Day 1, Meet Nellie, & The Art of Packing

DAY 1: LANDED IN ATHENS. Arrived safely, checked out the Acropolis and the Plaka, got some lunch & gelato and now sitting in our hotel taking some ice showers to cool ourselves off and playing with the spotty wifi to figure out our ferry to Mykonos tomorrow.

Look out over the town of Athens – near the Acropolis

We are on hour 27 or 28 now without any sleep and just about ready to crash. It has been so nice to take the packs off our backs – they are so heavy! Speaking of….

Meet Nellie

Friends, Family, fellow readers, I would like to introduce you to my other friend on this trip, Nellie. Nellie is the 32lb little monster that will be perched on my back for the next 7ish months. Nellie got her name after Nellie McLung, a famous feminist who is known for re-defining the word person to include women. Also when my pack almost knocks me over I can say “whoaaaaa Nellie”.

How exactly does a person pack to be away for 7 months… It seems like an exhausting and challenging task given the variance in activities that we will be doing and the limited amount of space we have in our packs.

Let me just start by saying there will be no “OOTD” posts (outfit of the day).  This kind of packing is strategic – every item I brought has a purpose. The nice part is that we structured our trip to skip out on the winter months allowing us to stick to mostly a summer wardrobe with a couple of warmer items for chilly spring mornings and fall nights while we transition continents.

The best way I found to pack was to start a memo on my phone. I wrote down all the items I could think of on the spot. After that every time I thought of an item that I didn’t have on the list I would just type it in right then so I wouldn’t forget it. After about a week I had a pretty solid list.

Here is a quick pic of everything Nellie and I are carrying.

The list of all the items included would likely bore all you readers so the breakdown in a nutshell is:

Sleeping items: pillow, sleeping bag, eye mask, earplugs

Tech items: iPad, phone, Chargers, Go Pro, outlet transformer

Travel Musts: journal, pens, work visa, passport, wallet and money, day pack/fanny pack

Shoes: hikers, walking sandals, flip flops for hostel showers, and light slip ons to dress up

Clothing: T’s, tanks, a fleece, shorts, leggings, light travel pants, pjs, rain coat, under garments, bathing suits and a couple dresses for night outtings

Toiletries: not going to list everything here but you get the idea – I have the essentials to keep myself looking fairly decent and smelling okay!

That’s pretty much it. It probably doesn’t sound like a lot and I guess it isn’t really but when you carry it from the airport to the subway and then 2/3km to your hotel when its gloriously sunny and hot its pretty heavy.

That’s all for now – will check in again next time we have wifi 🙂