Twenty kilos. That’s my luggage allowance for my trip to Florida. Twenty. Kilos. And actually, that’s the UPGRADED luggage allowance: the airline only wanted to give us 15 kilos each (!), but my mum realised that would send me insane, so she very kindly paid for the upgrade. To twenty kilos. Aaagh!
Now, I could probably deal with it if we were going anywhere else but America. But the thing is, and I know this will come as a shock to some of you, but I like to shop. A lot. If previous trips are anything to go by, I’ll probably buy 20 kilos worth of stuff while I’m there. This makes packing difficult.
So I thought I would be clever. “I will pack a capsule wardrobe!” I thought. “I’ll make sure everything goes with everything else, and I’ll only need to take two pairs of shoes, one flat, one high – and one of those pairs I will wear to travel in, thus giving me even MORE space in my suitcase! Go me!”
My chosen colours for this capsule wardrobe: navy, white, red. Because I like dressing as a sailor, obviously, and I wish I was joking about that.
But then I went shopping. And on that shopping trip, I found The Best Swimsuit in All The World. It’s retro. It’s polka-dotted. It’ll work either as a swimsuit OR as a top. It’s… black. Which, obviously, is not navy, red or white. And because I have an aversion to wearing black and navy together, I won’t be able to put my whole “also wearing it as a top” plan into action, because all of my shorts etc are navy.
Now, the sensible person would just have put the swimsuit back at that point. “No!” she would have declared. “No swimsuit! For if I buy it, I will also need to take shoes, shorts and maybe a little cardigan to go with it. And also what would be great would be a skirt. And thus my capsule wardrobe will be ruined! Ruined!”
But I’m not the sensible person, so obviously I bought it. And also… some other stuff.
Basically, then, I’m screwed. And yes, I know they have shops over there. I’m well acquainted with those shops. A little TOO well, actually. But I’m one of those people who just can’t pack light. I know I’ve said this before, but it’s true. I tried to do it when we went to Tenerife last December, and that’s how I ended up with a suitcase filled only with black tops, and absolutely no warm clothes whatsoever. And that’s also how I ended up going to Zara 16 times, when we were only there for 14 nights.
I don’t know, I think I just like to Be Prepared. You know, like a Boy Scout? I know I can shop when I get there (and I’ll be getting all of my toiletries etc there, so I don’t have to take them with me), but I just can’t STAND the thought of going somewhere and not having a wide choice of outfits at my fingertips. I worry that something will happen that I will be sartorially unprepared for. Like… maybe someone will invite us to the opera, say, and I’ll only have shorts and t-shirts with me. Or I will have to climb a mountain, but won’t have the right shoes. These things COULD happen.
Realistically, of course, I know that I’ll be wearing shorts and a tank top for the next two weeks, and everything else will remain unworn. But until we leave, I’m going to be practicing putting on all of my clothes at the same time, so I can travel in them and leave my suitcase empty. And also researching how much it would cost to post twenty kilos worth of clothes back home from Florida…
Tagged packing, Things I Bought, Travel
Did you miss me? Did you? Did you? Actually, on second thoughts, don’t answer that…
So, we got back late last night after a three hour delay in an airport in which every second flight seemed to have been either cancelled or diverted somewhere else. The place was just one seething mass of humanity, with people crammed into every available space, tucked under chairs and swinging from the ceilings like monkeys. Somehow, though, we survived, and have returned from our holiday to a towering pile of junk mail and an even bigger one of laundry, yay!
Some holiday highlights that I may or may not bore you all with later:
1. How the flu followed me from the UK to Tenerife, forcing me to spend the first three days of my holiday shivering under a pile of blankets, beach towels and assorted items of clothing, convinced that I was doomed to die far from home, in some Spanish hospital where I did not speak the language and therefore would be powerless to prevent the battery of hellish, experimental tests and procedures they would no doubt subject me to.
2. How, instead, I made a full recovery, and felt a bit stupid for having made Terry hire a heater for our hotel room, because, hello, it wasn’t THAT cold!
3. How it WAS quite cold, though: overcast most days, requiring sweaters and jeans/trousers to be worn most of the time, sometimes in multiple layers.
4. How I hadn’t actually packed many of the aforementioned items, having allowed myself to believe that it would, in fact, be blisteringly hot at all times, and no warm clothing would be required. (A particularly stupid move on my part because I’ve been to the Canary Islands out of season before, and I KNOW the weather can be chilly).
5. How this horrendous packing job of mine (look, I had the flu at the time, I obviously wasn’t thinking straight, OK?) “forced” me to visit the Zara near our apartment no less than seven times.
6. How I also visited the Mango close to our apartment often enough that I could probably draw you a map of that store, and everything in it, in my sleep.
7. How we managed to get our hire car impounded, and had to pay 119 euros to get it back.
8. How our apartment was located directly above a KARAOKE BAR. That was LOUD. Every night. Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE noise?
9. How, on our first Saturday night there, we were woken at 5.30am by an open air rave which we at first thought was happening in our bathroom, so loud was the music, but which actually turned out to be coming from the car park opposite the apartment. And which went on until 8am, even after 10 police cars showed up and made them turn the music down slightly.
10. How we insisted on being moved to another apartment after that.
11. How the new apartment was located next to the pool, which had a bar which played loud music all the livelong day. And into the night.
12. How it also had a double bed which was dressed with sheets belonging to a single bed. If you’ve never tried that particular combination, all I can say to you is: don’t.
13. How, actually, none of these events prevented us from having a fantastic time. No, really.
14. How we went to visit MONKEYS. And the monkeys came and sat on us, and put their little hands into ours, and tried to undo the knot in my halter neck top.
15. How I enjoyed this so much that I insisted we go back to visit the monkeys a second time.
16. How I then talked obsessively about monkeys for the rest of the holiday, and am still talking about them now. God, I want a monkey.
17. How we saw dolphins in the wild, from a speedboat which we got completely to ourselves, to sail close to the biggest cliffs we’ve ever seen. Amazing.
18. How an American bald eagle flew over our heads and touched me with his feet.
19. How we went to a water park on a sunny day and were flushed down a giant plughole.
20. How we drove up Mount Teide, on a road where we were above the clouds almost the whole time.
21. How we ate a LOT.
22. How, even although I’ve made it sound like a complete catalogue of disasters, we had a truly fantastic time. And I wish I was still there. Good job Christmas is coming up to distract me…
 Not photoshopped. Just looks like it.
Tagged holidays, tenerife, Travel
Houston, we have a problem.
Other than the “It’s the first week in December and I already spent my entire salary on shoes and clothes” problem, I mean. A DIFFERENT problem.
So, we’re flying out to the Canary Islands on Sunday. HAVE I MENTIONED THIS ENOUGH YET? And our baggage allowance is 15 kilos each. Fifteen. Kilos. Each. Which, really, is nothing, is it? When we fly to America we upgrade to 25 kilos, and that’s just to accommodate my Sephora stuff, you know?
Now, going to Spain is obviously different, because we don’t tend to buy much there. Well, other than all that stuff I bought in Zara last time we were in the Canaries, obviously. There was that. But this time I have imposed a strict budget upon myself. “Amber,” I have said, “you are on a strict budget. Deal with it.” So there will be no Zara. There will be no duty free. There will just be me and my fifteen kilos worth of luggage and OMG how am I supposed to only take fifteen kilos worth of luggage?
From this you can probably guess that I do not travel light. Oh, hell to the no. I am, in fact, what some people (“Some people” = “Terry”) would describe as “high maintenance”. Here are my problems with packing, in no particular order:
1. Shoes.
Well, obviously I want to take them all, don’t I? Look, I edit a shoe blog for a living, it’s part of my job description to have a lot of shoes, OK? (Note: that IS true, Gemma, isn’t it?) But clearly this is out of the question. So what to do? Well, we know we’re going to probably be doing a bit of exploring-on-foot, and we’re also going to be climbing Mount Teide (the highest peak in Spain, fact fans). I’ve actually been up Mount Teide before, as a surly teenager, and naturally I wore unsuitable shoes for the event. And naturally, that’s not something I’m going to be doing again anytime soon, so some kind of “sensible” shoes are clearly in order.
(Note: this is just plain annoying. I mean, valuable space/weight will be taken up by shoes that will be worn only ONCE on this trip. Shoes that will not even make me feel happy, either. This is sheer wastefulness. But if I DON’T take them, I will probably fall and break my neck, and then the whole “Woe is me, for I have to take ugly shoes on holiday with me!” issue will seem pretty silly and I’ll want to slap myself. So, ugly shoes it is.)
So that’s one pair in the bag, so to speak. I will also be taking my flip flops, because I tend to live in them on holiday. But I will need shoes for evening, and here’s the thing: some of my outfits need particular pairs of shoes to go with them, and I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine anything worse than realising that the perfect pair of shoes for your outfit are 2,000 miles away, in your wardrobe at home, can you?*
2. Books
I read a lot. A LOT. And I’m horrendously fussy about what I read (although sometimes you wouldn’t think it) so a lot of my pre-holiday budget is spent on books. I also read fast, so I’ll get through one book on the way there and one book on the way back. The main purpose of this holiday is to give us a chance to relax and be warm, too, so we’ll be spending a lot of time just lazing around, and I can’t laze around without a book in my hand. It is physically impossible. My experience of Spanish holiday resorts is that there’s not generally a great choice of books for English speakers to be found in them, so I take a lot of books with me. And there goes more of my precious 15 kilos…
3. Electronics
Well, I have that whole “have to take the iron everywhere” problem going on, don’t I? And while I do have a travel iron for just these occasions (It only works in parts of Europe that aren’t the UK, or I’d have taken it with me to the christening we went to this summer, rather than taking the ACTUAL iron…), I still have to fit in my hairdryer and a kazillion chargers, power-adaptors, etc. Crap. (No, there will not be an iron in the place we’re going to. It’s THAT kind of basic, unfortunately…)
4. Toiletries
On any given day, there’s more makeup on my face than there is on the MAC counter. I actually manage to edit this down to just a few items for travel, but then there’s contact lens cleaner, eye makeup remover, sunscreen, shampoo, etc. And OK, I concede that they DO sell this stuff in Spain. Of course they do. But I have my favourite brands, you know? And I also like to get to where I’m going and be able to have a shower IMMEDIATELY and then relax (and IRON, obviously), rather than getting to where I’m going and then having to instantly go out and buy shampoo, which is probably what I’m going to end up doing. (The place we’re staying is REALLY basic, so they won’t have those little complimentary shampoos etc.) I’ve tried to “solve” this issue by buying little miniature containers for some stuff, but GOD, there’s still a lot of it.
Oh, yeah, and then there’s my CLOTHES. Almost forgot them.
WHAT I SHOULD DO TO SOLVE THIS HORRIBLE DILEMMA:
Learn how to pack a capsule wardrobe. Track down that elusive pair of shoes that is suitable for every occasion in life, even climbing mountains. Accept that I will just have to buy toiletries when I get there and then leave them behind, and that no, they will not be my “special” brands. Learn to live without the tyranny of the hairdryer and the iron. Slap self. Stop being such a little princess all the time. Slap self again. Twice.
WHAT I HAVE ACTUALLY DONE:
Bought tremendously large shoulder bag to act as carry-on. (Yes, it meets airline regulations.) Wrote this post on my blawg.
WHAT I WILL BE DOING WHEN THE TIME COMES TO START PACKING:
Stuffing tremendously large carry-on full of stuff that will not fit in the suitcase. Wearing at least four layers of clothes to travel in. Sneaking iron and hairdryer into Terry’s case when he’s not looking. Panicking.
Seriously, though: 15 kilos. That’s just cruel….
* Being facetious here, just in case you didn’t realise and want to rip me a new one. Because yes, OF COURSE there are worse things in the world than being without the right shoes. But not many things, it has to be said…
Tagged Outfits, shoes, Travel
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