Less than 16 hours to go before my flight to London, and I’ve just barely finished packing. It’ll just be a 5-day trip, and I’ve got a fully loaded carry-on size bag that I won’t really be carrying on the plane. I’ll check it in since I have another fully loaded backpack — the gadget bag — to carry my SLR camera and notebook computer. I guess having all these gadgets really precludes one from traveling light.
I’m not sure if I’ve overpacked again for this trip. I consider myself a recovering overpacker as I’ve been a chronic overpacker, but for the last few trips I had, I tried to pack just enough clothes (and gadgets). For this trip it doesn’t help that I have to pack bulky cold-weather clothes so it was a little more difficult to pack in everything that I think I’ll need.
I haven’t fully arranged my itinerary. I’ll try to do that as soon as I finish this post. I do already have a general outline that includes the days when I’ll be making trips out of London, particularly for my day trip to Paris on the Eurostar. Tough luck for me if the transit strike in France is not yet over by Saturday. I’ve been checking the news on the strike everyday and frankly, I’ve never been this concerned about a transit strike in another country. I may have to junk my plan to go around Paris using the Metro. Instead, I’ll swallow my pride and get on one of those hop-on, hop-off tourist buses.