My Grey World

14 Jun, 2008

Before the journey, it was the packing.

Posted by: Sylvia Giacinta In: europe trip

And so.. After hours of packing.. I (and my boyfriend) finally went out of my apartment and hailed a cab. Then we went to airport.

…

Ah. The packing.
It was quite disastrous. An inexperienced traveller, I want to bring a lot of clothes. The trip was 16 days, so I thought about bringing.. Erm… 8 pairs of sleeping clothes. 1 for 2 days. And I want to bring my dressy tops of course. And then of course I had to bring my choir stuff. In case you all forgot, the initial reason to go to Europe was to participate in Mundus Cantat 2008, an international choir competition. My choir stuff includes a metallic turquoise wrap (which doesn’t fit me very well despite being specially tailored for me and despite the fact I’ve lost weight since the measurement), 1 pair of formal black pants, 2 black camisoles (to be worn inside the wrap), 2 turquoise polo shirts, 1 long sleeves scoopneck top (to be worn inside the polo shirts), 1 choir jacket, and of course one pair of performance shoes. And then I gotta bring some thick outerwear. These include two sweaters and one jacket. And then of course my personal toiletries and make up. Then I initiated to bring some stuff to give to my friend Maegan who I was going to visit in Rome. In short, there was a lot of things. Also I wanted to bring some personal medicine, in case my gastric acts up or headache attacks me, and of course a lot of mint pastilles (I was going to sing!) and candies and also Vitamin C tablets.

Well, within seconds, my medium-sized suitcase looked like it was about to explode and I can’t fit all.

A friend suggested me to buy a bigger suitcase. I agreed. And what a stupid decision it was. A decision I regretted throughout the Europe trip later on.

And so I packed all my stuff, filling all the space I can find inside the big suitcase. Zip it close, make it stand… And..

“Uuurrrggghhhh…”

My boyfriend : “What’s wrong?”
Me : “It’s.. too.. heavy….”
BF : “Let me try”
(he tried to lift it up)
(no words said except that his eyes widened)
BF : “You packed too many things…”
Me : “Really? But I only packed the things I need!”
BF : “You sure…?”

Oh by the way, I took the IKEA weighing scale from outside and tried to weigh the suitcase. It was 25 kg! *suffocates*

And so my boyfriend became the packing police. He began rummaging through my stuff..

“No need to bring so many lah” - to my extra ordinary amount of clothes
“Juz bring a small amount of this” - to my liquid soap. Apparently one bottle (Body Shop bottle) is too much and too heavy. I finally emptied half of it and I still didn’t finish it after 2 weeks
“Do you really need this?” - to.. er.. a lot of things.

After a lot of re-packings (take out some things, weigh the suitcase…), I finally ended up with only 2 sets of sleeping clothes (with one pair of long pants that is soooo warm and comfy.. and a bit heavy), about 3 or 4 tops, some inside clothes (camisoles, tank tops..), and 2 pair of pants (jeans). And of course my choir clothes and toiletries and make up and medicines and the things I bring for Maegan (after cutting out some stuff… Sigh).

Later at the taxi..
Me : “You know, for the amount of things I finally bring, I should have just used the medium sized suitcase. It should fit.”
BF : “…..”

My suitcase on the weighing scale.
19.8 kilos! Whee!

Lesson to take note to everyone travelling.
Please, please travel light.

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