Blog Mike

For my 3 months in Europe, I am trying to go as light as possible.  However, for me that is rather difficult. The bag weighs 40 pounds and is bound to get heavier as I pick up souvenirs. Here is just about everything in bag:

Backpack Supplies
1 – Eagle Creek Pack-It Folder 15
Rick Steves Travel Gear Packing Cube Set These combined with the folders should be more then enough for my clothes.
Eagle Creek Maiden Voyage 70L – I selected the Maiden Voyage backpack after reading a lot of reviews online.  I visited four stores and found this to be the best backpack for my trip.  I was originally looking at the 65 Liter bags, but found them to be too small for such a long trip.  The Maiden Voyage has plenty of space, the straps zip up for when checking it in on flights, and there is a detachable day bag.  The only thing is that this is considered a women’s bag.  Apparently I have a smaller torso.  Why don’t they offer it in men’s?  The next size up is 90 Liters, large enough to double as a tent.

Clothing
2 – Columbia Security Check Button-Down Short-Sleeve Shirt UPF 15, one green and one Blue
2 – REI Sahara Tech Tee Charcoal and one Colonial Blue
3 – White t-shirts
1 – The North Face Tunnel Mountain Woven Shirt Ivy Green
1 – Blue and White Shirt
1 – Columbia Omni-Dry Silver Ridge II Convertible Pants
1 – The North Face Paramount Convertible Pants
2 – Shorts
1 – Board Shorts
5 – Pairs of socks
4 – Underwear
1 – Teva Sandals (They look something like this.)
1 – New Balance 659 walking shoes

Toiletries
15 – Pairs of Acuvue2 contacts
1 – Heavy 12 oz. bottle of contact cleaning solution
1 – Bar of Soap with container
1 – Tube of toothpaste
1 – Toothbrush
1 – 4 oz bottle of sunblock
1 – 4 oz bottle of shampoo
1 – 4 oz bottle of hair gel
1 – Small Mirror
1 – Razor with 5 cartridges

Eletronics
Cell Phone – I purchased a used quad band cell phone (Motorola V600) on eBay so that I will be able to get in touch with anyone for any reason. I also purchased a sim card on eBay, with some pretty neat features. From the company’s website, you can send me text messages anywhere in the world free or even call an 800 number and you will be connected to me. However, calling the 800 number does cost me $0.88 a minute.
Dell Mini 9 Laptop - I purchased this laptop just for this trip. It is rather small, just 2.28 pounds, measures 9.1″ x 6.7″ x 1.25″, Windows operating system, and Bluetooth. – $308
Western Digital Portable Hard Drive – 400GB This hard drive was on sale for about $75 from Staples. I will be able to save the thousands of pictures I take onto one little drive.
Apple iPod nano 8 GB Silver (3rd Generation)
Canon Powershot SD870 IS (8.0 Mega Pixels)
-(2) 16GB SDHC A-DATA Turbo Speed Class 6
-Plus two extra batteries
Franzus TSM-237AP All-in-One Adapter Plug
Petzl Zipka Plus Headlamp
Sea to Summit 100% Premium Silk Liner

Miscellaneous
Rick Steves’ Best of Europe 2009
Europe on a Shoestring (Lonely Planet Shoestring Guides)
Some concentrated laundry soap
Umbrella
Several locks for locker and backpack
Compass
Clothes line
Emergency Poncho
Swiss Army Knife
Hand Sanitizer
Gorilla Tripod
3 Month Rail Pass – $1,296
Roundtrip Airline Ticket to Europe – $1,334
One way Airline Ticket from Naples to Athens – $203

Backpack Europe Packing List, this is probably what I would also bring if I were to backpack the world.