The answer is a Backpack, always a Backpack!!

Once you become a real traveller you really can’t go back to a suitcase lugging one week vacationer. Even though I wasn’t on a one week I was lugging a suitcase. I figured this would be better for bringing over my friend’s snowboarding clothes and the shit load of Canada mitts I bought for people. I thought I was doing well, that was until I met my opponent: The budget Airline!

The English Boy and I were off to Karlsure....Karlsrua...Karls what?!

Anyway we were off to Germany to visit my best friend from Canada.

My original plan was to wear my friend’s board coat and pants on the flight then only my clothes and toiletries would go in my backpack and we would be sorted. The boy decided he wanted to bring his fancy digital SLR camera which took up his whole carry on, so we needed my suitcase. We had to pay an extra 25 pounds each direction to bring on a case weighing no more than 15kg. I believe my suitcase alone with nothing in it weighs about 10kgs; there must be lead weights imbedded in that thing. There really wasn’t much in there but we were over the 15kg at the check in counter. So there I was sitting on the floor of the Stansted airport putting everything in my carrying on bag, leaving a few items in my actual suitcase so I wouldn’t be charged 20 pounds per kilo over.

Looking at the contents left in my suitcase I was beginning to realize my backpack would hold way more and weighs nothing. These cases are quite deceiving. Really people must just use them because they don’t want to look like a backpacker because they really aren’t practical at all.

I feared the gate was going to say something about the size and weight of my carry on because it contained the majority of the contents of my suitcase. Instead we were held up at security and there was a huge line of bags to be inspected and the boy’s camera bag was last in line. The grumpy security officer told us if we didn’t have liquids in our bag then we wouldn’t be in this situation. We didn’t have liquids though! It was just his camera equipment and an over cautious person on the scanner machine. I left without him as our plane was boarding and ran through the airport to the gate which was the further away. Luckily there was a huge line of people and when I arrived they were only boarding priority members which in his German accent sounded like piratey members and confused the hell out of me. The boy also made it onto the flight, although in retrospect I would have been a much happier person in Germany if we took off without him....but I won’t get to that yet.