 4 oz container before I looked up the exact allowable size.  Get out a quart size ziplock and see if you can fit in: toothpaste, shampoo, hand cream, hair gel, roll-on deodorant, antibiotic first aid cream, nasal spray (needed for my continual sinus issues), a little bit of Woolite for hand washing in the sinks, and the ziplock is bursting!   With  more time, I guess I could find on line the really, really small travel size of all of these just to get me through to arrival in Turkey where I could resupply.  So, do I just say, forget it, and check the bag?  The point is, a lot of thought and time is going into planning just this one aspect of packing.

Other things I am working on include taking the correct electrical converters for both countries, deciding which travel books to take (I have some on my iphone which helps), which little gadgets to take (flashlight, binoculars (?), back-up/emergency items such as an extra pair of glasses/prescription, oh, and a sufficient supply of prescription meds for four months.

Then there is the paperwork!  I need personal cards with my email and blog address, emergency phone numbers for my credit cards, etc., as well as embassy phone numbers, extra passport size photos, a listing of my hotel reservations with addresses and phone numbers, etc.  For all of these, I have to consider whether to take them as paper, electronically stored on my computer/iphone, and/or saved on the internet.  Such decisions!

Finally - well, actually, probably not finally!, there are the teaching materials and gifts for my host families in Turkey.  I have received basic information about them and would like to prepare some materials to take with me -- or post where I can access them -- and bring small Alaska gifts for the families and children. 

In doing all of this planning and packing, I think of, Ann, who I met on my first volunteer trip to Hungary.  After we were roommates for the two weeks while we volunteered through Global Volunteers, we traveled for about seven days before I started my ESL training course in Budapest.  Ann had been traveling prior to the volunteer weeks and was continuing to travel after we parted.  And, she had one backpack. She had started in Sicily, did a language homestay in Italy and was going on to northern Europe after Hungary.  So she had varied clothing needs as well as varied material/gift needs.  If she could do it, I can do it!

I have found a number of packing light websites which I have reviewed, but at this point, it is time to just start trying to get it all in the suitcase!

So, here I sit in the London-Heathrow airport, with too much luggage!  The evening before I left, I could see I had not been successful in containing everything to a carry on bag.  So, on the way to the airport, we stopped at my storage unit one last time and switched out the main suitcase which allowed room for my sandals and a few more odds & ends that I had not been able to get into the carry on or the backpack.  So now I have a larger suitcase along with the fancy-Dan Eagle Creek convertible bag and both of them will have to be checked (at additional fees) on Aer Lingus to and from Ireland.  I'm going to see what I can arrange with the local GeoVisions partner when I arrive in Istanbul as far as leaving one bag there, or somehow mailing stuff to Izmir where I will end my tour and start with my first host family.

I'd be interested in hearing if others are able to "pack light" for a long trip with varied climates and purposes.