I travel light. I don’t like to carry stuff, so I do everything I can to leave stuff at home. Since the days of the airline liquid ban, I have also found it more convenient to travel with those little pre-soaped cloths than a bottle of liquid face soap, which is also apt to spill all over the few clothes I do bring. And I leave in my suitcase at all times a prepacked zippy bag of travel-sized soaps and creams, just so I don’t forget. On my trip to Charleston, I forgot my hairbrush. I could have bought one, but rather than acquire more stuff, I decided to experiment to see how not brushing my hair would go over. It worked out really well (shoulder length hair), especially given the rain which was ruinous to begin with.
So that’s in my suitcase. But what about day-tripping out of the hotel? Take a backpack? A purse? I don’t like the way the backpack works, not only because the zipper is out of your sight (crime!), but because they’re so unwieldy in restaurants and small spaces. I have banged into so many people with my backpack, I figure I owe strangers a little better than that. A purse, however, is not large enough to carry the things I have with me: one guidebook, water bottle, umbrella, pen, paper, phone, wallet, camera (which is not small). So today I invested in a little messenger bag. I like that messenger bags sling across your body, redistributing some of the weight better than a hand or shoulder bag. The big ones are too big, but this one seems like it will be just right. I am looking forward to traveling stylishly AND functionally to Germany in just over a week.
